Greetings from Eugene! I am the social media chair for our Refuge Eugene intersangha, which means I create daily media intended to inform members (and potential members!) of all RR events, meeting updates, and board meetings.
Instagram is used by many members who don’t use Facebook, and since it’s visual media, a graphic or “flyer” is essential. When you post a graphic to Instagram, You can use the hashtag, #refugerecovery and add the meeting’s geolocation to the post for the ease of mapping directions. Most churches, temples, parks, and meeting houses have a geo-tag that is searchable in Instagram. You might also choose to hashtag the post with your city name, and #recovery. There are a lot of RR groups who use Instagram, follow them by searching for #refugerecovery and enjoy the greater connection!
To create a daily graphic for Refuge Recovery Eugene, I use the app called Canva. Flickr and Google both have options for searching for Creative Commons images that are free for “fair use.” This will keep your creative life drama free! Well, mostly.
After you’ve found a suitable image, you can select it from the canva app- from there you can add text. I like to use Refuge Recovery on each image, and the day, time, and location of each meeting. There’s a lot of room to manipulate the graphics with this app as you get familiar with it.
Another option you may want to explore is a website- Wix is a really easy to use website builder and editor. You can link your social media and maintain a current meeting list for those who don’t use any social media at all. Consider putting a google calendar on the website to inform members of daily meetings, monthly individual group business meetings, and intersangha events and board meetings. They also offer a free newsletter application and mailing list, to keep members connected to current local and national events.
You may want to ask around in your sangha for a service position commitment for these tasks. A three to six month commitment to maintain the social media presence is a big responsibility but it’s also fun! I get to interact with international members I may not have otherwise encountered!
Don’t forget the most important step- make sure to submit your new meetings to the website to be listed on the international map; www.refugerecovery.org/meetings!