6 Ways to You Can Help Ensure the Success of Kony 2012

By now many of you probably have already heard of Joseph Kony. If not, here’s a quick synopsis.

Joseph Kony is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader and the head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). He is also considered by the International Criminal Court to be the world’s worst war criminal.

It is estimated that the LRA has abducted, mutilated or enslaved over 66,000 children—turning boys into child soldiers and girls into sex slaves. In 2005, Kony was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, yet to most people in the world he is unknown.

A small organization called Invisible Children has been working for 9 years to end Africa’s longest-running armed conflict. Their goal is to make the crimes of Joseph Kony visible to everyone in the world so that he will be brought to justice.

In other words, they want to make him famous—not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

Right now the Internet is on fire with #KONY2012. In 24 hours, the cause has been catapulted out of obscurity to center stage on the social Web and is now making its way into mainstream media.  But the Web is fickle and once the news wears off there is a good likelihood the buzz and activism will wind down too. For the Kony 2012 campaign to work, we need to keep the issue alive after this initial burst of activity until Joseph Kony is caught.

The Duffy Agency is pledging our support to do just that.

We believe all of us can use our influence, social media networks and personal relationships to help with this cause. We’ve listed some of things that The Duffy Agency has pledged to help support this cause and thought it might give you some ideas about how you could help as well.

• Set a goal to drive people to the Invisible Children Web site on a weekly basis (The Duffy Agency’s goal is at least 200 people a week)
• Once a day, tweet using #Kony2012 until Kony is brought to Justice
• Add “Make Joseph Kony Famous” to your email signatures with a link to the Invisible Children Web site
• Place visible icons and badges on all your digital properties that direct people to the Invisible Children Web site (The Duffy Agency will be updating their Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn pages, as well as our Web site and other online assets)
• Involve your business networks to help spread the word. (We will be spreading the word to all our TAAN members as well as other organizations.)
• Create an event (e.g., a Tweetup) to create awareness and raise donations for Invisible Children. (The Duffy Agency will be helping create events in both the US and Sweden.)

Of course if you have any other ideas, please share them in our comments sections. Let’s continue to use social media as a force for change and a brighter future for the children and people of Africa.

How You Can Help Now

1. Join TRI or Donate to Invisible Children
2. Purchase KONY 2012 products
3. Sign the Pledge

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.