The 2.0 Ghandis are to deal with the offline part of the campaign. They are to organise events on the campus and other offline action to promote the online campaign. Their main issues are:
How do online and offline activism influence and inform each other?
Online and offline activism intertwine. You can promote online action offline (as was done with the flashmob and the taste test) and you can as well use online tools to promote your offline action. Online action is easy to follow and easy to take part in, offline action is about making online action a real, direct experience because seeing and talking to the people behind an online campaign is something you will remember.
What forms of direct action, from acts of civil disobedience to flash mobs, mobile donations and e-petitions, have been successful in the past?
Examples named are social gaming, boycotts, e-petitions, protest songs, demonstrations and sit-ins to name only a few. Important factor for success are 1) giving people reason to become active and 2) making a clear call for action to get people involved in the specific cause.
This was the 2.0Ghandis’ first idea of what they would be doing:
During the campaign, the Ghandis’ main task was the organisation of offline action promoting our campaign on the campus. The Ghandis were responsible for the flash mob (Missoula) and the taste test and bottle decoration events (Berlin) – of course, they worked together with the entire teams to make the offline events a success.
These are some of the 2.0Ghandis’ conclusions as to the campaign:
- Teamwork went well in Berlin within the Ghandi group and across the working groups. Tasks could have been distributed more evenly within the Missoula Ghandi group.
- The offline events led to more traffic on the Facebook pages and raised awareness for our campaign beyond just clicking “Like”, e. g. many people signed the petition at FU because we talked about our campaign in our different seminars.
- Transnational communication has not always been smooth, but ideas could be exchanged, especially during the first brainstorming session.
- The posters made for the offline action could have been used better to create lasting awareness for the issue at hand.
Finally these are the 2.0Ghandis’ recommendations for people who want to create their own social media campaign:
- It often works well to speak with people directly to make them support your cause!
- A lot of offline action may be necessary to get the word of your campaign out!
- Smooth teamwork is necessary to make offline events a success!