A Micro-Influencer’s Guide to Being on the Right Side of History

How will you redistribute your attention capital? You have a platform— ask yourself, what is it for? You have a voice—ask yourself, where do you need to sharpen it?

In the Age of Self-Branding, nearly everyone is a “micro-influencer”. And with influence, of any kind, comes responsibility. 

This letter is directed primarily towards people who have invested in the clout economy–with the understanding that socio-digital capital is volatile, and that posting is neither the only way of being socially engaged nor necessarily the most effective. That being said, and taking into consideration the explicit asks directly from Palestinians that we in the West continue to vocalize our support online:

If you care, if you are invested in the liberation and wellbeing of all people–which, it must be emphasized, many people grew their platforms in 2020 through proclaiming–then you bear a responsibility to wield your digital currency intentionally. 

There is virtue signaling, and there is strategy. Now is a time for strategy. 

When it comes time to promote our newest projects, this strategy comes naturally. The thinking around how and when and what to post. What does it look like to apply that same digital strategy in support of people other than yourself? What does it look like to divest from the individualism that Instagram so shamelessly rewards us for?

Treat your page as the site of influence that it is, and ask yourself—

How can you hack Instagram’s features and algorithmic roadblocks to most meaningfully contribute to this moment of decolonial struggle?

How do you understand your audience? What information do they already have, and what information might they need more exposure to?

How do you aim to influence the people who engage with your platform? To seek out information of their own? To participate in direct action? 

One thing is for certain–silence is a stance of its own. 

Which is not to say that actions must be proclaimed online to be legitimate–many of us are not posting, but are reading and grieving and praying and marching and all of that is legitimate–but it is to say that in our most private of moments, now and in the decades to come, we will know whether we played our part as thoroughly as we know ourselves to be capable of.  

I challenge anyone reading this to invest time and attention towards thinking about the most strategic way to distribute information via their platforms–not solely via stories, which are designed to disappear in 24 hours, but on the actual feed. 

A few ideas for people who might be struggling to figure out what to post on ‘main’:

101: Share a flyer for a protest near you. Seek out calls to action that are being shared by Palestinian organizers, and repost them on your page. 

201: Find a film, book, article or video that explores the history of Palestine (the Nakba of 1948 is a good starting point), or the history of Zionism (which, as a settler colonial movement began in 1897 – over 40 years before the Holocaust), or histories of transnational & interfaith solidarity within global freedom movements (for example Jewish participation in the Civil Rights Movement).

Watch/read it, take notes, and strategize around how to best share what you’ve learned.

301: Respond to the following prompt: When my great grandchildren look back on the mass archive of the internet 7 decades from now, this is what I want them to know I was feeling, questioning, and sitting with during the Gaza Genocide: _____________.

Share what comes up for you, in the medium that you find the most expression in–be that poetry, prose, imagery or song. 

Clumsiness is inevitable. 

It can and will and should be uncomfortable to embark on the challenge of divesting from your own digital or professional persona. 

The internet is flawed, social media is flawed, but nothing can be transformed without effort. They call it an information war for a reason.

With Love and In Solidarity,

Neema