In February I wrote about how organisations and individuals are increasingly using Facebook as a platform to lobby against commercial companies and associations. Users of the platform are setting up Facebook Groups to assemble like-minded individuals and fellow protesters to fight their cause. The most notable example being UK student organisation, the National Union of Students (NUS), against HSBC in a bid which successfully stopped the bank from introducing new charges to fresh graduates.
BARRIERS TO ENTRY ARE LOW, EXPECT MORE TO FOLLOW
As predicted, and given the ease of setting up a Facebook Group, one might expect that the use of the social networking platform for lobbying and protesting purposes would not end there. And it hasn’t according to the Economist which reports on a group of “Canadian grannies and other small investors” who successfully used the site to force a number of financial firms into repaying millions of dollars in doomed investments in asset backed-commercial paper which were marketed as safe. In much the same way as the NUS example, campaigners set up a Facebook Group to “trade information, provide mutual support and plot strategy.”
“AN AMAZING TOOL” THAT WORKS BOTH WAYS
A significant point to note is the response by the group’s administrator who explains that Facebook played a huge part in the initiative as it brought together “people who would never have met in real life, from pig farmers and retired loggers to MBA students and pastors.”
Not only did the Facebook Group help the campaigners but it also helped the lawyer who developed the reimbursement solution “because it helped him understand the concerns of small investors and gave him a way to talk to them.”
CAVEAT
The writing’s on the wall. Facebook is proving to be a successful platform for anyone (stress: anyone) to take action against perceived wrong doings of big business, provided that the cause is worthy of a fight and the ‘crowd’ is big enough. It’s safe to say that we’ll see more examples like this as time goes by. But, as shown above, an anti-corporate Facebook Group can be useful to both parties as it can provide the ‘accused’ with details and insights of the complaints and concerns.
Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
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Mihnea Miculescu
Go figure, Facebook’s getting to be even better than the online petition websites.
Just another step in its plan to take over the world.
Mariana Sarceda
New media such as Facebook has proved to be something much more complex and richer than just a way to keep in touch with your friends on a day-to-day basis.
Richard Millington
“…successfully stopped the bank from introducing new charges to fresh graduates”
I’m sure that’s not the case. HSBC could easily have chosen to ignore the Facebook groups (which many other companies have done). Instead I reckon it was the media attention that this group received, and the subsequent pressure that put upon HSBC.
I think you nailed it in the second point. Cause-related Facebook groups have become more of a basecamp of operations. It’s a mighty collaborative tool, where people can organise themselves to take action. The group itself is not that action.
Luke Pollard
Interesting post? From the online campaign work I’ve done Facebook campaign groups work best when they are part of a broader strategy. Some groups I’ve come across believe having a facebook group is an end in itself and deploy a campaign with a high membership as its goal. A far better way to conceive of facebook campaigning is as an organisational tool to aide a broader offline and online campaign. All campaigns need a hub, a committee room if you will, and facebook with its multi-media platform and ease of communications is an excellent tool. But facebook campaigning alone is unlikely to achieve the objective. Think of it as a catalyst. A very good one if used properly.
Matthew Gain
I wonder if the mere success of Facebook as a tool to create change in the past is the aspect that will bring it undone.
It is so easy to set up these groups and to then in turn it is so easy to become a member and get involved that I believe so many will be made to the point they became redundant. I mean every cause has one, so why should I care?
I was invited to join this group today – http://snurl.com/255vw – by someone who had simply mailed their entire list. A quick look at the site suggested the need to be outraged and sign up to the group. However a little more digging suggested that the artist starved the dog (feels wrong to describe it as an art work) to highlight the fact that dogs all over his home city were being neglected and starving on the street. Apparently the dog in question was already too sick to be saved.
I wrote to the site administrator suggesting that she should include the artist’s intention on the page so that his voice could at least be included in the discussion. She responded agreeing and advising that she had set up the group quickly without understanding the artist’s intentions. She still thought it wrong, but was not as outraged as she first was. Since launch the group has exploded likely with other outraged people who clicked join and promptly forgot the poor dog’s plight.
In my opinion it is the fact that people are joining protest groups, not because they believe in the cause, understand the issues or are passionate about it, but simply because it is as easy to join it as it isn’t, that will be the downfall of Facebook as a lobbying medium.
Phil
I still maintain it’s a combination of lazy journalism and lazy protesting. Really.
Journalists seem to cite Facebook as proof that there’s pressure on a particular organisation for doing this, that or the other. For example, “and a Facebook group objecting to the plans has already attracted 100,000 members.” As if that’s proof enough that the corrupt organisation or dirty corporation should change its ways.
And it’s lazy protesting. How hard is it to join a Facebook group? What does it take, two clicks to open the message, then join? It’s hardly saying you’re a passionate believer in the group’s cause. What happened to a good old fashioned protest march?