Social media for social change

Is the Jail4Bail campaign doing more harm the good? That's the question that was raised by Wezzo on BlackNotes (one of my fav blogs) and Muti after he felt that the autism campaign amounted to nothing more than a spam effort. He makes some very valid points which made me think about the 'rules' for social media when used for social change.

1. Context is king - With social causes it is crucial that the content is contextualised. It is the cause that drives the empathy and the message that supports the cause needs to be more important than anything else. Jail4Bail is not a message - it doesn't say what the campaign is. What is needed is a short phrase that supports this that does.

2. The rules still apply - If anything they apply more. Causes rely on public good will and empathy in order to get funds raised. During social marketing campaigns those empathy levels need to be enhanced, not alienated. Spam is an emotional issue because of the spam deluge that faces ordinary individuals online. Spam is still spam no matter whether you're saving lives, healing nations or changing the world as we know it. You have to entice and inspire people, and shoving causes down their throats will not do that.

3. The experience is the brand - Online the total experience is the brand. So people looking from the outside in will take the total experience they have online with the cause as the brand.

4. Enthusiasm can be misconstrued - How you see things is not necessarily the same as how your audience sees things. You're madly in love with your cause - that's why you take up the good fight. But this doesn't mean that your audience does too. Everyone's reality is different and the more evolved you become as a person you more you realise that - the more balanced your subject-object orientation becomes. Other people may not give a rat's ass about what's a life or death issue to you.

I reckon in this case it's a matter of people just caring too much. The people driving this campaign have good hearts and good intent, and perhaps just became over zealous. This is going to be a case study so let's see what happens in the end result, let's see if they have learnt from this exercise and objectively include what worked and what didn't. If they do that (include the good and bad) they could have a living case study of great use to other social causes who need to understand how to use social media.

Lastly, when using social media for social change the rules still apply - if not more - because you have an important brand to nourish. Your job is to up the love factor, make sure people get the message and get them to switch on (not off) to the cause.

Comments

[Tertia]

Hi Mandy, I absolutely agree with you and was chatting to Rafiq about the same thing two days ago.

I said one has to be very careful about causing 'goodwill fatigue'. I sense that is what is happening here.

In addition, as I said to Rafiq, the way the campaign is being pitched is totally wrong for my readers. They don't care about twitter or social media or how the local geeks are doing their bit for Jail4Bail. They are mothers, and their concern is children / autism.

In my view, the campaign became a little too much about how social media can help rather than the core cause itself.

I think enthusiasm came on a bit too strong which has turned some people off. I also had one or two moments where I thought "hey! back off a bit"

Yes people are slack, yes most people don't care, but you can't MAKE people care. You've got to make it easy and appealing for them to participate, and if they still don't want to, leave them alone.

Having said that, I adore Rafiq, I believe in what he is doing and I will do my bit to help. I am going to put a blog post up today.

But there are big lessons in all of this, all of which you have summarized beautifully above.

I agree with you 100%, and I too believe that this was just a case of people caring too much. Which, although it might get under our skin a little, is better than people not caring at all.

[Gerhard Pieteres aka Jail4Bail]

TYFYC - Gerhard Pieterse - Jail4Bail

[Mandy de Waal]

@Tertia: Appreciate your comment, and I can't agree more. Give me people who care any day. But ja - some interesting lessons along the way. And I reckon the online community can be overly harsh and at times unnecessarily vitriolic. Let's face it - we're all human. An that means making mistakes and learning. If we don't make mistakes how are we too learn. And I'm with you. I reckon Rafiq has a good heart.