SOCIAL MEDIA SAAVY
Photo Credit: Florian Schulz
Social media platforms — X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram — can be an effective way to connect with elected officials as well as your own community. Members of Congress use social media to talk directly to their constituents, and we in turn can use it to express our concerns right back. Tagging them in your post gets your point across quickly and easily and allows for sharing by others to amplify your message. Working together we can make protecting wild Alaska “trend” online.
- Follow the League on Facebook here for current ideas to post.
- Keep it short, like 80-160 characters short.
- Give a clear call-to-action and tell people how they can help. They can share your post, or share a petition, or contact their member of Congress. You get the idea.
- Give people a link to follow. It could be an article you saw online, or one of our action items. Regardless, as much as possible try and provide a link where you want them to go.
- Be positive. Even if the issue is dire — think drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — be positive and let people know that their voice can make a difference! The items that get the most shares on Facebook are often those things that are positive, inspirational and/or funny. No one likes a negative Nelly.
- Post an Image. If you’re sharing a link, this likely won’t be a problem. However, historically speaking photos carry a high weight in Facebook’s algorithm and people more likely to share photo posts.
The average lifespan of one tweet is only about 18 minutes. Its shelf life is four times shorter than anything you post on Facebook. So why bother? Because elected officials are watching X! When asked “how many similar comments on social media does it take for your office to pay attention,” 35% of congressional offices have said it takes less than 10. So, get tweeting!
- Follow the League on X by finding our handle: @alaskawild.
- Find your representative here. You will easily find ways to connect and “follow” them.
- Library of images and sample tweets to get you started.
Instagram is an entirely visual platform. Unlike Facebook, which relies on both text and pictures, or Twitter, which relies on text alone, Instagram's sole purpose is to enable users to share images or videos with their audience. Follow the League on Instagram by finding our handle: keepalaskawild. For some great tips, read this article.