Social Media; Social Good?

Written by, Melissa Dreyer

Can Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and other social media sites actually improve society and protect the environment?  Or are they just places to connect and rate your favorite tacos (not to underestimate the importance of finding the perfect fish taco).

Of course Facebook, etc., will always be a great way to spend valuable time info-snacking, pursuing your latest crush, or keeping up with friends.  But social media is quickly becoming the most powerful tool for organizing social movements and political campaigns, spreading information and raising awareness about public health and environmental issues, measuring the success of social campaigns, and channeling donations and efforts.  With the power of social media, some new avenues for social good are only now being imagined.

Organizing

Atlantans Together Against Crime (ATAC) was formed in response to a crime wave in Intown Atlanta.  After well-known and universally liked bartender John Henderson was shot and killed at the Standard in Grant Park, Kyle Keyser channeled his and the communities’ anger, and launched ATAC. 

Curiously, ATAC initially organized through traditional channels, spreading information on its first event, a vigil for John at the Standard, by word of mouth and calls to local media outlets.  Almost immediately though, word of the vigil began to be posted on Facebook, Creative Loafing’s blog and Twitter by those supportive of ATAC’s cause.  After ATAC’s first event, it quickly adopted social media, and now spreads word of its rallies and efforts through Facebook, Twitter, and it blog, www.atlantanstogether.org. 

Since the formation, thousands have attended ATAC’s rallies, including almost every Atlanta politician, and ATAC has been able to control the mainstream media’s coverage of crime and how Atlantans are responding.  Even had ATAC purposely not wanted to engage in social media, so many supporters were plugged in, ATAC could not have stopped its message from being carried through numerous outlets.  Not only was social media undoubtedly the best way for ATAC to organize and carry its message, it was unavoidable.  ATAC had to engage in social media to control its message.  The same applies to every other social movement and political campaign.

Disseminating Information and Raising Awareness

Social media has become the most efficient vehicle for distributing information and updates relating to public health emergencies and developments.  In the midst of the peanut salmonella outbreak in February 2009, The Centers for Disease Control leveraged social media to dispense critical recall information, utilizing Twitter updates, blogs, YouTube and Podcasts.  Because recall information was being released on a daily if not hourly basis, social media quickly became more effective than any other traditional outlet for disseminating information.

Public health groups are also empowering individuals to take control of public health issues through social media outlets. The California State Department of Health Services recently funded a simple, yet important tool to help reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.  The site inSPOT, http://www.inspot.org/Home.aspx?regionid=6&sitelvl=1, allows users diagnosed with an STD to anonymously send postcards to past sexual partners if they may have been exposed.  The digital space is the ideal medium to promote safe health practices by discreetly empowering the public.

As the public health industry becomes an active member of the social media community, opportunities abound.  If privacy concerns can be adequately addressed, the CDC and WHO can track the spread of flus and other communicable diseases in real-time as users first develop symptoms.  This could lead to diagnosis, the distribution of vaccines/medicines and ultimately help to stem the spread of diseases.

Social Metrics

In the May 10, 2009, New York Times, Nicholas Kristof noted,

To their great credit, advocates working against AIDS and Malaria have goaded Western governments into spending significant sums on prevention and treatment.  The result is that an AIDS diagnosis is no longer an immediate death sentence, and Malaria infection rates are tumbling in some countries. 

Meanwhile, pneumonia keeps on killing, while barely registering on the public consciousness.  On Friday, the biggest pneumonia related cause on Facebook (PS-Pneumonia sucks) had 785 members – while the top 5 health-related causes had a combines 14.1 million. 

We all intuitively know that Kristof is right on the money.  Though pneumonia kills far more men, women and children annually than malaria or AIDs, pneumonia awareness, prevention and treatment don’t carry the same star appeal as AIDS or malaria campaigns.  Though the causes of pneumonia are more ambiguous, Kristof is right in alerting the public that pneumonia is a potent killer and needs more media attention.  Facebook provides the key data for his argument.

Through social media, we now have a quantifiable way to measure awareness and support of various causes – in a way that is more credible than ever before.  And businesses are jumping into the movement.  Target recently allowed Facebook users to steer their $3M philanthropic budget by voting for their non-profit of choice.  Through this effort, Target created a personal connection with consumers by including them in their campaign for social good and in the process, gathered data about their customers’ preferences.  Traditional web analytic companies are picking up on this as well. Omniture recently announced an enhancement to SiteCatalyst, allowing users to track Facebook applications and videos. 

In Short…

With the decline of traditional media vehicles in the wake of the Internet, social media has provided a powerful tool for social good and promoting public health.  News outlets no longer have the same resources to investigate corruption and highlight social movements.  Yet social outlets now allow everyone to become an organizer and a supporter.  This medium has dramatically changed our world for the better, and the possibilities are just now being realized.

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I came across this just now, and trying to put myself into the mindset of the public user for a second before logging in. This is a case study about one brand's success on facebook, correct? Or am I missing something? Look at the sticker price!

Why is Forrester charging $2000 for a case study? This isn't a report of a Forrester survey, right? I just don't get the price point, and still in the public site visitor's mindset here, there is not even an abstract offered. I get that there is a money back guarantee, but is that enough to entice someone to throw down a credit card based on this title alone?

In what scenario would someone who was not a Forrester customer actually purchase this item?

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Last week, Omniture launched facebook app analytics, giving SiteCatalyst users the ability to track popularity and usage of facebook applications. They also announced in March the capability of tracking video popularity and usage (and I am assuming photos and slideshows can be tracked with the same technology), giving businesses a means of gauging the success of social media tactics against their goals.

While most interactive marketers know that social media can be tracked, some may not be specifically familiar with the different tracking offerings and why you would apply particular products to different tracking purposes. To illustrate this, here is a common scenario:

You and your team already have a SiteCatalyst dashboard set up to track web site activity against KPI's that reflect your company's goals for the site. You check the dashboard, run monthly reports, and have alerts set up to notify your team of specific changes.

This year you have also launched a facebook fan page and a facebook application as an engagement tactic. You have also created a few videos in the hopes that they would become "viral," and have an ongoing interest in monitoring social buzz about your brand and product online. This is a pretty common place to be for marketers who are making an effort to actively participate in social media.

What does your dashboard look like now? What is your routine for tracking success across assets and properties? Here's a look at four distinct analytics offerings in the context of this scenario. This is not a recommendaiton but intended to simply demonstrate the differences among a few available offerings.

Radian6: Radian6 locates brand impressions or instances in public comments, which is an important distinction to note. If you consider that most facebook conversations and activity is private, it is essentially behind closed doors when it comes to Radian6. Radian6 is best designed to track public comments, such as product-related comments and blogs. Here's how I would use Radian6 in the above scenario: set up a dashboard to track brand mentions and keep track monthly, creating a routine for Radian6 that mimics your routine for SiteCatalyst. This will simplify the tracking and management of two dashboards. What's interesting is that you can launch tactics and track many of them through SiteCatalyst (such as apps, videos, etc.) and then use Radian6 to track the lift in brand mentions. You can also set up a specific phrase and benchmark before and after the launch of a specific product or tactic. Learn more on the Radian6 web site

Facebook Lexicon: While facebook lexicon is more of an interesting toy than a true analytics tool, I like it because it gives you data on mentions both public and private within the site. It's limited, but the positive side is that it is quick and easy to use for an informal check on the usage of a particular term. This application is best used to track single word usage, rather than complex phrases, and can be used to compare mentions of two terms. Check it out by comparing your brand name against a competitor before and after launching an offer, promotion or giveaway to your facebook fans. Learn more on facebook (search for lexicon)

Omniture facebook app analyitcs: facebook has been tracking applications for years, and now Omniture is offering facebook application analytics to SiteCatalyst users. As far as I am aware (I have yet to try it out), this capability allows you to track monthly active users, which indicates popularity and usage of your application. Tracking your facebook application within your SiteCatalyst dashboard can help you stay buttoned up and focused on your company's goals and KPI's and measure its effects on your web site.

Omniture video tracking: tracking the popularity and usage of your video is not a new offering on the market; however, Omniture offers this capability within a powerful suite of offerings that gives you a comprehensive view, and allows you not only to track video popularity and usage but to see how it affects your site. So, let's say that you sell products on your site, or have a KPI on your site to drive registration. Omniture video tracking (like facebook app tracking) does not only measure popularity and usage of the video but allows you to tie video engagement back to your site goals. Omniture video tracking measures three aspects of online video: engagement, effectiveness, and how viral it is.

Learn more about the last two offerings on the Omniture web site

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Seth Godin is great at either coining phrases or making buzzwords popular. This week, he advised the "middle men" in our economy (agents from travel to real estate to books) to "hyperspecialize."

I read his actual advice, and I agreed with it. But in terms of the buzzword he's peddling,I might be missing something.

I don't see how the advice he gives couldn't simply be called "specialize?" I didn't get the "hyper" of "hyperspecialize" out of what he wrote. Is saying no more often "hyper?" (Actually, it did come across that way, kind of aggressive, actually).

I'm not saying he's trying to hyperinvent a buzzword, or wrap something old in a new wrapper, but I read it several times and would love for someone to explain to me why he needed to add the prefix "hyper" to his advice to agents.

What do you think? Read Seth Godin's blog post

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