Measuring Online Action Effectiveness & Avoiding Slackervism
17:31, 22 January 2010
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
I found out today that I'm quoted in "Does Social Work? Measuring Community Effectiveness," an article from EContent: Digital Content Strategies and Resources. My quote is regarding my belief that web page views and the number of FaceBook friends, etc., are relatively meaningless in determining return on investment (ROI) in online activities, especially for nonprofits/NGOs. It's a good article, and not just because I'm quoted in it!
Also: those of you on FaceBook probably saw lots of people posting a colour/color in their status updates recently -- just one word, or a group of words, like "pink" or "blue" or "nude" or "white with black trim." It was largely a joke: it was the color of the bra the posting person was wearing. Some people claimed it was an effort to raise awareness about breast cancer, although no organization has come forward to claim responsibility for starting such, the connection was rarely made on many user profiles, and as far as my own FaceBook connections go, no one linked to or named a breast cancer-related organization as part of this "campaign."
I think it was a perfect example of Slackervism, where people clicked something online, or did something equally simple online, and walked away thinking, "Wow, I really made a difference", but they didn't. And my fear is that these people then avoid doing what's really needed -- like volunteering, or making a donation -- because they think what they've done has real impact. Why make time to volunteer or why reserve any money to help others when, supposedly, just clicking helps someone somehow? Why, I can change the world just by clicking something or changing my Facebook status, right?
I've heard some media call this a "great" example of "online social action." How can it possibly be called that? There is no data whatsoever saying that this what-color-is-your-bra campaign increased the number of women getting medical checkups regarding their breast health, doing self-examinations regularly, etc. There's no data whatsoever that says someone knows about breast cancer now and how it impacts women that didn't already know that before the campaign. Yes, Susan G. Komen for the Cure said they got some donations they think came because some people followed up their bra color status with a link to its web site. But others reported no donations at all.
What would have made this a true social marketing/health marketing campaign, with real impact (changed behavior, new awareness, etc.)?
- Encouraging women to not only post the color of their bra but, later in the day, or the next day, telling their friends why they had posted their bra color, followed by a statistic about breast cancer rates or an encouragement for people to learn about breast cancer prevention, and a link to a web site for more information (not just a page that asked for donation, but rather, a page focused on educating people about breast cancer).
- Having a banner on the home page of your breast-cancer-focused organization saying, "Did you post your bra color to your FaceBook status?", which links to a page focused on educating people about breast cancer and encouraging people to participate in the campaign.
- Having a FaceBook fan page specifically associated with this campaign, and using it to not only educate about breast cancer, but also, to survey fans about the impact of the campaign regarding their actions (did they have a discussion this week with friends about breast cancer, or just bra colors?)
