We often say that online advocacy should be more than just clicking on buttons to sign petitions and send emails to politicians. In truth though, I don’t often see online actions or campaigns that effectively move online action-takers beyond the role of “mouse-click-activist” and into a deeper form of engagement with a campaign or organization or movement.
Committed online action-takers are great resources for generating numbers on petitions and email-to-politicans, but convincing them to get past their computer screen interface, and climb the “real-world” ladder of activist engagement can be difficult. It’s not very often that we have the opportunity to construct a clear alignment of an online action with a specific “ladder-climbing” engagement opportunity that is a natural follow-on. That’s why a recent example from Amnesty Canada is worth noting.
In March 2007, two leading women activists in Iran were detained for speaking out publicly in the weeks leading up to International Womens Day, March 8th. Amnesty Canada sent out an urgent e-appeal within 48 hours to its newsletter list of 20,000 plus subscribers, urging people to take a typical click-to-take-action (send a protest email to the Iranian Ambassador to Canada). More than 2,400 emails were sent by Amnesty Canada’s newsletter subscribers.
When the 2 activists were released just several days later, Amnesty sent an email update back to the people who participated in the online action with the good news, and explained that this case is an example of how Amnesty is able to respond immediately when there is a human rights crisis - especially in the first 72 hours after an activist has been picked up and is being held in police custody. The email described that is exactly the role that Amnesty’s Urgent Action network performs - that thousand of people around the world have signed up to receive notices of urgent cases, and who are prepared to react immediately with letters, faxes, emails, phone calls, etc. when there is a human rights emergency. The email closed with an invitation to join Amnesty Canada’s Urgent Action network.
This invitation to “step up” the ladder of engagement picks up directly from the core message that taking urgent action can get positive results, and is a natural way for people to deepen their commitment to help defend human rights. It’s rare that an online “click” action and the “go deeper” invitation align so closely.
As a result of the followup invitation, more than 300 new members joined Amnesty Canada’s Urgent Action Network - increasing it’s size by nearly 25% - a hugely positive step forward in building this important action tool for Amnesty Canada.
Emails:
#1 Action alert: http://www.amnesty.ca/eappeals/iran_women.html
#2 Followup invitation: http://www.amnesty.ca/eappeals/UAinvite.html
I don’t follow. Maybe I’m missing something, but it looks like people filled out a form from the first email, and people filled out a different form from the second email. I think the relevant information that illustrates your point is were the people who filled out the second form more active in some way than the people who got the second email but didn’t fill out the second form. Care to share?
Comment by Steve — February 28, 2008 @ 3:23 pm