As of January 2014, 74 percent of online adults use social networking sites, according to research conducted by the Pew Internet Project.
Social media has become not only a way to share ideas, thoughts and opinions, but also a way to communicate in today’s society.
Sharing personal information, including news, family moments and daily selfies is what a great amount of social media users utilize these tools for, yet others are using their platform for bigger purposes. They advocate social change.
In the spring of 2014 VH1 began promoting clips of Mona Scott Young’s new reality series titled “Sorority Sisters” which took a rare glimpse into Greek life. The public response was filled with anger, especially from the African-American Greek community in which it portrayed.
After several weeks of petitions totaling more than 40,000 names and the production crew being denied access to popular Greek events, word of the show came to an end. Months later the show aired without little warning in December 2014.
Lawrence Ross, author of the book The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities was recognized as one of the moving forces to help end the reality show.
Ross who is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., has a great deal of experience in social media and earned his master’s degree from UCLA’s film school. He said with his knowledge, he was able to develop a strategic plan to put the show off the air.
“To me that didn’t seem like a smart strategy,” said Ross of others who created a petition to end the production. “On my Facebook page I put together a plan which broke down the inner workings of how you actually get rid of a show, which was to basically starve it of advertisers.”
Ross, along with individuals who supported his plan, discovered who the show’s advertisers were, and contacted them through email and social media to express their disappointment with the series.
“It basically gave the advertisers a choice between viewers and the show,” explained Ross. “Boycotting advertisers was why the show ended, not simply boycotting the show itself. The numbers never went down as far as viewership.”
He said the show fell right in line with other VH1 productions, which does not accurately portray African-Americans.
“VH1’s business model isn’t to create a well rounded view of African-American people. It’s not part of who they are or who they claim to be. Their job is to entertain and pick people that provide the most entertainment. The problem for ‘Sorority Sisters’ was they connected a show to thousands of fraternity and sorority members that hadn’t signed up for it. They didn’t say ‘X, Y and Z are on the show and just happen to be members of an organization,’ they made the organizations the central story line.”
Ross believes social media is simply a tool and compared it to meeting up at a local church to advocate. Jennifer James, founder of Mom Bloggers for Social Good, a blog for women to advocate global issues has a similar opinion.
“Before social media we had to advocate by coming together in a certain area and to march or have symposiums or forums, and that’s still very important, but because of social media we can get those ideas out quicker,” said James who banded together a group of women to advocate for world hunger, and the importance of vaccinations among other things after a visit to Africa in 2011.
“I saw there were issues I could elevate because of my platform,” said James who had been blogging for many years prior to her trip.
“I went to moms online and I asked them if they were interested in using their influence, not only through blogging, but through social media to highlight these big issues.”
During the startup process, James got 400 participants within a short time frame, but today the blog has over 3,000 members who use social media for awareness purposes. James believes trust is a big battle leaders must tackle if they want to have an influence on their audience.
“It may take people some time to click a link or to understand what the issue is, but people are getting savvier on social media and they’re trusting the people they follow,” she said. “Just through the power of social media, we can put forth ideas, topics and ways people can help. When you pair that with on the ground action, it’s even more powerful.”
Ross said he hopes the dismantling of the show helped people realize they can make changes within major corporations and organizations.
“Never sit back and wait for a permanent or professional leader,” he said. “Leadership tends to be temporary. When you find something matches your skill set and idea set, then you step up to be a leader. Some people will lead longer than others but you’re only as effective as your plan and how that plan is implemented.”
