Hey, y’, all, I want to talk about social media. I want to talk about posting later. Before we get to, like, how to post, I want to talk about, like, why to post. And that’s a pretty important distinction. Let’s just talk about how to post on social media because it’s important that we remember that we are in an ideological struggle and how we talk has an impact on how we are seen and received. In union organizing, there is a phrase, A, E, I, O, U. You agitate, educate, inoculate.

We kind of have to do all three at once. But in. But what’s most important here, at least for this conversation, is inoculation. Because we’re going to be outreaching to new people all the time. And we do not always know our relationships with the people that we meet because we’re going to be meeting the general public. We’re going to be talking to churches, bars, people, events, just the general public. So we want to make sure that our arguments on social media are defensible.

They are easy to defend. They are inoculating arguments that don’t, like, put us on the defensive. Because you’ve got to remember, and this is important, when you are posting on behalf of a group of people, you just don’t know who will be defending your post. It can be any member or any community member, and you also don’t know what they’re defending against who. So we want to make this as easy as possible for them. When we post, we are inoculating, we are teaching them how to respond to some of these arguments, and we are making sure that they are able to win those arguments. Avoid violent or shocking imagery.

Nobody dying, no ambulances, no graveyards, no people being shot. No matter how you feel about any given situation, even if you think it’s funny, especially if you think it’s funny, say less rather than more. Also, respect coalition partners. If, if we are talking about any sort of issue and we’ve signed on with other groups to show that there is broad support for something, let’s make sure that our language, graphics and messaging are all aligned with those organizations. When we have unified messaging, we look cohesive and we look well planned. This does not mean that you have to say everything that everybody else says word for word. If you have, like, your own point to make, it’s fine.

But we cannot be in situations where, you know, party A signs on to something. Then we come along as party B and we say our own thing. And then party C hears about it and goes back to party A saying that party B, you see where I’m, where I’m going here? This is not good at all. Now we look like jackasses and the middleman for a message. And in those situations you’re going to be thrown under the bus immediately. So it hasn’t happened, it won’t happen in the future.

Cuz we’re doing this. I also want you to think about the text of your posts. We are using words with intention. That means universal messaging that works for all people, supporters, newcomers, even people who don’t like us should be able to un understand what we’re saying and understand that we are like normal people with a moral perspective. This means messages that are approachable, clear and very hard to misinterpret. Anybody that’s arguing with you online should be clearly unhinged because you’re writing on behalf of a group of people and talking about universal values. Oftentimes the far right says that the left wing uses a strategy called Ma and Bailey and that, you know, you talk about civil rights, but what you really mean is this, that and the other thing that is what we’re doing.

Use simple uncontroversial phrases. Talk about fair wages, health care, clean energy, no to war. When things are simple and relatable, you avoid miscommunication that simple language means better reach. Try to Write at a 6th grade reading level like you are explaining an idea to someone who is in middle school, because that means people will read it and understand it. And if you’re really so smart, you should be able to explain any idea on a level that a sixth grader can understand anyway. Graphic design, this doesn’t. You don’t have to be the greatest designer in the world world.

You just need to be better than average. So that means text, effects and contrasts, readability, light text, dark background, dark text like background shadows, gradients on pictures so that whatever’s typed down as something that someone should can read, they should be able to see it without squinting.

We want readable type. When you don’t have a decorative font, you can be more clear in what you say. There is, I say one or two exceptions. Really the only exception is the Georgia Ballpark typeface. And this should be used for decoration, not for passing on particular information. Okay. And we use Georgia Ballpark because that’s the typeface that we use at Mosaic Atlanta along with Josephine.

And you might find another typeface or two around the the woods like Open Sands sometimes, but Joseph and Sands is our main one and Georgia Ballpark is for decoration and yeah, balanced design. You want A clean design with enough elements to grab attention. And when you have a message that is clear and eye catching, you’re doing a good job. We use Buffer to schedule posts. You’re going to have different text for different platforms, obviously. I think this goes without saying, but if you’re linking to like a blog article, it’s a little bit okay for them to be similar posts, but even so, you’d probably want a different image size if you’re going to have, you know, these different posts. Right. And all of those templates are on canva.

I would expect that there will be a link underneath this video that will take you to a template that you can edit. And that way you can make a post to practice and you can bring it to a critique meeting. Remember that analytics can help you find the best times to post. Buffer can help with that review and reflect. There’s not much to say. Ideological impact. Each post contributes to a larger narrative.

Remember to respect our coalitions, because the organization is all coalitions. It’s coalitions with people and organizations and groups. Be careful with the imagery that you use. Be funny, be incredible. You can like and, and once in a while there’s a topic, there’s a target that just is just universally hated. And you can be tough on those people. But also, don’t, don’t say anything where we’re all looking dumb and covering for you.

That’s not the way that we’re gonna operate here. But also post. Enjoy. I don’t think these rules are really crazy. You can, you can post a lot inside of these bounds and I think they’re fair and good bounds. I think that’s it.

You did it. You rule.

Thank you for watching. What you can do here as an exercise is make a post.

Just, just make a post. And if you bring a post to the critique meeting, we’ll say, wow, a post. This is pretty good.

We’ll be pumped. So grab your. Your Canva. Or you can just use Photoshop or you can use Ms. Paint. Honestly, you know, as long as you are, Ms. Paint would not fit our categories.

I’m being overly nice, but do these things. Yeah, thanks.