Levels of Influence

I thought about writing this idea a couple of days ago during a meeting in the KKP conference room. The old people were connecting the dots in how to organize a city wide bike ride to raise environmental awareness. Our exchange of ideas got me thinking. We could create a whole science out of this stuff; the stuff of advocacies, social awareness, and people mobilization. Out of the seemingly abstract idea of advocating issues, I attempted to clump it together into concrete steps and levels in the hope of creating a sound system of raising awareness of issues we could all apply.

(Assumption: we are passionately concerned about the issue we advocate and our intentions are clean! Duh! )

The Self (Level 1)

a. Talk about it – This is the most basic and simple. The issues we raise should begin in our mouths. We talk about it to other people over food or during class.

b. Start a blog – Using the internet is powerful. Write a post about it if you already have a blog or create a special blog citing your opinions and suggestions about the issue.

c. Start a chain message – using SMS is another powerful tool. Create catchy short messages about the issue and send it to your friends and encourage them to also forward the message. You could also insert your blog for reference.

d. Create a pin – You could enhance the advocacy by being the walking reminder of it. Create pins that are catchy, colourful and provocative which leads people who see it to question.

Inner Circle (Level 2)

a. Gather a small group of people – Levelling it up to a group or a club amplifies it even more. If you have a solid circle of friends, try to share it to them and encourage them to participate. This could also include creating an advocacy team who helps you give out fliers or primer sheets or better yet start your very own student organization.

b. Network to other institutions – Strategize and link up. Spot potential partners and create a network that informs and mobilizes. They could give you resources (logistics, funds, skills) that you need to keep the momentum.

c. Advertise – Making an attractive advocacy board and situating it to strategic places or giving info sheets to people can further raise awareness. This comes in handy during peak hours of the day.

Outer Circle (Level 3)

a. Organize events – If the group has reached a level of maturity and is capable of expanding, organizing an event is one good way. An example of it is organizing a concert or a seminar perhaps. This would serve as the highest form of getting your point across because it involves a great number of people. Events could amplify the ripple effect you’ve started.

b. Do follow up activities (e.g. signature campaigns) – keeping the momentum is challenging but doing follow up activities such as forums or signature campaigns can keep it moving.

Depending on the nature of the issue, our efforts, for it to be fruitful should be forwarded to the people in authority because the end game is theirs. Our mission in raising awareness is to poke the leaders and the people to listen and somehow disturb them and move them inside to act for the better.

BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT THIS COUNTRY TO BE.