In case if you are wondering why some of your friends change their Facebook profile photos (while getting used to the new profile pages in the meantime;)) to their favorite cartoon characters, here is the idea:
"Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood & invite your friends to do the same, for the NSPCC. Until Monday (6th Dec), there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign to stop violence against children."
Simple, cute and very effective. I personally love to see my favourite cartoon characters talking to each other on Facebook;) Join the meme as I am sure it will last few more days!
Comments
You're right, Larry, to question the value of this initiative. It can be yet another example of the armchair activism that Facebook and similar sites can engender. I joined in out of curiosity and changed my Facebook avatar as part of the campaign, but didn't make a donation to NSPCC or anyone as a result.
However, this campaign or meme did result in tangible results, including income. (I'm aware that calling it a campaign or meme does rather ascribe more significance to the initiative than perhaps it deserves. I get the feeling it was created by someone who thought "wouldn't it be nice if...". Well motivated, but not well thought through).
Anyway, as I reported yesterday, this campaign did work. Possibly despite itself, as some individuals took it on themselves to ensure that it raised funds, not just a brief awareness:
www.fundraising.co.uk/news/2010/12/13/nspcc-benefits-spontaneous-faceboo...
The campaign resulted in the NSPCC gaining 50,000 new Facebook supporters and around £100,000 in donations in just 48 hours, plus a 500% increase in visits to its website.
I'd say that's a pretty good result - on this occasion. Could it work again? Maybe, but I wouldn't bank on it.
Lessons for charities? As you suggest, they need to be ready to react as these kind of opportunities arise.
Howard Lake @howardlake www.fundraising.co.uk
Not to be the Scrooge but I can't see that this is 'Simple, cute and very effective' at anything.
The NSPCC didn't start this although they say they welcome it as a vague profile raiser.
Marketing and campaigning is supposed to prompt action. This doesn't provoke any action on the part of the participant which will benefit NSPCC or abused children.
Perhaps most interesting about this is how quickly something like this can takeoff. Charities need to be able to react quickly to benefit.
I really appreciate your feedback and see your points. Just to clarify - I did not state NSPCC kicked off the meme, and as you have seen from Howard's update, it did generate donations.
However when I say 'effective' in this post (and I do apologise, I should be more clear on that!) I mean effective in promoting the work of the organisation and raising awareness which might or might not lead to donations - in many cases it does. So considering it's a free activity activated by a grass roots idea, the best thing a charity can do is embrace it and support it.
I am glad you raise the point of effectiveness though as it's the most tricky element of social media ROI. In case of meme's not only the amount of donations, but also the success of the original idea are risky, hence why I am personally really happy to see popular ones. (to clarify - by popular I mean a meme which affects at least 30-40% of my on-line relationships)
In terms of driving donations I personally think it is crucial to have a good social media positioning of your brand (curating conversations around memes to drive people to the site, Twitter account or other on-line accounts, where people can be asked directly to donate).
In terms of measurement, the amount of donations resulted from meme will be noticed only if a charity is actually keeping an eye on on-line conversations and compares it to the amount of donations in the given time. For NSPCC it was easy. For Facebook bra campaign for breast cancer awareness it was more difficult, as the meme was directed at a topic, not a brand. But even then major breast cancer charities noticed increased trafic to their site leading to donations too.