Please join us for a Virtual Vigil on Twitter and Facebook on September 11th from 9am EDT through the rest of the day, to let the world know how 9/11 affected you and how you plan to commemorate the day in a way that fosters understanding, diversity and service in your communities. This anniversary can be an occasion to recall the ways in which our city and country experienced numerous expressions of unity, empathy and a renewed faith in each other as many of us joined together in the days, months and years following the tragedy. Please join our virtual rally on Twitter and Facebook to let us show the world this side!
Note: In the social media world, there is always a risk that you will get the attention of folks who want to disrupt your activities by posting irrelevant, provocative or just plain hateful speech, sometimes called “trolls”. Though we hope that the nature of this topic this will discourage this, we should be prepared for it. On Facebook, do make sure to have someone monitoring your organization’s the page for these kinds of posts or comments, so that you can delete them. On Twitter, you cannot delete someone else’s tweets; however it is very important that you don’t get involved in a back and forth with someone who is provoking us. This virtual vigil is about peace, empathy, community service and understanding—it is not the time for political debates. There is a saying in some internet communities, “Don’t feed the trolls”. This basically means, don’t add fuel to the fire, and if you ignore them they will likely get bored and go away.
See detailed instruction below:
The Twitter Virtual Vigil: Tell us how 9/11 impacted you and how you plan to foster understanding, diversity and service in your communities by posting a message on twitter using the hashtag #911virtualvigil. In addition to your hashtag we are asking you to tweet NY Neighbors for American Values by typing in @NyNeighbors. To reflect how 911 impacted people across the country we are asking people to post their zip codes after their post!
- Use the hashtag #911virtualvigil for all of your 9/11-related tweets
- Mention @NYNeighbors in your tweet
Some sample tweets would look like:
@nyneighbors “Our diversity is our strength. Sarah, #11217”
@nyneighbors “After 911 NYers came together in unity. David, #11222 #911virtualvigil”
@nyneighbors “Nebraska joins NY in saying we will never forget. I plan to help my neighbor today. Joan, 10034 #911virtualvigil”
Facebook Virtual Vigil: On Facebook change your default picture to the New York Neighbors for American Values logo for a few hours to reflect the values of religious freedom, diversity, and equality. You can download the logo from our Facebook page. Tag New York Neighbors for American Values in your status updates to let us know what you will be doing to commemorate 911 or simply post on our Facebook wall.
How to tag New York Neighbors in your Facebook Status:
Step 1: Log Into Facebook, (make sure you “Like” New York Neighbors facebook page).
Step 2: Type @New York Neighbors into your status. (Be sure not to put a space between @ and N)
Step 3: When the New York Neighbors Page appears below your status hit the down arrow so that it’s highlighted in blue. Hit enter.
Step 4: Add your message.
Step 5: Click “Share”!
