It only took a single day and a few short Tweets.

Veronica Davis, co-founder of Black Women Bike DC, wanted to engage her local elected leaders in National Bike Month. Her goal: Get all female members of the D.C. City Council out on bikes. She didn't write a formal letter, or send an email to their overloaded inboxes. She simply invited the policymakers to join BWBDC on Bike to Work Day — on Twitter.

Within a few hours, Council members Mary Cheh, Yvette Alexander and Muriel Bowser had all committed to get in the saddle.

Yep, there's power in that little bird.

Understanding that social media has become a critical advocacy tool, we created a new resource for National Bike Month this year: a social media toolkit with plenty of sample Tweets and Facebook posts to help you engage, encourage and get folks talking about bikes in your community this May. We also created an official National Bike Month Facebook timeline cover you can use, as well.

But a good social media strategy is much more than cutting and pasting 140 characters. At the 2013 National Bike Summit, we brought together a panel of social media experts to share their insight on how to use these new (OK- maybe not so new) tools to compliment and enhance bicycle advocacy efforts. Watch the videos below for ideas and guidance from Barb Chamberlain, Mathilde Piard and Mary Madden.

 

 

.But that's not all! Interest was so high in the topic — and the confines of a single Summit workshop couldn't possibly capture the full breadth of social media opportunities — that we partnered with the Alliance for Biking & Walking for a full webinar on Social Media as an Advocacy Tool yesterday. Check it out below!

.Click here for key points and notes from the webinar, courtesy of Mary Lauran Hall at the Alliance, and read the follow-up post on the People Powered Blog.

How have you used social media to engage folks in your community? Let us know in the comments. And stay tuned for more ideas during National Bike Month.

(Summit videos courtesy of Russ Roca, www.pathlesspedaled.com)