By Social Media Coordinator Emma Goldberg
Are you #AddictedtoTwitter? Do you often find yourself spending hours on Facebook, scrolling through your newsfeed and visiting the pages of journalists and public figures? Do you maintain that despite what your parents may tell you, those hours spent online are actually productive? If so, you may be STAND’s next Social Media Coordinator. You have the insight to recognize the unique opportunity offered to our generation—the opportunity to interface with a platform that engages millions and connects them to one another.
As STAND’s Social Media Coordinator, I had the opportunity to work at the intersection of communications and mass atrocities prevention, applying creative thinking to the student anti-genocide movement. It was a unique and gratifying experience to learn to use social media as a tool not only for brand building, but also for advocacy. I worked with STAND’s phenomenal team of communications, advocacy and education experts to forward legislative objectives online. It was gratifying to communicate with students not yet ready to schedule in person lobbying appointments and empower them to participate in civic engagement through social media.
Not only did my understanding of communications and mass atrocities prevention grow tremendously, but I also had the opportunity to work with an inspiring group of leaders. STAND’s Managing Committee and Task Force are warm and close-knit groups of brilliant policy wonks and dynamic organizers. Not only do they welcome every new member in with kindness, but their conversations also exposed me to entirely new ways of thinking about peace-building and movement development.
Being engaged with STAND on a chapter-level is exciting. Your in-district lobbying, die-ins, and educational presentations convey the organization’s message into Congressional offices and through the hallways of your school. But all of the initiatives that chapters facilitate on a regional level coalesce to build a national movement that occupies a powerful space in the field of anti-genocide work. As Social Media Coordinator, you develop the face of that brand. You create the language used to convey STAND’s message to the widest possible audience.
This year STAND experienced thrilling triumphs. Our October End Genocide Action Summit was a major success, bringing hundreds of student organizers to D.C. to meet with policymakers, leading organizers, and more. Through the Know Your Candidate campaign, STAND chapter members attended Romney’s rallies and questioned his foreign policy agenda. And during Genocide Awareness Month, STAND’s Student Director represented the organization in speaking on a White House panel moderated by Samantha Power. Next year STAND will continue to take on exciting initiatives. As Social Media Coordinator you can think creatively about how to encourage wide participation in these campaigns, and how to convey STAND’s successes to the public to build the movement.