Deanna Zandt: Badass Activist Friday

It’s Friday, and we all know what that means! Interviews with your favorite badass feminists and activists. Whether social media queens and kings, creative artists, sex educators, or just kick-ass personalities, these people harness righteous anger, instigate movements and inspire cultural change. We’re here to honor them and their work, but more importantly, to highlight how we can all get up, plug in, and Just Start Doing.

Today’s Badass is Deanna Zandt. Deanna is an author, speaker and media consultant. She has written the book Share This: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking and she appears regularly as a speaker at conferences and conducts workshops on using social media for activism. You can find out more about her and her work at her website.

Deanna took the time to talk to us about social media and social networking, and using both for activism. Let’s hear what she had to say!

You have specialized in social-media networking and online activism. What attracted you to this work? How did you get to where you are now?

Well, I was born a nerd with a weirdly strong, innate sense of injustice in the world, so I think there was a certain inevitability to the work I do, haha. My passions for making the world a better place and for technology innovations evolved relatively separately, though. I found feminism in its most basic forms as a kid (Amelia Earhart was the subject of my fourth grade living biography, ahem), and as I got through college and into the world, that feminist lens both informed the various types of activism I’ve taken up, and allowed it to expand into a passion for racial justice and other intersecting social justice issues.

I discovered the Internet in 1994 as a first-year student in college; when one of my friends showed me the Mozilla web browser that year, I remember hitting him on the shoulder really hard, over and over, yelling, “Oh my GOD! This is going to change EVERYTHING!” It was clear to me then that connecting people together through this strange series of tubes was going to revolutionize… something. I worked through the dot-com and its bust, and found myself often very angry and frustrated that there was such a huge commercial focus on these incredible tools. It was all about making money, selling things, a lot of garbage and excess. I was truly pained by a lot of it, and sat out on a lot of the “fun” stuff from those years.

I started blogging in 2001 — a set of personal diaries here and there, and loved the platform immediately. Things started to spark in my head when I took one of the private diaries offline, I think in 2003. I had been blogging ridiculously detailed entries about my escapades in the Lower East Side of Manhattan (read: I blogged about boys), and though I disguised everyone’s names, I panicked that Someone Would Find It and took the blog down. The next morning, I got an email from a guy in London who wanted me to know that while he understood why I was taking the blog down, he was sad to see it go. Evidently he and his wife would read my blog on their lunch hours and then discuss the day’s entry over dinner when they got home. It was like a little soap opera for them (and believe me, it was a soap opera). This was the first moment where I realized, “Wow, these stories matter to someone.” Stories matter, period.

I’d quit my last 9-5 job in 2003 and was trying out a variety of skills as a consultant, but it always came back to technology. When social technologies really started to evolve from about 2005 on, it became clear to me that social justice folks needed to get on board with what was happening. It wasn’t just that their was great electoral-based work happening (a la Dean campaign… I think if you do the work that I do, you get some sort of demerit if you don’t mention that); there was just this explosion of ways that people could bypass traditional power structures and share their stories with one another. And we know that any kind of social change starts with stories. You can throw all the stats you want at someone, but if you put them in someone else’s shoes for a moment and give them the opportunity to empathize, they’re much more likely to take action.

Now, I get to spend my work time helping organizations figure out how to use a variety of technologies, not just social ones, to help them achieve their missions. It’s thrilling and incredibly fulfilling. Part of my job is a lot of group therapy: helping all of the stakeholders in a situation work out their hopes, dreams and fears, and then finding the tech that’s going to make it all work. My number one favorite thing to do is workshops and training, and I just love watching the light bulb go on for people.

You use a wide array of mediums in your work, from online networkingto workshops to your book (Share This, published 2010). How do these different ways of interacting, teaching and reaching out inform each other?

It’s part of the teaching ethos — realizing that everyone learns in different ways, and it’s helpful to try and reach everyone with means that they can utilize. I learn best by trial and error (insert lots of jokes about my dating life here), but others learn best by reading a book and having the space to digest information. You have to meet people where they’re at, especially when it comes to technology. It automatically calls up a lot of angst for people, especially women, and my aim is to help melt that all away.

You were involved in the online backlash to Komen’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, and you founded the Tumblr “Planned Parenthood Saved Me“. What is it like to be in the middle of such a process, to work with others and to see that you are making an impact? Is there a moment when you get something off the ground and you know that your activism is going to yield results? Any specific factors that determine the success or failure?

Oh man, what a project that turned out to be. I actually started the Tumblr as just sort of an example for other activists who were working on the issue– there was a lot of talk about money, about fundraising, and I wanted to make sure that stories were also getting told. So, I didn’t really have a plan like I would normally have. [Side-eye to my clients: don't even think you can get away with something like this. heh.]

This may make me a terrible consultant, and I may never work again if people read this, but I never really know what’s actually going to work when I help people develop their strategies. I basically make a lot of wildly educated guesses. I firmly believe that anyone that says they can make something “go viral” is full of s***. There is no way to predict these kinds of moments, but there are things that people can tune into when they enter the process.

The main thing is that we have this mistaken notion when it comes to activism and changing the world — we think that we can come up with this really awesome idea, and it will make people flock to us. “Build it, and they will come.” This is horribly wrong. World changing work is not about planting a flag and hoping for the best, it’s about finding the threads of passion that connect people– looking for what people are already feeling — and weaving those threads together. This accounts for the success of moments like Planned Parenthood Saved Me (you can read about the first few days here) and We are the 99%. Of course, timing is everything, too, and you have to be ready to drop everything and run with it when the moment strikes.

Personally, the Tumblr was an incredible emotional journey. Reading those stories as I was approving them, it was just a non-stop sob-fest in my office. I’m eternally grateful for the bravery that those women showed and the stories they chose to share with all of us.

Okay, so I have a Facebook account and a Twitter account. How can I get involved? What is the best way to enter into the world of online activism?

Congratulations! Welcome to the wonderful world of digital engagement. My name is Deanna, and I’ll be your guide.

In many ways, it depends on what you want to do. One of the biggest things that I stress with my clients and students is that it’s not just about getting online and hoping for the best; online activism is just like offline organizing, where you have to start with a goal and work backwards from there. You figure out which tools are most appropriate for the goal you’re trying to achieve. And keep in mind the communities that you’re trying to reach, and what tools they’re using– for some, like reaching media, Twitter is a great connector. Others like Tumblr are good for using humor and reaching younger people. (The average age of most social network participants is older than you think– only 18% of Twitter users are under 24, and Facebook’s fastest growing demographic in 2010 was women over 55.) Keep your communities in mind as you select your tools.

If you’re just generally looking to become more political in your online activities, there are a couple of things that I suggest. First, think of yourself as a listener, and as a curator of news for your community. If you’re passionate about closing puppy mills down, you can act as a curator of interesting and compelling news about puppy mills. It’s not just about signing petitions and calling representatives; it’s about sharing the stories that move people to eventually take action. You can’t just walk into a party, stand on a chair, tell everyone to call their Senator to vote no on a bill. (I mean, you could, but really…) Social media is like a party in that sense– it’s about participating, listening and building solid relationships in your community.

Some practical tips to get folks going:

• Used saved searches in Twitter to keep tabs on your favorite issues. The advanced search options are pretty nifty, too. Check those saved searches regularly to find the conversations that are already happening on things you care about, and join those conversations.
• On Facebook, search works a little differently, but can still be valuable. You can also seek out Pages from organizations that you care about, like them, and help them spread the word on the work that they’re doing.

Note: if Twitter makes no sense to you, I’ve got a set of guides that might be useful. And here’s a good set of Facebook best practices for nonprofits.

Are you working on anything right now that you would like to draw our attention to? Or are there any projects that you would like to drum up support for?

Always hustlin’! Hee. I’m really excited to announce a new series of Social Media for Social Justice workshops launching in San Francisco on March 5. More information about it here, space is limited, but still available! We’ll be having them in NYC, DC and Chicago over the coming months. Sign up for my (very infrequent) newsletter to stay in the loop, and include your metro region for events in your area.

I’m also working on lining up my next round of speaking gigs and workshops, so if anyone’s interested in bringing me in to speak to their organization, school or event, get in touch with Jen Angel at Aid & Abet (Jen at aidandabet dot org). If folks want to talk to me about developing online strategies for their organization, drop me a line directly.

And, in my alternate universe reality, I’m an artist and performer working on a new series of semi auto-biographical comics, which I hope to turn into a theater piece before too long. Fingers crossed!

Tags: activism, Deanna Zandt, facebook, Media, online activism, Planned Parenthood, social media, story-telling, Twitter