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Fixing One Facebook Problem Serious for Activists; How Facebook Groups Can Increase Readership of OpEdNews Articles

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I have learned so much over the past ten years posting several hundred articles here, which I would like to distill for you in the course of a 3 part article, starting with the thing that troubles me the most at the moment, a serious problem on Facebook for any and all activists of any kind, called Facebook Jail. I am at the moment in Facebook Jail for about five more days, unable to post anything to any groups. However, many of those who were active in many Bernie Sanders related efforts see Facebook Jail as a kind of Merit Badge for Good Deeds.

By this point with you and OpEdNews, you must realize how incredibly unique this alternative news venue truly is!

If you write an article for OEN, it is worth advancing your efforts to more than a few hundred readers. This is quite easy to achieve by simply joining a lot of Facebook groups and then sharing your article to them, either directly by pasting the URL into the group page, or by using the Facebook sharing button at the top of article. This also applies of course to Twitter, Reddit, Fark, etc., but I prefer Facebook, because you know how many like minded people you reaching out to.

If you write a letter to the editor of 150 words or less, maybe within a week or ten days, they will perhaps publish it, and then it may no longer be topical. Maybe you might get 650 words in an OpEd twice a year, and then only locals will read it, with many dismissing it as just another opinion, which are like noses: everyone has one.

Sharing it to groups creates an immediate feedback and dialogue, which is important, unless you are just content to keep your ideas in a hermetically sealed vacuum. My articles have now reach one million viewers, and Facebook group posting has been an essential part of that effort, especially the one article I did that had the first video clips of the violence in North Dakota at the Pipeline. Almost 200,000 people looked at that.

Another big one for me was one I did a long time ago on the dangers caused by a birth control device made by Mirena, like horrible mood swings, uterine perforations, etc.

I know that the article I did on Dasani Water having a deadly chemical called potassium chloride had a huge readership, but sadly, Coca Cola never took out the chemical, and Mirena is still on the market largely because several New York Judges in the Federal Appeal Court dismissed all of the huge number of class action suits against the manufacturers of the birth control device.

But thanks to Facebook Groups and to OEN, many thousands of people have learned the truth, and can avoid these products as consumers.

All political activists using Facebook comprehend completely what an excellent and beneficial tool this form of social media truly has become. When individuals can publish their favorite articles by others or by themselves, how much truer all of that rings than the corporate mainstream media, which has its own axe to grind, and generally avoids getting too controversial or getting out of line with their advertisers.

Mark Zuckerberg's lofty intentions and higher pronouncements about bringing the world closer together are really at odds in toto with what is happens when you post something too many times in groups, but Facebook never clearly identifies how many times is too many, or over what period of time, or in how many groups.

I have written so many times about this to the Facebook executives, but never received one answer. I am Facebook jail right now because after the victory by Doug Jones was announced last night, I posted one single solitary link to BuzzFeed, whose coverage of the Alabama Senate race I found to vastly superior to the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and others. Instantly, like as fast as the speed of light and electrons would permit, I received a notice that I was restricted from posting to all groups for one week. It was almost like a trap, but one that no one could prepare for.

This is, I think, the 20th time I have been in Facebook Jail over the past eighteen months, and when that happens, I am disallowed to post a kind word or a single article or a concurring encouragement in any group, even the one that I started, Bernie Sanders: Advice and Strategies to Win, nor any of the other four for which I am the sole administrator.

Facebook has been marvelous in making very valuable new friends and for finding kindred spirits. I have even found a few art buyers that resulted from my art page, Santa Fe Ledger Art and Pueblo Painting.

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Early in the 2016 Primary campaign, I started a Facebook group: Bernie Sanders: Advice and Strategies to Help Him Win! As the primary season advanced, we shifted the focus to advancing Bernie's legislation in the Senate, particularly the (more...)
 

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