Sometime in January, right around the time I participated in the Women's March on Washington, a few things happened in a confluence. There were worries that scientific and climate data would be taken down which have since been proven on the data and the qualitative phrasing. There were actual media blackouts of the EPA communications that led to first the National Park Service and then all government scientists going rogue with "Alt" Twitter handles (hearts to the founders and authors of these!). There was So-Called President 45 tweeting irresponsibly. There was article after article about the nihilist pick by the Republican Administration to lead the EPA (and this was before the emails revealed how crony he is, vomit). All I could think was "quick! how can I record the truth on climate change in a way that will be most needling to President 45?" And so my datasheets of tweets repasting what the EPA website says on climate change was born. Since January, the twitter handle for this blog (@enviroish) has tweeted over 2500 times to @realdonaldtrump and @EPAScottPruitt (formerly @scottpruittOK) with very short quotes in succession from the EPA website. A tweet-sized documentation of climate truth from the EPA. It's micro, it's certainly not the most impactful thing I've done as part of my resistance...but it helps me sleep at night. Literally because I know that every 10-15 minutes my prescheduled tweets are being sent out around the clock. In essence my Twitter handle continues resisting while I catch some R&R.
After the jump is how I did this so that you can do it too if interested. There's a free way to schedule tweets in which you would write your own (more time-consuming, but opportunity to focus on what matters most to you). If you want to do the bulk uploader of my climate tweets, I've made that available too (HUGE time-saver!)
Whether you personally work on taking back Twitter for the resistance or not, just make sure you keep resisting. Our climate is already showing no mercy when it comes to the emissions we've done to date, so show no mercy for those who deny the science. #nocompromise #neversurrender #nevergiveupthefight
(more after the jump)
After the jump is how I did this so that you can do it too if interested. There's a free way to schedule tweets in which you would write your own (more time-consuming, but opportunity to focus on what matters most to you). If you want to do the bulk uploader of my climate tweets, I've made that available too (HUGE time-saver!)
Whether you personally work on taking back Twitter for the resistance or not, just make sure you keep resisting. Our climate is already showing no mercy when it comes to the emissions we've done to date, so show no mercy for those who deny the science. #nocompromise #neversurrender #nevergiveupthefight
(more after the jump)
So first things first you need a Twitter account (here's looking at you Kristina & Ellen...I hope you ladies got one to follow the Alt accounts!)
Second, you'll want to create an account at Hootsuite and link it to your twitter account. All it needs is for you to log-in with your Twitter password through the platform. I discovered Hootsuite while working in my previous worklife at a movie studio as what the social media team used (they may have evolved in the years since, but it's a great solution to meet our needs!) Hootsuite's main benefit IMO is that it lets you schedule tweets in advance so you can "set it and forget it." There are other ways to schedule tweets (see article here for more info), but note that my climate tweets are in the template/format for Hootsuite so you might have to do extra work on another scheduler. I use the paid version in order to bulk upload my climate tweets, but first I'll start with how to do this for free.
SCHEDULE TWEETS FOR FREE
Before 11/9, this is how I used to schedule tweets. On your Hootsuite dashboard, there's a box at the very top that looks like a small row with "compose message" gray/italicized words. See red arrow in photo below. When your mouse hovers over it or clicks in it, the box will expand. This is where you type your message and then the calendar icon is where you can schedule it to run at a certain date and time. It's pretty straightforward which is why I'm a fan. A few helpful hints:
Second, you'll want to create an account at Hootsuite and link it to your twitter account. All it needs is for you to log-in with your Twitter password through the platform. I discovered Hootsuite while working in my previous worklife at a movie studio as what the social media team used (they may have evolved in the years since, but it's a great solution to meet our needs!) Hootsuite's main benefit IMO is that it lets you schedule tweets in advance so you can "set it and forget it." There are other ways to schedule tweets (see article here for more info), but note that my climate tweets are in the template/format for Hootsuite so you might have to do extra work on another scheduler. I use the paid version in order to bulk upload my climate tweets, but first I'll start with how to do this for free.
SCHEDULE TWEETS FOR FREE
Before 11/9, this is how I used to schedule tweets. On your Hootsuite dashboard, there's a box at the very top that looks like a small row with "compose message" gray/italicized words. See red arrow in photo below. When your mouse hovers over it or clicks in it, the box will expand. This is where you type your message and then the calendar icon is where you can schedule it to run at a certain date and time. It's pretty straightforward which is why I'm a fan. A few helpful hints:
- There's a counter at the bottom for your 140 character limit and its enforced (which makes sure it posts!)
- Try to use hashtags for the issue you are posting about. All of mine use #climatechange
- Link to @realdonaldtrump and in the case of climate, @EPAScottPruitt. It eats into your 140 character count, but the whole point of this is to be a troll for your cause! In the "compose message" box, once you type an "@" symbol it will start looking up the person, so you can click and make sure you get the correct account. The blue checkmark means that account is verified.
- Scheduling is actually really easy with the calendar icon. It drops down to show date and the time.
- *Make sure to click the black "Schedule" button at the bottom right of the pop-up box when finished* You can check that it's scheduled because it will show up in the "Scheduled" stream on your dashboard.
- ....and if these hints aren't enough, Hootsuite has a great FAQ here.
HOW TO BULK UPLOAD MY CLIMATE TWEETS
Hootsuite has bulk uploader functionality which is a paid service. I think you can get 30 days for free to try it out before committing. It's pretty much the only way to tweet at the frequency I do without spending obscene amounts of time....and part of the reason why I tweet this much is because it's made this easy! See how that works out? :)
I won't go through all of the "how to's" because thankfully Hootsuite has a really comprehensive blog with a Youtube video also pasted below that takes you through how to bulk schedule messages, including the template if you want to download a blank .csv type file (can be created in Excel or Google Spreadsheets) and not use the tweets I authored with links further below.
Note: A word of caution if you go your own way though to compose bulk tweets...you cannot bulk upload duplicate messages and the tool troubleshoots if you are over 140 characters or have more than 350 tweets. So I've spent a lot of time not just copy/pasting these tweets but also making sure my Google spreadsheets have no duplicates or errors (or minimal errors) to troubleshoot. Basically if you use mine, your time savings is massive.
Hootsuite has bulk uploader functionality which is a paid service. I think you can get 30 days for free to try it out before committing. It's pretty much the only way to tweet at the frequency I do without spending obscene amounts of time....and part of the reason why I tweet this much is because it's made this easy! See how that works out? :)
I won't go through all of the "how to's" because thankfully Hootsuite has a really comprehensive blog with a Youtube video also pasted below that takes you through how to bulk schedule messages, including the template if you want to download a blank .csv type file (can be created in Excel or Google Spreadsheets) and not use the tweets I authored with links further below.
Note: A word of caution if you go your own way though to compose bulk tweets...you cannot bulk upload duplicate messages and the tool troubleshoots if you are over 140 characters or have more than 350 tweets. So I've spent a lot of time not just copy/pasting these tweets but also making sure my Google spreadsheets have no duplicates or errors (or minimal errors) to troubleshoot. Basically if you use mine, your time savings is massive.
So once you've got your Hootsuite Bulk Upload functionality all figured out, all you have to do is open up the Google spreadsheet below. I can edit these files (obvi), but to preserve all my hard work I've only allowed you to view. But in these links you can download the file locally as a *.csv (or probably save it as a Google spreadsheet on your side) and then do the editing.
Step 1) make sure the date and time formatted in the first column is updated for future. The formula is pretty straightforward. I always leave 15-20 minutes before the first tweet to make sure I can upload it into Hootsuite with a time buffer before the first tweet goes out. Since you can only upload 350 max at a time, the files of mine with that many tweets will last about 3-3.5 days if you tweet at 15 minute intervals.
Step 2) save the file locally as a *.csv format, and then follow the steps from Hootsuite on how to bulk schedule messages.
Step 3) set a reminder for when your last tweet goes so that you bulk upload the next set. Since you can only have 350 scheduled at a time, you have to do this periodically.
That's it friends! Hope this was interesting and helpful on your journey to resistance. If you use these tweets, please let me know and tweet @enviroish with a note.
Here are my Google spreadsheets with the formatted climate tweets:
(1) EPA Climate Site in Tweets - what is & EPA is doing [78 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17dhObjWsKWglmlAuDMM7_H00jm8_4LPQTX5wH-Wq-uo/edit?usp=sharing
(2) EPA Climate Site Tweets - Sources [256 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xftwtjtAoJjpcjija_1Q0kfHvZEAU8zx28u3vqHVzzI/edit?usp=sharing
(3) EPA Climate Site Tweets - 2015 Report [~300 Tweets, work in progress at time of posting this blog]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1madFdxx3T7yUqtVG8i2nDhnH5bSPQuU0hUzCmuw_cKA/edit?usp=sharing
(4) EPA Climate Site Tweets - What you can do Home & Office [170 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Okz7YsWuIVUE3FcuOTe-i9YPCR-tVMejwDCk_wqxBC8/edit?usp=sharing
(5) EPA Climate Site Tweets - what-you-can-do-road [349 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y8f0Yr6LwKcFpKp1_1o0AK_mwlLKmPXGlncW6Q5Ti6M/edit?usp=sharing
(6) EPA Climate Site Tweets - CO2 and Methane and NO [318 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N9LtCq9F0s3DAuQuesHHRWWm8Umpu65EAtfmW0CsXVU/edit?usp=sharing
(7) EPA Climate Site Tweets - Flourinated Gases [172 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Se8wEyBOxLj_bqJvQgIhD5VT0GE3OPPYwtN2UmNpnPA/edit?usp=sharing
(7.5) EPA Climate Tweets Flourinated Gases [90 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kd66t_u_BSC3BkGic55X8X6lnKEa_XxkedKWCvS35gc/edit?usp=sharing
Step 1) make sure the date and time formatted in the first column is updated for future. The formula is pretty straightforward. I always leave 15-20 minutes before the first tweet to make sure I can upload it into Hootsuite with a time buffer before the first tweet goes out. Since you can only upload 350 max at a time, the files of mine with that many tweets will last about 3-3.5 days if you tweet at 15 minute intervals.
Step 2) save the file locally as a *.csv format, and then follow the steps from Hootsuite on how to bulk schedule messages.
Step 3) set a reminder for when your last tweet goes so that you bulk upload the next set. Since you can only have 350 scheduled at a time, you have to do this periodically.
That's it friends! Hope this was interesting and helpful on your journey to resistance. If you use these tweets, please let me know and tweet @enviroish with a note.
Here are my Google spreadsheets with the formatted climate tweets:
(1) EPA Climate Site in Tweets - what is & EPA is doing [78 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17dhObjWsKWglmlAuDMM7_H00jm8_4LPQTX5wH-Wq-uo/edit?usp=sharing
(2) EPA Climate Site Tweets - Sources [256 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xftwtjtAoJjpcjija_1Q0kfHvZEAU8zx28u3vqHVzzI/edit?usp=sharing
(3) EPA Climate Site Tweets - 2015 Report [~300 Tweets, work in progress at time of posting this blog]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1madFdxx3T7yUqtVG8i2nDhnH5bSPQuU0hUzCmuw_cKA/edit?usp=sharing
(4) EPA Climate Site Tweets - What you can do Home & Office [170 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Okz7YsWuIVUE3FcuOTe-i9YPCR-tVMejwDCk_wqxBC8/edit?usp=sharing
(5) EPA Climate Site Tweets - what-you-can-do-road [349 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y8f0Yr6LwKcFpKp1_1o0AK_mwlLKmPXGlncW6Q5Ti6M/edit?usp=sharing
(6) EPA Climate Site Tweets - CO2 and Methane and NO [318 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1N9LtCq9F0s3DAuQuesHHRWWm8Umpu65EAtfmW0CsXVU/edit?usp=sharing
(7) EPA Climate Site Tweets - Flourinated Gases [172 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Se8wEyBOxLj_bqJvQgIhD5VT0GE3OPPYwtN2UmNpnPA/edit?usp=sharing
(7.5) EPA Climate Tweets Flourinated Gases [90 Tweets]
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Kd66t_u_BSC3BkGic55X8X6lnKEa_XxkedKWCvS35gc/edit?usp=sharing
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