In Digital Campaigns for Social Change facilitated by Monica Cadena, you’ll discover how to use digital storytelling, data analytics and content marketing to reclaim your voice and amplify your message through viral campaigns.

During this 90 minute session, you’ll learn the strategies Monica's used to create articles that went received 700,000 views in less than 24 hours, viral campaigns that were featured in major publications such as Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Vogue and People Magazine, how she's used strategic content marketing and data analytics to create viral content on limited to no budgets within a short timeframe, and how she got the attention of major funders to back the causes that matter most importantly to her.

Monica Cadena, Co-Founder Monica (she/her) is an Afro-Latinx California based artist, writer, yogi, movement worker and digital alchemist. Outside of her work as a writer and Audience Engagement and Development magager for Yoga Journal, Monica Cadena is an Afro-Latinx California based artist, writer, yogi, movement worker, digital alchemist, and the co-founder of Black Healers Connect, a digital and in person community for healers of the diaspora. She’s the co-creator of the podcast Healing for the Culture, alongside Heather Archer, and is the former co-founder of Wear Your Voice Magazine, an intersectional feminist digital publication with recent investment by serial investor Mark Cuban. The social media and marketing director at Off the Mat Into the World, Monica’s passionate about highlighting stories from those at the intersections of healing and social justice activism. Connect with her on Instagram at sacred.alchemist.

"We are being called to connect with the hearts of others to literally bring about the healing of the planet. There is no higher calling, and I hope this music helps people know that they are not alone in the effort. Each person’s role makes a difference, and we will create billions of small victories that all add up together. This record is really 17 songs from my heart. Some are songs about the world. Some are songs that are about what’s going on inside me. Some songs are just fun to dance to, and some are songs to hold your sweetheart in your arms and just be together. I hope this music helps you to find a little bit of what you need every time you dive in." - Michael Franti ​

​We Can Do This Podcast is Kiss The Ground’s weekly conversation about how we can participate in the healing of our Earth and ourselves as we are one and the same. Hosted by Kiss the Ground Co-Founder and Executive Director, Ryland Engelhart and members of the Kiss the Ground Team. 

Building off of the success of his "Stay At Home" Instagram series, Michael Franti announces his official Stay At Home World Tour. The first virtual concert will be held on June 19th is on the release date of our new album, Work Hard & Be Nice, and I’ll be playing lots of songs from the album. The second show on July 18th will be Live From Soulshine Bali with songs themed to the vibes that have got us through our quarantine time out here on the island of the Gods. The third show on August 15th is going to be our Soulrocker House Party. All shows will start at 6pm PT / 9pm ET & will be available for 24 hrs on demand for those that can’t join live! ​

The time is now to shift our mindset and our spending in support of building thriving local food systems. Kiss the Ground has teamed up with White Buffalo Land Trust to create a list of CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture), restaurants, Co-ops and Farmers Markets throughout California so our community members can purchase meals or weekly, fresh ingredients for themselves and their families. They are collectively updating this list daily with the most current information (who’s open, who’s delivering, etc.) and they also invite you to send us additional suggestions for your region. 

Sending deep appreciation to all of the farmers, chefs, restaurant and delivery staff for not only sustaining our communities but nourishing its members from the ground up at a time we need it most.

By Traci Wallace

By Emily Marquis

As conscious marketers, we haven’t forgotten the growing body of published research showing the negative side effects of social media on our minds and souls, particularly pertaining to social comparison, cyberbullying, reduced attention span and ultimately increased levels of anxiety and depression among its users. ​

Instagram’s leaders couldn’t ignore the statistics either. With CEO Adam Mosseri’s announcement, Instagram is slowly rolling out a “no like” platform in an effort to remove social comparison, and thus promote better relationships and increased health, we’re forced to examine just how detrimental hundreds of ‘double taps’ a day actually is. We’re excited to see the company’s initial attempt to deepen digital connections. Some celebrities and influencers are not, particularly those who earn their living from posts. 

Instagram is slowly rolling out a “no like” platform in an effort to remove social comparison, and thus promote better relationships and increased health, and we’re forced to examine just how detrimental hundreds of ‘double taps’ a day actually is.

The sudden shift to change, both voluntary and involuntary, by large social platforms, begets the question: When determining terms of business success at the get-go, are we taking into account all the stakeholders’ best interests? If we’re aligning our business with conscious capitalism principles, hypothetically, yes. And, even with the best intentions, could the first platforms have predicted the negative effects of social networking on individual and societal health? 

This act could be the first of a long line of newly defined successes in the social media landscape. And it’s led by demands from the Millennials (hold for applause). Ironically, according to Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd in The 2020 Workplace, the very generation who bypassed the patience and understanding gained from learning a manual transmission, is also the first generation since the 1960’s to start consciously viewing work as a key part of life, not a separate activity that needs to be balanced by play. My generation wants to work to afford the opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills, and connect to larger groups, not just fill the bank account. Perhaps in our endless exposure to instant gratification, we’ve learned instant isn’t gratifying at all, and now we crave experiences and in-person connection more than ever. 

So we wait and ponder. Will removing ego from online platforms realistically lead to deeper connection and authentic forms of social sharing and expression? Or will removing likes be equivocal to losing our digital wolf pack of leaders and followers, leading to a loss of identity entirely and the demise of the app? While we await systemic change to remedy our discontent, I'll be focusing on my own power as an individual to consciously use social networks, bringing my double tap offscreen to my living, breathing communities. 

Over the past several years I have been a writer, blogger, social marketing strategist and social media manager and everything in between when it comes to digital media. During that time, I have managed over 75 social media networks (including my own), clicking from one page to the next, finding enlightening clever things to write all-day every day and constantly checking performance, engagement... are we liked? Which even for the most confident, can quickly turn into, am I liked?

Growing online communities from 5000 to over 30,000 in a few short months, I even developed a Facebook following of over 20,000 people for my own personal blog, constantly chasing this fleeting sense of belonging and approval.

Attached to my cell phone and computer like a baby's blanket, seeking comfort in the form of "likes."

The companies that I work with are all conscious businesses and/or nonprofit organizations, all offering products, services or events that brought something extremely positive to the world. The things I personally wrote about were about how to create and live a healthy life. My clicking motivation was heightened at the thought that with each new like, our networks were growing and somehow one step closer to changing the world, even in a small way. 

I have come to learn, good intentions without mindfulness can quickly lead to the social media dark side.

I would sometimes catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror after a "clicking session" only to see a frazzled, crazy haired, fuzzy eyed mess. I would walk away from the computer, and immediately start clicking on my phone, right back into the ridiculous social media hamster wheel of intermittent reinforcement that we all are trying to "win."

As a regular practicing yogi, psychology major and someone who was literally posting the very messages intended to snap people into a heightened perspective or higher vibration each day, it's not like I didn't have the knowledge of what was happening. The conditioning gods of social media had officially infiltrated my brain.  Clicking, clicking and more clicking. I was in it and my self-worth started to be in the hands of random strangers liking my posts at 11am on a Tuesday.

How could this be happening to me?  I work with yoga and wellness companies, promoting healthy living through articles, social media, workshops and consulting advice. I promoted good health, mindfulness and the practice of yoga and meditation to tens of thousands of people on a daily basis. However, somehow, my tight shoulders up to my ears, stress levels, weird breathing patterns and frazzled mind would suggest I was working on Wall Street (aside from my yoga pants and perpetual messy top knot hair-do). Not only was I addicted to social media, I had become a yogi fraud.

I truly love to write (it's my favorite thing) and share experiences or information that others could benefit from.  I truly value the power of social media to share positive messages, promote real change in the world and to stay connected to the ones you love. I truly believe in everything I was writing about and saying, the issue was, I just wasn't living it. Posting and writing about how to live your life, all the while I was an over-stimulated social media junkie.

It was at that moment that I decided it was time to focus on getting back to the place where I could speak truthfully from a place of presence and calm when putting anything out into the cyber world as myself or on behalf of any of my clients.

This isn't a story of completely unplugging, although my first notion was to delete every social icon off my phone (which of course I did at first). Learning how to have a healthy relationship with everything in your life comes from harmoniously integrating it into your life, not letting it consume you or cutting it off completely. 

Here's how I did it.

1. Ground yourself. 
Before you get on social media in the morning, make sure you do something to ground yourself. Whereas the first thing I used to do in the morning was check social media, I started meditating, surfing, or going to yoga.

2. Live what you say. 
If you write or post about yoga, meditation and living a healthy life... practice yoga, meditate and do healthy things.

3. Be mindful, posts have energy too. 
What we put out into the world in any form (even a social post) has energy. Be mindful of what you are putting out there and what you're giving away. This can be an effective way to reinforce your goals and aspirations, but can also create feelings of personal misalignment if your posts are not backed by authentic energy (as in my case). This is true whether you are posting on behalf of yourself or for a client.

3. Unplugged weekends. 
Incorporate unplugged weekends into your life. No social media (or even better no computer at all) from Friday night to Monday morning.

4. Leave your phone at home.
This forces you to be in the moment, and not capture it. Nothing to distract you from the people you're with. If you have a compulsion to be "liked" just ask the people you're with for some love.

5. Send a powerful message to yourself. 
Go watch a sunset without your phone. This is a tough one, but if you can watch a sunset without taking a picture of it, it's all downhill from there.  Think of this...there are more than 350,000,000+ pictures posted to Facebook every day (verified!) and I'm guessing a good portion of them are of sunsets, the cyber world is good to go on the sunset tip; save a few for just you.

6. Keep some things as little memory gifts for yourself. 
We don't have to share every good thing that happens to us on social media. Keep a few nuggets just for yourself. It also makes it more fun to catch up with friends when you have some new things to share. Who knows, you may even get the reputation for being a little mysterious.

7. Beware of the 5-minute impromptu post. 
If social media management is part of your job, set times to schedule your posts for the weeks ahead. Please beware of the 5-minute impromptu post. "I just have to post something real quick about something the Dalai Lama just said" can easily turn into 5 hours in the clicking vortex.

8. Create Healthy Boundaries. 
Turn off your automatic alerts. Control when you go to social media, not the other way around. 

9. Take frequent nature breaks. 
If you're ever feeling overloaded, drop everything and GO OUTSIDE. 

10. Honor the power of social media and use it wisely. 

“Social media sparks a revelation that we, the people, have a voice, and through the democratization of content and ideas we can once again unite around common passions, inspire movements, and ignite change.” - Brian Solis

Continued Education: 

Reboot or Die Trying (Outside Magazine): A star political blogger for Grist.org, David Roberts spent so much time posting and Tweeting and staring at screens that he almost went nuts. So he pulled the plug for a year, restarting his relationship with technology and actively seeking health, balance, and adventure in the real world. What he learned just might save you from meltdown.
The Psychology of Social Media (Real Simple): What is it about screens that keeps our eyes transfixed and fingers a-tappin’? Psychologist Sherry Turkle, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of “Alone, Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other,” explains what keeps us tangled up in tech.
B.F. Skinner Likes Your F.B. Status (Ceasefire): More than half a century ago, behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner conducted countless experiments in an attempt to condition the behavior of pigeons. Corin Faife explores some uncomfortable parallels between Skinner’s pigeons and today’s Facebook and Twitter users.

Originally published on Elephant Journal by Traci Wallace on September 17, 2014

They've got hits for days stored in their nests, and they're just waiting for the right time to send them to radio and top all of the charts.

Check them out on Bored Panda 

“We have become a nation that places lower priority on teaching its children how to thrive socially, intellectually, even spiritually, than it does on training them to consume.” – Juliet Schor

Research suggests that aggressive marketing to kids contributes not only to excessive materialism, but also to a host of psychological and behavioral problems. Check out this guide from the Center for a New American Dream about how to help children reclaim valuable noncommercial space in their lives—space to be children, not merely consumers.