Surely, on some occasion when you have opened your Facebook, you have come across a series of chain messages, videos, memes or some image that went viral, especially if they were about creating awareness in the population.
Have you ever heard about the term user mobilization? If you never heard about this term, don’t worry. Below I will explain what it consists of and its importance in social media.
User Mobilization and Cyberactivism
User mobilization is the mobilization the users do on the Internet to create awareness about something that caught their attention. When users on social media feel an emotional touch and identify with a cause, they want to make it well-known. There is a relationship between user mobilization and Cyberactivism. Each of us has our own causes to support.
In the case of a cause like fighting against breast cancer, many users join together in cyberactivism. “One of the most powerful forms of social media mobilization is cyberactivism. Here, individuals utilize the Internet to promote a particular cause or charity (Maloney & Tan, 2017).” So, this cyberactivism by users can make something viral.
October
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see people participating in various awareness raising activities. Also, there is a lot of participation in social media such as Facebook. Memes circulate there with the goal of getting people to pay attention and get screened.
The Facebook social media platform sent private messages to people inviting them to participate in an activity. It consisted of changing the status of the social media of females by writing their names and the color of their bras. For example, “Melissa, black”, “Rebecca, red” (Mahoney & Tan, 2017). This will create confusion for their contacts. To add more mystery to the situation, make it funny and sexualize the situation, another activity was created. Women needed to change their status and write where they like to put their purses. But, the sentence should not be complete sentences. Some women wrote “on the floor,” “behind the sofa,” and other status came. So, people who didn’t know that those women were trying to create awareness about the breast cancer, just start thinking different things about those statuses.
What qualities of the Facebook breast cancer awareness meme make it so viral in nature? Why would thousands of social media users want to participate and share with their friends?
The breast cancer meme was very original and caught the attention of all people.
Thousands of social media users wanted to participate as it created not only awareness, but also an air of mystery. So many men were curious why women wrote certain words in their “status” on social media.
How did the social media meme fall short of user mobilization? What changes could be made to make more of a difference to breast cancer causes?
It falls short in user mobilization since it is not only playing a game, and telling people to change statuses. It requires more action to create awareness. Social media could be used to make people reflect and immediately help the cause. For example, the Facebook meme could create a link for donations and help those women with low resources to pay the cost of their treatment.
Creating emotional real-life experiences for users is one of the biggest indicators of mobilization success. How do cyberactivism and other prosocial movements have a natural advantage to social media mobilization strategies? How can this be incorporated into a brand authenticity and mission statement?
Since the beginning, humans have been drawn to fight for justice and what they consider fair. When a prosocial movement is born, it is because people have common beliefs about it. Prosocial movement is very important. After all, we need to remember that “together we can do more than just acting alone.” So, in any brand and mission statement it could certainly be used as a strategy to bring more people to a cause and increase regard for a brand. When brands pay attention and take care of what is happening in society, it make them more “humanized.” Empathy between users and brands is created.
References
Casserly, Meghan (2010). I like it on the…’ Kinky Facebook Meme for Breast Cancer.
Forbes. Retrieved from:
Cyberactivism (2020). PCMag. Retrieved from:
https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/cyberactivism
Mahoney, T., & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change.
EK Marketing Blog by Ericka Koehler 