There is one thing that I have noticed about March of Dimes that is different from other organizations that advertise over the internet: They use social network sites really, really well. Upon reading the articles by Gladwell and Mirani, I was actually leaning toward Gladwell. I firmly believed that social network sites were great for spreading information, but terrible for encouraging active participation. “Slacktivism” seemed a perfectly appropriate term to me because it always seemed that social network sites created a sense of participation in the user, without them having to actually participate. But March of Dimes has proven my original assumption wrong in several ways.
March of Dimes uses Facebook and Twitter for the same reason, to spread information about how to become involved in their most recent events. Right now, they are promoting their “March of Babies” event which is their biggest and most well-known. Instead of using status updates as a way to simply talk about the march, March of Dimes’ latest status update states, “Interested in forming a March for Babies Family Team but not sure how? Contact familyteams (at) marchofdimes (dot) com for more information!” This seems effective because it doesn’t give any information away except for the instructions for making a team and becoming involved. I also noticed that those communicating over the page are asking valuable questions about how to be involved and how to join other supporters’ teams. It is clear that those who use the site are also those who are involved with the cause in a more hands-on way.
Twitter is used in the exact same fashion. The March of Dimes Twitter account features the March of Dimes logo (as does the Facebook page) and lists information on how to form a team for the “March of Babies” event. Just like the status updates on Facebook, those who are responding to the feed are asking questions about making teams. Again, it is obvious that there is more than “slacktivism” happening here.
After looking closely at how March of Dimes uses social network sites, I would have to say that I now agree more with Mirani. It is true that there are those out there who believe that their online participation is enough, but there are some organizations, like March of Dimes, that encourage more active support. It would be much more difficult to spread information about the organization if they did not use social network sites for communicating with participants. Online slacktivism does matter, but only if one is able to turn it into something more. It is a great place to start learning about a cause, and more organizations should follow the example that March of Dimes has set for encouraging participants to go from “slacktivists” to activists.
