I noted today that WUWT just passed 6000 followers on Twitter, and 15,000 followers of the blog by email. About the same time, WUWT reached 5000 likes on Facebook. A few years ago, I never much thought social media was worth much, but seeing how Michael Mann and Bill McKibben have been using it to their advantage, my view on the importance of it has changed.
For them, social networking is glue for the cause, it keeps their base in line and comforted with missives they want to hear. A good example is this recent tweet from Bill McKibben to a follower due to this WUWT story where I call out McKibben for some nonfactual regurgitation, and mention the reaction of one his followers who is too mentally cocooned to look for herself. She gets comforting words from the leader of 350.org:
Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that you can waste a lot of time on Facebook and Twitter, but they have their value. The value for skeptics has been underutilized in the past, and I aim to change that in 2013.
Here is what you can do to help get the word out this year.
1. If you don’t have a Twitter account or Facebook account yet, get one. They are free, and you can turn them off at any time if you just get tired of them.
Signup: https://twitter.com/ facebook.com
2. Follow some of the biggest climate mouthpieces on both Twitter and Facebook, such as Bill McKibben and Michael E. Mann. Here are the links:
McKibben on Twitter: https://twitter.com/billmckibben
McKIbben on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bill-McKibben/116439015075458
Mann on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelEMann
Mann on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelMannScientist
From these, you’ll pretty much get the entire spectrum of people in the ClimateMedia Complex they run with, making it easier to find and follow others.
3. You can optionally follow WUWT on Twitter and also on Facebook
Some others to follow are RyanMaue, Marc Morano, and Andrew Revkin. Again you can pretty much get the entire spectrum of followers from their accounts.
4. When you see climate alarmism in action, Tweet or Facebook post something to counter it, or simply ask a question asking how such claims can be supported. Be polite, don’t start a flame war.
5. Watch Mike Mann immediately ban you, like this reader discovered:
From: alice
Sent: Tue Jan 01 11:18:37 EST 2013
To: morano
Subject: Michael Mann
Just had the weirdest thing happen.
I posted a very mild comment on Michael Mann”s FB page regarding his criticism of an article by Gil Spencer.
I merely pointed out that Spencer is saying that the Supreme Court upheld the right of people to criticize public figures.
I came back to edit the comment and I saw that I am blocked from his page.
He only wants people who agree with him to post.
Now there”s a true scientist for you.
Happy new year, Alice
Save those screencaps, rinse and repeat.
6. Learn how to use hashtags to your advantage
As Andrew Revkin recently observed, “blogs are important”, but so is social media, and skeptics have not taken advantage of this arena that much.
There’s no better time than the present #armyofdavids.
Hmm – Anthony, it must be an iPhone (what I typically use) thing vs the larger platform that I am using now. iPhone doesn’t display the “share” option for the page whereas using the laptop does. Odd. However, I am correct that the last status posted was Nov. 10:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/wattsupwiththat/133662869999306?fref=ts
I would much rather see WUWT on Google+ as I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account.
Same with me… last item on Facebook page is Nov 10, and that was linking directly from the FB link on THIS page.
This seems as good a time as any. I’ve just started a climate related blog. The first article (the first of 2 or 3 parts) is about the Mann vs. Steyn defamation case and what Mann has been up to on his Facebook account. I had written it to submit to WUWT but Anthony has stated that he doesn’t want to quote the offending text here. Which I totally understand. But it is impossible to write anything in-depth about the case without quoting it.
Anyway, this is the link for anybody that is interested.
QTCV http://qtcv.wordpress.com/
If you raise enough hackles, your accounts will be banned as well. Facebook and Twitter are not equal opportunity sites. They have their own agenda, and the people that are going to get their information from it are exactly like your example:
“I like peace, you know”. Forgetting the blood shed to get to that point.
As Calvera (Eli Wallach) said ” If God didn’t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.”
philjourdan says: January 2, 2013 at 11:29 am
If you raise enough hackles, your accounts will be banned as well. Facebook and Twitter are not equal opportunity sites. They have their own agenda, and the people that are going to get their information from it are exactly like your example:
“I like peace, you know”. Forgetting the blood shed to get to that point.
As Calvera (Eli Wallach) said ” If God didn’t want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep.”
================================
He wants them sheared, most definitely. So let’s be goats.
My biggest concern about Facebook and especially Twitter is that it tends to dumb down any debate to bite sized chunks. Yes, it’s great for keeping people informed so long as the information is minimal. And, yes, you can reach a lot of people but what kind of audience does it consist of? People with an attention span of two or three lines of text at a time. [And, yes I do appreciate the irony of what I just said in two or three lines of text.]
Who in there right mind would want to sign up and follow Mann and McKibben and his ilk on FB or anywhere? One look at the drippy infantile exchange between McKibben and Andrea whats her face tells me all i need to know. If others want to fight them. Good. You do a stirling job keeping your cool dealing with the mentalist made-up rent seeking drivel that they spew ALL the time. Im not interested in gadgets and (un)social media, it bores me. Just as well the good fight is not left to me. Keep up the good work
I don’t know about Facebook or Twitter…
Seems they both get used mostly for mundane, stupid things.
One of my favorite cartoons for Facebook and Twitter;
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r260/cam_shaft/?action=view¤t=thefuture.jpg
Cannot get the hashtags link to work
Ulrik says:
January 2, 2013 at 10:09 am
Ok, sorry my phone translated half that post to Danish 🙂
Lol. I relate easily to that! I guess all people who dont have English as their device’s language do. I regularly fight my tablet.
Great idea Anthony and I’m sure that many regular readers will embrace the social media as an alternative way to get the message across. At the very least Michael Mann will be too busy blocking people that he won’t have time to do any more of that particularly bad science he has been previously won’t to do.
Cam_S says:
January 2, 2013 at 11:55 am
I don’t know about Facebook or Twitter…
Seems they both get used mostly for mundane, stupid things.
That was my opinion back then. Then I reminded myself that the use of a thing is what I do with it.
I just followed the link to Mann’s FB page and will follow for a while. But when you read the nastiness of the commenters one feels a little unclean. Those who follow the AGW creed have a different tone to the comments you read on this site or others like Jo Nova. I think it is why people like me feel hesitant to take on these guys directly as it gets personal, nasty and downright ugly very quickly – really it is sinister.
“1. If you don’t have a Twitter account or Facebook account yet, get one. They are free, and you can turn them off at any time if you just get tired of them.”
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I don’t have either but I was on Facebook briefly. I don’t know how twitter works and maybe facebook has changed since then but if you do get a facebook account and then drop it, your “friends” will not be told you have cancelled your account. They’ll be told you dropped them as “friends”. I’d suggest putting up a notice a week or so before telling them you plan to cancell to avoid misunderstandings.
I went to Mann’s facebook and twitter accounts and can’t imagine getting up every morning to the dreck and hyperbole that he spews. It would mess up my day from the word go. You are a stronger man than I, Anthony.
David Ross Says:
Contrary to your perception, I actually find that the links to information outside of Twitter and Facebook are the valuable resources. As I mentioned previously, I can give people a quick jibe and then a link to a full article or web-page. Whether they travel through or not is anybody’s guess but I routinely follow the links from my twitter pals and often come across some real gems.
It may be a premature assumption that, what Twits around McGibbon and Mann do, have any resonance in the real world.
What little of the twit-world I have scanned , brings mutual admiration society to mind.
I find these so nauseating that I do not think contrary comment necessary.
When the Mann is making an ass of himself, why would I interfere?
If a published pro-AGW researcher or apologist was truly interested in discussing or debating the multiple facets of climate change, then I’d add them to my Twitter and Facebook (not that I often use either). But after my posting credentials were pulled at two, pro-AGW web sites for linking to alternative, peer-reviewed papers, I understand AND (more importantly) accept that such a person is neither a dedicated practitioner of the scientific method nor an honest proponent of reviewing all the available data. Instead, they have seemingly embraced a subjective belief system, which acknowledges a revealed truth (i.e., faith) rather than an objective truth (i.e., reason).
A number of prominent people have staked their professional reputations, careers, livelihoods, and (reportedly) lives on (1) the notion that catastrophic climate change is occurring and (2) humanity is responsible. A person cannot back away from such an entrenched position without having a serious and possibly damaging break with reality. Debating them via any medium is likely to be frustrating and ultimately pointless.
I hate to rain on your parade, but far and away the most interesting thing about WUWT is the kind of lengthy analysis that won’t come close to fitting in 140 characters. I’m a lot more interested in the stuff that set Ms. Angulo off than I am in witty comments to her.
Had my own Twitter page since 2010 but barely knew how to use it more effectively until recently. Set up my new FB page relating to it just a few weeks ago and now I have over 70 Friends, many who are the ‘celebrities’ of the skeptic side:
https://twitter.com/questionagw
https://www.facebook.com/russell.cook.7334
I agree that twitter is worthwhile.
Other people to follow include
Roger pielke jr
bishop hill @adissentient
tamsin edwards @flimsin
lucia
and of course paul matthews @etzpcm
Although I have a FB account (mostly so that I can friend my kids) I never use it. Despite this it is disturbingly accurate in terms of its knowledge of my social network. The amount of information this company holds on ordinary people makes big brother look like a complete ignorant wimp. The world seems to be trending towards corporate dictatorship and whereas governments have run very inefficient dictatorships, corporations seem to be frighteningly efficient at it.
Gene Doebley said (January 2, 2013 at 9:29 am)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Watts-Up-With-That/110272895662047?fref=ts&__req=d&rf=133172440046388#
Are there two WUWT? This one has only 317 likes.
REPLY: It appears that one is a doppelganger – Anthony…”
Apparently, it’s a re-direct from wiki. Maybe you need to go there and set the correct re-direct location.
Alan Clark wrote:
Point taken. I agree social media functions best as lists of links to other places where more information and better discussion can be found. But I am still resistant to using them. I do not trust Facebook in light of their past behaviour regarding privacy and other issues.
But as Anthony points out, you cannot ignore them if you want to participate in a battle for public opinion.