There are a range of different social media accounts and platforms that are available, and the list is growing.

To keep things as practical and as simple as possible, my suggestion is that in the first instance you concentrate on setting up FOUR different social media accounts.

These are:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• WordPress

You can easily add others social media platforms such as Tik Tok, Blogger, Rumble, YouTube, Telegram etc. if you have good reason to believe there is enough demand.

But right now, this is all about making the best use of the time that you have available and the PROCESS of getting the AIM of OfficiallyNONE OF THE ABOVE known by as many People across your local Community area as possible.

Usernames

If you haven’t already done so, please CHECK that the Username you have for your Community Meeting is available for ALL of the social media platforms that you intend to use BEFORE you start signing up to any of them.

This way, you can secure usernames that will be the same across ALL of your social media platforms.

Remember CONTINUITY and RECOGNISABILITY are KEY!

Twitter

It is very useful to have a presence on Twitter. Chances are that there will be a smaller number of members of your local Community who will use and interact with your posts on Twitter. But it’s also likely that this is where you will generate more interest from outside – which is important for networking and getting help from others too.

The trick is to keep your messages factual and short, or just add a short description and use Twitter just for posting your Facebook, Instagram and WordPress links.

Facebook

You may already have a Facebook account of your own and you can use that as the doorway to create a Facebook Page.

Facebook is where you are most likely to pick up support from members of your local Community very quickly.

My advice would be that you treat your Community Meeting page on Facebook a bit like a central hub, which links to everything else.

Facebook is good for editorial, pictures and for posting links and I would suggest that you take the plunge and use them all, as often as you can.

Please make sure that anything you post anywhere else is linked to your Community Meeting Facebook Page too.

The functionality of Facebook Pages is fantastic. So, if you just follow the guided tour after your Page is initially set up, you will immediately get a taste of what a great Community connection tool it really can be.

Instagram

Instagram is a much more visual tool that a lot of People really like, simply because the content or the stories revolve around pictures and visualisation helps how people think.

If you can record what you are doing with pictures and add a few words to tell the story as you do so, you will be amazed at the support that you will soon find.

Instagram is owned by the same company that owns Facebook and you can set up your Community Meeting Instagram account so that it immediately posts to Facebook too. However, please be aware that it does not work that way, the other way around!

WordPress

If you are unsure how to put posts together that will interest and engage other members of your Community when you begin, perhaps writing and publishing a journal of what you are doing and what you have experienced will be a very good way to start.

Blogs of the kind you need to write don’t need to be long. They just need to be factual and relevant in every way that you can make them.

WordPress will also allow you to repost material or blogs from other WordPress sites if you want to.

WordPress is the blogging platform that I currently use to support everything I write, and it’s where any resources I will be making available to share with you will be found.

Setting up

All of these social media platforms take just a few minutes to set up.

Some suggestions:

• Use a picture or pictures of a location or landmark that everyone in your Community will know and relate to – One that isn’t a private residence, a business or includes People or private property that can be identified within it.
• Use a free app such as Meme Maker to add your Community Meeting name and do any basic editing you may need, to the picture or pictures before you use them.
• Write a short bio and use it for all four of them. For example, ‘Bringing Churchdown together so that public decisions are made for us all, the same’

Where you can, immediately set up posting links between your different social media platforms, so that when you post to one, you immediately post to all (For instance, if you write a blog in WordPress, the set up will allow you to automatically post to Facebook, and Instagram does the same thing too).

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As soon as your Community Meeting social media platforms are up and running, you should begin posting and sharing everything that you can or have the time to, online.

People from across your Community will be interested in what you are doing from the moment that you begin work.

However, the key to success is what you then do to keep those same People engaged and interested, and then thinking about what more they could and then want to do, to help you.

What kind of things you should post:

People you don’t know will respond very well when they feel like you are talking to them, rather than at them.

A really helpful way to approach writing anything to post on social media and online, is to treat it like you are having a normal chat or conversation with someone that you already know – just without anything that would be too familiar or personal. (For instance, leave out bad language, irony, sarcasm or anything that people who aren’t used to the way you speak might not ‘get’ or understand)

You don’t need to write loads to engage People either. Short and punchy lines or just a couple of paragraphs are more than enough, IF there is a message worth sharing included.

Use your Community Meeting social media platforms to post:

• News: When you’ve launched, when you have set up something like a fundraiser for People to use, when you’ve made contact with another Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE group, when a member of the community volunteers and is taking on a specific responsibility or role AND when Community Meetings have been arranged.
• Questions: You should ask People what they think about things you are doing and speak as if you are already addressing the whole community – no matter how many People are already involved. Remember that the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE pathway to creating functioning Community Meetings is all about engaging and listening to everyone who wants to speak and participate across the local Community – so give them that chance from day 1!
• Updates: Tell everyone what you and those working with you have achieved. For instance, if you have made a commitment to visit a certain number of houses to talk to local People by a certain date, tell everyone how you are getting on. Or share other updates about how other Community Meetings are getting on.

The kind of things you shouldn’t post:

Remember that your Community Meeting and everything you create, set up and achieve belongs to the Community from the moment you begin.

It’s therefore very important not to blur the lines and make anything you post about you, what you are doing when you are not working on Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE, or anything personal to you, such as talking about the things that you like.

DON’T use your Community Meeting social media platforms to post:

• Anything Personal: DON’T use the platforms you have set up for your Community Meeting to post ANYTHING that is about you or anyone else personally.
• Anything about Public Policy or Politics: The whole point of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is the creation of the circumstances where we are able to Vote for People to represent us all as Public Representatives who have been chosen by the Community and whose integrity in fulfilling their responsibilities is something we can trust. Policy itself is the next issue, once we have Politicians running government that we can trust. So, if the focus shifts away from listening and the commitment to the order that these steps have to come, your only success by making policy statement or making an endorsement of a policy of any kind, will only be to divide People at precisely the wrong time.

Rules for using social media as a successful Community building tool:

Here are some general rules that will help you to build a good reputation for your Community Meeting, to stay happy and to build good relationships across your social media platforms, with anyone worth building them with online:

• ALWAYS approach social media like it’s a one-to-one conversation with someone you already know.
• Don’t do or say anything to anyone online, that you wouldn’t be happy to do or say directly to their face, in real life.
• NEVER MAKE IT PERSONAL. Even the People on the internet who are rude are reflecting only how they feel about their own life and the world. ITS NEVER ABOUT YOU – but it soon will be, IF you are the one to initiate any kind of abuse or attack!
• If you are unsure of whether you should post whatever you’ve written, DON’T POST IT!
• Don’t present opinions and views as fact to anyone. It’s possible to get into legal trouble if you do, and you never know who will see what you have written or published, and People will be very quick to call you out!
• Don’t lie or make things up – especially if you have received a comment or read something that makes you uncomfortable.
• Don’t post when you are feeling emotional or are under the influence of drink or drugs.
• Always answer polite and constructive questions. There will be more People who will be genuinely interested in what you are saying or doing than there will be those who only have bad things to say about anything or anyone.
• NEVER make promises that you have no way of knowing that you can keep.
• If you are asked a question and don’t know the answer, be honest. Don’t even attempt blag your way out. Find a way to engage directly if you can and let them know that you will find the answer and get back to them.
• Ignore anyone who only has negative things to say.
• DO NOT use the number of likes, shares, followers or any other kind of statistic that’s openly available as a way to tell you how successful your efforts have been. Alone, they NEVER accurately correlate with what People are really thinking. The reality is that if you only ever succeed in openly engaging one person, that one person could be connected and then tell your story to the whole world!
• Don’t share links to anyone or anything that you don’t trust or are not fully aware of and know to be relevant and helpful to Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.
• REMEMBER: Unless you have done something you shouldn’t have, People only attack and criticise the work and efforts of others online, when they have nothing useful or of benefit to anyone else to say. Keep doing the right thing by everyone, and you will soon be shocked by who this cap actually fits!
• Don’t publish any picture of anyone who can be identified from that picture, unless you have their permission to do so. You should get that permission in writing wherever you can.
• Don’t publish information that will identify People directly, unless it relates to material that already exists in the public realm – In which case, publish the link, so readers can see what you are referencing or referring to.
• Don’t publish anything on your Community Meeting platforms that promote the views of any organisation or any individual in any way, other than your Community Meeting, itself.

Things to be aware of:

Remember that you need to keep the AIM, METHOD and PROCESS of Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE in your mind at all times.

ALWAYS CHECK THAT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE POSTED THEN POSTS AS IT SHOULD, WHERE ITS SUPPOSED TO, AND THAT ITS POSTED ON TIME!

You can always get in touch if you need any suggestions or pointers: officiallynota@gmail.com

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Although the PROCESS is all about getting People from within your local Community to Meet up and work together, the PROCESS is also built upon the foundation of getting your message to begin working on its own, without you having to do all the work.

One of the easiest ways to get your Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE messages to start engaging other members of your local Community and to begin working for you remotely too, is to focus your first efforts on getting local People following, liking and sharing all of the social media platforms you have set up.

Clearly, the more follows, likes and shares you have, the bigger the number of People who will see your posts will be – even if they don’t like, share or follow themselves.

Because of the way that social media and search engines work, there always seem to be a number of follows, of likes and shares that needs to be hit or achieved before pages reach a magic moment or what some would call a critical mass, when new or additional followers and likes just seem to start arriving and adding up, all by themselves.

From what I know and understand at the time of writing, you will help yourself greatly if you can immediately share your Facebook page with at least 12 People from your local Community who are friends with you on Facebook, who then follow or like your Community Meeting Facebook Page, and then like and share posts with all the People they know, as you publish them.

It’s not critical for you to do this, at this point. But it will certainly help and add to your confidence, if you can secure this support in what you would be able to call a ‘quick win’.

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You may begin working on the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS alone. But you should do so knowing that for your own and everyone else’s efforts to be successful, it will soon be necessary to pool efforts with others who are thinking the same way as you.

Help will come in many different forms and from many different directions, IF you get to work and just let your faith in the PROCESS take care of the rest.

If an Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE Community Meeting has already been established locally

If you should find that somebody else has already began working in your local area to build a Community Meeting using the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS, this is great news for your area.

Anyone who is genuinely committed to developing a Community response to the problems we face will be happy to collaborate with others who are clearly setting off from the same starting point and viewing the process of changing the way that we do Politics in the UK in the same way.

Even if somebody has already begun work to develop a Community Meeting locally, there is no reason why you cannot get started on your own, IF you genuinely believe that it will help the local Community for you to focus on an even smaller area to begin with.

However, there is also a lot of truth in the suggestion that ‘many hands make light work’.

If you get in touch with whoever is also working locally and tell them that you intend to follow the Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE PROCESS too and that you are open to collaborating, the chances are that an honest and open conversation will soon let you know how you can combine efforts and reach more People in less time, by pooling your efforts on the same campaign.

Offers of help when you knock on doors

It may not happen straight away. But once you get used to knocking on People’s doors, introducing yourself and why you are there, and then listening to what the People have to say, your confidence and passion for what you are doing will begin to shine through in a way that just your words alone will not.

You shouldn’t be surprised if People you talk to at their doorsteps are then immediately receptive to the idea of getting involved and helping you in some way – or in some cases, actually asking you there and then what they can do.

Whatever you do next, if someone is interested in helping or has made a firm offer of help, you should:

• Exchange contact details and make sure that they have the details and usernames of all the platforms you are using.
• Ask them what they would like to do to help.
• Ask them if there is anything they are NOT happy to do.
• Discuss the possibility of meeting up again quickly, so that you can arrange the next steps.
• Provide them with the links to find Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE on Amazon and Online and suggest that they read the whole Book all the way through.

PLEASE ALWAYS REMEMBER that volunteers are NOT employees.

Like you, People who are genuinely prepared to come and work with you and collaborate with us all to build Community Meetings will make effort and give their time for nothing. BECAUSE IT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM.

That means that whatever they do, really does need to be something that they are happy to do. So, it is essential that you don’t push anyone to do anything they are uncomfortable with doing, ESPECIALLY if it’s something that you are not keen on doing yourself.

If someone wants to help but just wants to write blogs for you or deliver leaflets once the first Community Meeting is arranged, let them do whatever they want to and be appreciative of even the smallest thing they have done to help.

Check the priorities and background of any volunteers who ‘come out of the blue’

As Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE begins to build interest from local People within your Community, it will also gain interest from People, Politicians and Political Parties who are invested in The System we already have, and with a commitment to resisting any kind of meaningful change.

It’s quite possible that you will be offered help from People like this which isn’t really help at all. And if you are not aware of who or why someone has approached you out of the blue, there is a chance that they want to get involved with what you are doing using an offer of help, but with every intention of hindering or even stopping you from achieving all that you have set out to do.

As a matter of course, you should always do a thorough social media and internet search of anyone who offers help or wants to collaborate with you in any way.

Whilst the reality of what it takes to deliver Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE will always uncover those who are not committed to Community Meetings and what they will deliver, you cannot leave checking out who is volunteering to your first impressions.

The chances are that your focus could easily be on more important things than what they are doing, once you have put trust in them to do whatever they say. Sadly, the time it could take to see them for who they really are could be longer than it takes for real damage to have been done.

British Politics is broken because it works this very way, today.

Offers of Help you should always avoid:

• People who have active or recent links to existing Political Parties.
• People who are already Politicians or who work or are linked to Local Authorities.
• People who don’t have any kind of record available when you search them out.
• People with details and profiles online that appear to be unestablished or very new.
• Anyone whose ‘story’ doesn’t match what they or anyone who has introduced them to you has told you.

Refusing the wrong kind of help:

It is quite possible that you will receive offers of help from People with a background like that we have just discussed, or that you have become aware that they are unlikely to be genuine in some other way.

Whether an offer of help is genuine or not, if you find that you need to decline or reject that offer for any reason at all, you should always do so properly, and be polite when you do so.

People who want to involve themselves in anything for the wrong reasons often have very fragile egos. They will become angry and problematic if they are given just the slightest excuse to do so.

Avoid giving them that excuse.

Things to be aware of:

Collaboration is essential between People and groups, when what is good for us all and for the whole Community is at stake.

Until now, different People and groups who have focused on political ideas and activism of one kind or another have happily allowed their own ideas to get in the way of the things in life that are most important to us all.

Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE requires that we think about what’s really important to everyone in a very different way.

You will enjoy the whole PROCESS if you are open to working with and collaborating with others. You will soon be making many new friends of People you already know, along the way!

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Once you have started to build up a list of local People you have had direct contact with who are interested in supporting what you are doing and in taking part, the next step is to arrange your first Community Meeting.

Holding Community Meetings is the METHOD to achieving Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE.

For the first meeting, aiming to have as few as between 30 and 50 local People in attendance is likely to be all you need.

This means you won’t have to wait too long before you can be confident of numbers, and it is likely that there will already be a pub with a function room or a Community building of some kind that can be booked either free of charge or for a very modest fee.

The chances are that you will already have somewhere appropriate in mind.

Booking a room

Most Meeting Rooms that can be booked by members of the Public will have information about booking them online.

Look up the details and check the availability. But only proceed if you are happy with the terms of hire and that you already have the funds available to cover any Room Hire Costs.

Please avoid any venue that requires a Room Hire Fee, if you cannot cover the cost, if someone has not already volunteered to pay or donated the fee, or you haven’t already received enough in any Crowdfunder you may have set up.

A pub will be just as good as a dedicated Meeting Venue, and with the difficult times that we are all experiencing right now, you may find that your local Pub Landlord will be very receptive to the idea of having a group of local People come in!

Wherever you decide to hold your first Community Meeting – don’t go ahead unless and until you know that the venue management is happy first!

When to hold your first Community Meeting

It is essential to make it as easy as possible for as many members of your local Community to attend EVERY Community Meeting that you hold.

In time, it could easily become clear that enough People are available to attend meetings at a different time. But in the first instance, you are most likely to have the biggest attendance possible if you arrange your first Community Meetings on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening, with a focus on the main business being conducted between 7 and 9pm.

Please avoid any dates when you know that there is any kind of event, like a local school parents evening or a big sports event on TV that will draw People’s attention elsewhere.

In time, it won’t matter. But to begin with, this will be the most effective way to get the maximum number of local People involved.

Make sure you let EVERYONE know

Whether they attend any of your Community Meetings or not, it is important that you let everyone in your Community area know and provide notice of when and where the first one will be held.

You don’t need to drop leaflets or contact everyone directly when every Community Meeting that follows is held – as a notice by email or across all of your social media platforms for these will do.

However, for any subsequent Meeting arranged when any important decisions will be agreed – and in particular, when a Vote upon candidates to represent the Community in Elections is going to be held, you MUST make sure that everyone has been told.

It doesn’t matter if some People choose not to attend, or for some reason are unable to do so.

But it is essential that when something important is happening, EVERYONE in the Community has been informed or what is happening and has been offered the opportunity to be involved.

You only need to have put a leaflet through every door. But you must be sure that this has happened, so that no matter whether you have had direct contact with every household in your Community area or not, EVERYONE has at least been made aware.

If you cannot achieve this for any reason, you should not go ahead with any meeting where any important decisions are made.

Otherwise, it is always possible that someone can say that they haven’t been informed about what your Community Meeting is doing, and that could cast doubt upon the legitimacy of the whole process.

The legitimacy of your Community Meeting can only be guaranteed if it is clear that everyone had a choice to get involved.

That said, don’t worry if you experience an existing Politician or someone like them or linked to them making accusations that they weren’t told what was going on.

As long as you know and can confirm that everyone has been contacted, they won’t have a leg for their argument or accusations to stand on.

Something important for you to bear in mind:

When you book a Meeting Room or Venue, it’s really important that you check that the owners or managers are happy for you to hold a Community Meeting.

There is nothing wrong with what you or any of us are doing.

However, many different Community buildings will be under the control of People like existing local Councillors, and People just like them, who are heavily invested in the current System and the way that it all works.

Many of them will not want to be seen to be supportive of what you are going to do.

They will make any excuse to stand in your way or object to your use of what is a Community owned asset that was actually intended for just the kind of purpose you intend to use it for.

If you come across People who behave like this and misuse their position and the responsibility they have been entrusted with, you are just experiencing the kind of behaviour that Officially NONE OF THE ABOVE is working to remove from everyone’s way.

In the meantime, don’t sweat it or worry about it if small-minded and selfish people try to get in the way. There are plenty of other options and plenty of other ways to succeed.

Things to be aware of:

You do not need to have everyone signed up or committed to attending when you have your first Community Meeting. But you do need to have at least taken every step possible to ensure that they are aware.

Holding your first Community Meeting and then reporting back to other members of the Community about it will almost certainly prove to be a very useful way to help get even more People involved in the future.

So, it could be a good idea to be working on STEP 8 as soon as you start – as long as you are confident doing all the things you need to, and in keeping the momentum up too.

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