Likes and Follows don’t mean a thing without action
As my good friend, Michael Brito, SVP Edelman, stated in an interaction yesterday, “So many people are open to “like”, “share” and “comment” for social issues and it makes sense. Things like this play on our emotions. But how many of us actually put our money where our mouths is and help change the world. Very few.”
UNICEF is currently running a brilliant Facebook campaign that focuses on the inaction that is often observed in the social media campaigns.
It delightfully pokes at the online media phenomenon, “Slacktivism”.
Slacktivism (sometimes slactivism or slackervism) is a portmanteau of the words slacker and activism. The word is usually considered a pejorative term that describes “feel-good” measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel some amount of satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist. The underlying assumption being promoted by the term is that these low cost efforts substitute for more substantive actions rather than supplementing them. (Source: Wikipedia)
Malcom Gladwell, in his Oct 2010 New Yorker article, argued that it is not right to compare social media “revolutions” with actual activism that challenges the status quo ante. He argued that today’s social media campaigns can’t compare with activism that takes place on the ground.
Unicef’s Likes Don’t Save Lives
You cannot not ‘like’ this one.
Facebook Home redefines the mobile rules
Why just compete? Why not redefine the rules.
Facebook announced “Home” today, a new way of experiencing Facebook on the Android platform. Contrary to what analysts predicted, Facebook Home is not an mobile app and it is not another mobile OS either. It is an experience layer. A springboard that sits on top of the operating system and lets the user experience their mobile device through the lens of their social network.
Facebook Home will be available both pre-installed on the new HTC First devices and also is downloadable on other Android devices on April 12th. It is a whole set of features that Facebook-izes the mobile Android experience. It includes Cover Feed, in which you get your friend’s photos and status updates as soon as you turn on the phone. There’s also Chat heads, which are Facebook messages you can get and respond to even while using other apps. Very strategic and competitive in redefining how people experience the network on their mobile device.
Watch out Google, Whatsapp and Flipboard. Facebook is competitive, and they are serious.
Facebook’s Director of Product Joey Flynn didn’t hold back critiquing the messaging app competition.
Highlighting some of the flaws with the messaging services, Flynn explains that messaging apps require you to close the app you’re in right now to view a message. “You should really be able to talk to your friends no matter where you’re at on your phone and no matter what app you’re in,” he says. “And your friends shouldn’t just be siloed off into these apps. With Chat heads, you can talk to whomever and wherever on your phone.” Facebook wants us to think of Chat heads not as a competitor, but as the next evolution of messaging.
This allows Facebook couple of really strong competitive plays:
- Gain back momentum from mobile messaging platforms like Whatsapp, Tango, Google Talk, Skype and others.
- Re-position itself as a mobile ‘experience’ destination and continue building mobile revenue streams.
- Experiment with content curation experience and compete with Flipboard, Pulse and others.
- Build on Facebook Social Graph Search to competitively play in Google’s own playground.
Just imagine what a total experience allows Facebook. It gives them the power and the edge to progressively take the share away from Google services and others. And before Apple fans tout their closed ecosystem, just wait for the jailbreak. ;)
