After tweeting an opinion regarding the uses of social media by Occupy Boston, I was dumbfounded by their inability to understand my perspective as an “outsider”. I’ve been a supporter and follower of this movement since day one and have had countless discussions defending it. The most common complaint I hear people say is, “What the hell is their message?”
They’re unemployed? #OccupyaDesk. They aren’t earning enough? #StopWhining. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Well, according to Wikipedia: “The protests are against social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption, and the undue influence of corporations—particularly from the financial services sector—on government.”
So what’s the problem? Why aren’t people following this? Well, from someone on the outside looking in, let’s take a look specifically at the Occupy Boston Twitter feed. Now bear with me, as the point of this is to scroll/skim through the feed to understand their message. I’m starting at October 31st and scrolling upwards at one full space bar at a time.
Summary of results: [October 31st] Cops left hours ago, marches, meeting, cops are macing, journalist jailed, food/ice cream donation, impromptu march, 3 occupiers arrested, livestream link, post about unemployment, group stands with OB, super committee, musician performing, occupying harvard, livestream link, link to flyer regarding march, marching at Harvard Yard, facilitation training at Harvard, Noel Ignatiev speaking, victory in Portland, march in solidarity, raid in Phoenix, [November 15th] march in Solidarity, link to picture about being heard, pepper spray in Seattle, temporary restraining order, temporary injunction against eviction, 5 arrests, marching on atlantic ave, food supplies are low, bring pizza, link to blogpost, clean camp, Bloombergs house surrounded, “get up stand up” tweet, donation request, general assembly, UC Davis chancellor, general assembly, six veterans arrested in Charleston, group supports OB, [November 26th] Ted Leo performs, livestream link, general assembly, livestream link, wooden pallet stolen by BPD, [November 29th finally, a useful post] a tweet about a “must read” article…
honestly, I’d continue but already a month worth of tweets and unless I click a link, none of these tweets explain why I should give a damn. Nothing eye catching at least. Stuff about a sink. Stuff about how they’re not going anywhere. Scrolling up to more recent tweets and it seems the Occupy Movement is more focused on battling police more than anything. All I’ve gathered is they’re have a general assembly, they are marching, there is a musician playing, and they like pizza.
You think with all the creative types who are unemployed (like myself) and hanging at these camps, they’d be smart enough to think of a better way to get their messages across rather than “marching into the streets blocking traffic” as one redditor exclaims. By the general attitude of people on a website that sees so much traffic, it seems Occupiers are making more enemies than supporters…and I find this so very disappointing. I mean, this is a movement I want to see succeed.
So what am I getting at? Well, Occupiers…you’ve got a tent for everything right? So where the hell is your social media, marketing, and advertising tent? How did a bunch of women posting about the color of their bras spread like a wildfire, while a movement so important is constantly disregarded and swept under the rug?
All I’m saying is, everyone has a blog [including little old me], and no one wants to read this shit. I barely get any traffic here. I know you guys have a whole slew of problems you’re fighting for…But we’ve got short attention spans, when was the last time anyone talked about Bradley Manning or Julian Assange? if the Occupy Movement can’t trend their purpose in 140 characters or less, they should seriously consider taking a step back and figuring out how this internet thing works…after all you can reach the entire world…but it seems like the masses would rather read Rage Comics than hear about what you’re fighting for.
So let’s figure out how to change their attitudes. I mean come on Occupiers, you’ve dominated a public park, why not try to dominate a series of tubes with some awesome ad campaigns, infographics, and viral videos. I know these exist, but try to create something consistent…because having 6392 different hash-tags isn’t working.
