What’s The Good Of A Facebook Cause, If There’s No Effect?
Posted by meredith on 06-16-2009
To commemorate World Refugee Day this week, corporate sponsor Microsoft Student has pledged $50,000 to UNHCR’s “Gimme Shelter” campaign through the Causes application on Facebook. For every person who joins the cause, Microsoft will donate $1, and will also match every donation made dollar-for dollar until their goal is met.
Sounds reasonable enough, right? Doing good without doing much (a running theme for the brand these days. See Microsoft’s “Browser for the Better” campaign for IE8). And yet, I can’t shake the feeling that something is missing in this effort. It’s almost.. too easy. Which is fine (preferred, even) for the donation part of the process. But as far as raising awareness? I’m not so sure. After a visit to the Gimme Shelter page on Facebook will students be inspired to learn more about the issue? To stand behind the “cause”? To take initiative into their own hands on their own campus?
I took a look myself and wasn’t entirely convinced. For one thing, the information (brief explanations for World Refugee Day, UNHCR and Gimme Shelter) on Facebook was so basic, it was almost bland. Where are the stats? Where’s the story? Who are the individuals behind the “refugee” label? Scrolling down, I couldn’t tell you. There were no photos, no names, the countries in question weren’t even listed. Nothing in the text stood out with any urgency or personality. Even the instruction to watch the informational video, “Click to explore” seemed less than encouraging.
And as for that video.. it wasn’t so much what was there (although, to its credit the photos and infographics were great), but what wasn’t. There’s a whole element of the campaign that goes unmentioned on the page: a PSA Ben Affleck directed, set to the Rolling Stones’ song “Gimme Shelter,” that shows the UNHCR in action, working on behalf of refugees in the region around the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Rwanda. Why not show footage? Or, even just have Ben Affleck explain the making-of process? Student activist groups may even want to screen it on campus. As the heart of the campaign, it seems strange to omit it.
When it comes to the causes they believe in, this generation wants to be educated, they want to be emotionally invested. By not giving them the materials, or the motivation to do so, I feel like this campaign doesn’t really give students the benefit of the doubt. Instead, it encourages them to take the cheap and easy way out, join a cause and never look back. Not only then failing to ”walk the walk,” as Anastasia mentioned in her post on pro-social movements, but not even bothering to “talk the talk.” Ypulse readers, what do you think?
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June 17th, 2009 at 2:21 am
You’re absolutely right. We can and should do a better job of engaging the audience.
However, it isn’t possible to put all the information we like on to the cause page. We see this as the first (the very first) step in developing relationships with the audience. With this we intend to do one thing, find people that are willing to spend the tiniest amount of effort to help refugees.
The second step is getting people more involved. It’s asking people for their opinion. It’s using both our Facebook/unhcr page, MySpace and Twitter accounts to develop these relationships, ask for opinions, spread the messages, educate about our work, provide people with an opportunity to contribute beyond just donating.
I’m not sure passive information matters so much as giving youth the opportunity to contribute without donating. Involvement leads to ownership, leads to donations.
What do you think?
June 17th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Hi Richard. I agree – the opportunity to contribute without donating is important. So then, why not present those options on the cause page along with the push to “join”? And even if you can’t provide a comprehensive picture of the issue on FB, just adding a few details in the text — an anecdote, a few statistics — would give visitors a better grasp of the cause and the population its affecting/they’d be helping. That said, I think you could always link to the UNHCR site with the prompt to “learn more.”
I understand that the cause page is only the first step towards developing a relationship, but by hinting at those future steps and the possible depths of involvement, I think it could attract people who are willing to spend the “tiniest amount of effort” as well as those who are willing to commit more.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I think applications like these are going to eventually destroy facebook charities, and those charities that ask users to “join” as a way of supporting a cause.
The central problem is asking users to join before giving them all of the facts. This works only until a user has become jaded enough to value the integrity of their personal brand and their own social network. At that point, they start asking themselves to choose causes more intentionally, to choose causes that reflect their beliefs, to choose the best charity from a number of charities.
Yes, it’s a tiny bit of effort. It’s a bit of effort no one will miss. But it’s like begging for a dollar. Some people have the dollar, could give the dollar and never miss it, but they stop handing out dollars because they think “but what are they going to do with the dollar?” “Who is going to see me give the dollar?” “Do I really believe I should be giving the dollar?”
I agree with Meredith – for traditional advertising reasons. You’ve got to grab them right off the bat with something, even if its just felt sincerity. That’s not to say this approach won’t work, just that it’s not going to work for much longer.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
What a cop out. Crap like this prevents
real engagement and change.
“The platform couldn’t handle it” is
nonsense. Yes, Causes is pretty weak. Mostly its spamware.
So then why use it?
Still much more could have been done,
even on Causes.
I’ve heard people calling it Facebook Excuses.
Bad sign!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
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