Social Media Tips for Teen Gun Violence Prevention Activists

As NFTY and the Reform Movement undertake a reinvigorated campaign to help end gun violence in the United States, we've compiled a few tips and resources for teen activists who want to get involved. Visit nfty.org/gvp for more.

1. Identify and talk to key influencers.

To make your voice heard on social media, find the handles of those you want to speak to directly:

• Fellow activists in NFTY and beyond
• Politicians, including your members of Congress and state senators
• Ally organizations such as Everytown for Gun Safety and the Brady Campaign
• Jewish organizations such as NFTY, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

2. Tap into the Movement’s resources

The Reform Movement is hard at work creating resources that will help aid and support your advocacy work. To get started, check out the following list of ever-expanding resources – and share them with your followers!

• The RAC’s Gun Violence Prevention Page: Visit www.rac.org/gvp to learn more about gun violence prevention through a Reform Jewish perspective and find community-wide resources including action alerts, news updates, and a Community Resource Guide on Gun Violence Prevention, and more.
• NFTY Fights for Gun Violence Prevention: Visit nfty.org/gvp for teen-specific resources for gun violence prevention advocacy. Sign up to stay informed of breaking news about these efforts, including the March 24th March for Our Lives, and share this page with peers who want to help stop the violence in America.
• Urge Congress to Take Immediate Action to Stop Gun Violence: As Reform Jews, we cannot afford to stay silent. We need your help to demand that our legislators take action to stop these massacres and address the unacceptably high rates of gun violence in our country.

We’re also sharing tons of content and resources on social media, so find us online and retweet, reshare, like, comment, and more. You can find us here:

• NFTY: facebook.com/officialnfty | twitter.com/officialnfty | instagram.com/officialnfty
  The Union for Reform Judaism: facebook.com/urjorg | twitter.com/urjorg
• ReformJudaism.org: facebook.com/reformjudaism | twitter.com/reformjudaism | instagram.com/reformjudaism
• The Religious Action Center: facebook.com/therac | twitter.com/therac | instagram.com/theracgram

3. Add the hashtag #JewsDemandAction.

The Reform Movement is here to support you! In your tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram photos, use the hashtag #JewsDemandAction so we can see the work you’re doing, raise up your voice, and present a unified Jewish front in our communal advocacy work online and beyond.

4. Include visuals.

Adding a compelling visual can be the element that elevates your social media content so that it really grabs people’s attention. Consider what kind of visual might be the right fit for your social media post, whether you’re using a NFTY-created graphic, your own rally photos, or a short video of yourself telling your story.

• Download and print this sign from NFTY and the RAC, then photograph yourself holding it to share on social media. Tag your politicians and use the hashtag #JewsDemandAction!
• The RAC has compiled a gallery of Gun Violence Prevention Photos for Social Media Use, which includes photos that you may use in your social media posts.

5. Engage, engage, engage!

Your social media presence shouldn’t exist in a vacuum – so get out there and engage with other people! Respond to other activists and raise up their work through tweets and shares. Answer questions from followers who want to know more about gun violence prevention and why it matters to you. Send support to survivors. Thank those politicians and organizations that are working to prevent gun violence.

You may also tag us on any of the accounts we’ve shared above.

6. Keep going!

Don’t give up. It can be exhausting to continue to fight for change – particularly when change is slow to happen – but Jewish tradition teaches us, “It is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.” (Pirkei Avot 2:16) Stick with us as we maintain a steady drumbeat of voices and advocacy work in our fight for gun violence prevention.

Learn more about how NFTY is mobilizing for gun violence prevention, then sign up at NFTY Fights for Gun Violence Prevention to participate in these efforts. You can also visit www.rac.org/gvp for tangible ways to take action to prevent gun violence.