I am writing this post in response to @markwhittam 's call out for ideas of how to help the @familyprotection cause (@markwhittam/fight-fire-with-fire-then-we-all-get-burnt-again). I have been giving this a lot of thought lately and have written some of these ideas before.. Now the timing feels right for me to share them all in once place! There are SO many things that can be done, but we have to somehow choose the best ones and run with them. Wouldn't it be great if we can have many ideas that all fed into each other and support each other? I think it would, so i have come up with several ideas that all really do work together for the best bang for your buck!
Please do comment and give improvements, suggestions on these ideas if you have any! If we all band together on this I think we can really make some waves..
1. A Multipurpose Website Based on a Social Community Engine
I believe that having a dedicated website based on the Dolphin (Boonex) Social Community System would be of GREAT use! I have installed these systems before and this particular one is WAY better than Facebook (i think) and really perfect for what you are doing in terms of features and the layout. I would be happy to make this website for you! Here are the ways I can envisage the ways we can use this website:
- A dedicated website would be a space where people can of course keep posting their stories as people have been doing on Steemit. It would open the door to MANY more people being able to share and have access to each other. The website can grow and develop in many ways, and it would be promoted actively as you will see in the next section.
- I would also build in a support group network where people can host and find support in their local areas. Anyone who wants to host can create a group within this system and be found by parents in need and they can connect in real life. I believe we need support groups for this like we have now for A.A because they provide such an crucial role and real support.
- I would also invite everyone who has posted on Steemit to repost their own stories on this website. This will give it an immediate presence and strong backbone to get started. Everyone has received amazing rewards on their posts, and so I'm sure they will all be very happy to sign up (For Free of course) and re-post. Steemit can keep generating more stories as we are already doing so this will keep growing.
- This website would also be where you draw the attention of politicians and the like to see how many stories and people are involved in this. I think it would be MUCH better to show them that then any of the Steemit posts as its quite confusing here and they might get put off my Spammy Random Comments and the $ signs everywhere. A nice clean website which is dedicated to the cause is i think necessary!
2. Create Flyer's that will be printed out locally by #familyprotection supporters, paid for by a small upvote if necessary.
These flyer's will serve a few purposes and will have THREE calls to action!
- Highlight the entire issue for people who are totally unaware
- The flyer's will invite people to the website to share their stories and/or to engage with the community
- They will have a pre-written letter included, aimed at a local Member of Parliament or Senator etc. It will have a clear statement that we write and they just have to address, sign and send. It would be easy for us to give all the names and addresses of MP's in UK, USA in one post on Steemit (or privately), we can find this information out very easily. We can basically spoon feed the process to people and make it as easy as possible for them to get posting letters.
- There will be a link to a UK Parliamentary Petition (https://petition.parliament.uk) or Change.org petition that we create with specific requests e.g an investigation into CPS activities.
3. Create a Powerful and Moving Video With Just the right Tone and message!
This video can be used for promotions and in various ways. You can pay to advertise this video on many social platforms such as Facebook, and this video can get very good exposure, targeted to wherever we want. This video WILL have a call to action at the end, which will be decided by #familyprotection. My call to action would be to invite people (in the UK) to sign a Parliamentary Petition AND a Change.org petition. Obviously we can do this for other countries such as USA, Canada etc and target those Ads to them.
(I may be able to help or even do this for you unless you have a Pro Video Maker)
4. Create Digital images that can be promoted.
This is much like the previous idea, and these images can have text on them with a powerful statement and image, and again a call to action. Its SO easy to do that on Facebook and reach out.. Hopefully they wont ban it.. which is why the tone, message and images need to be on point.
5. Twitter Campaign Make some noise!
I have personally seen the power of Twitter to resolve issues. These days our public appearance is more important than our private appearance! Twitter is one of the easiest ways to make a fuss and be heard and seen.. and at the same time get the eyes of very significant people. What I am thinking here is that several people will decide the best people to Reach out to on Twitter, such as Nadhim Zahawi for example. (https://twitter.com/nadhimzahawi) who just happens to be the Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families. He would be a good person to send public tweets to wouldn't he? I want to be clear also that I am talking about well thought out, rational, inspirational comments.. and NOT trolling!!!! Since he is the MP for Stratford on Avon he would be a perfect MP to send Tweets to.
With a bit of thought and co-ordination you could choose one person each week and send enough people to comment that it will surely raise some eyebrows! All we need are some good comments written to them!.. and the right people to send them to.
6. Start a Petition With Change.org and the UK Parliament (and other countries if they have this process)
Starting a petition that gets a lot of signatures can be a really powerful step. in the UK when you have 25,000 Signatures then you get a response from the Government, which means they took notice. IF you reach 100,000K signatures there is a good chance they will debate it in Parliamant. All we need is a clear request and a good petition and this can have a powerful effect. We would definitely spend to promote this on all the media because then we can virtually guarantee a LOT of signatures because we have spread the word around. The more you spend, the more signatures you get!
Getting noticed on Change.org is amazing because it is Global and quite well respected. If we were able to drive enough people to vote and support it this will surely have some positive effects !
In closing I would like to say that the most important thing is not just what we do but how we do it. Keeping the tone right is SO important, and so is co-ordination and organisation. We cant just let 50 random Steemians run off and start Trolling politicians as that will just work against the cause. We have to be rational, intelligent and very smart! Then we will be noticed for the right reasons.. a BIT Like on Steemit! ;-)
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