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Thursday, November 19, 2015

Being "Social" Media - Don't Filter your Impact!

I firmly believe that each one of us live off 3 fundamental urges of: Need for Recognition, Narcissism and Empathy! Though the degrees varies from person to person.

Facebook (referred to as FB intermittently in this post) as a company probably relies on these / feeds off it, to ensure it's existence! As a marketer I'd give them a hats off for tapping into this so successfully and sustain-ably growing from strength to strength. They seem to have found the right mix of these to ensure that the majority of us, feel FB is a part of our life now. Be it Sharing Photos, Checking in to let your world know where / with whom you are, Venting anger, Voicing public opinions, Keeping in touch and Umpteen other smaller (yet important) emotions that appeal to us at a given point in time!

They sure do deserve Kudos for their success when you look at it:
- As a Business,
- As a platform to improve communication
- As another step in bringing the world closer

but like every entity, FB has it's own pitfalls! One of them, which is glaring to me as a person is what Facebook currently calls 'Profile Filter'. They ride on the current wave of public opinion and the fact that people want to show their support (get on the right side of their misguided conscience) and let them apply a filter and feel they've done their bit!

My 2 cents on this (I've heard this phrase way too often in the last few months to not use it in at least 1 post (:) -
1) Applying a Profile Filter is nothing more than one wanting to garner acceptance socially! Yes, as a person you're only feeding your 'Need for Recognition' with this
2) FB as a company, could've done just a little more and ended up being exponentially more effective!

I agree for campaigns like Digital India, they couldn't have done too much more to help (not that I vouch for a profile filter being used here, but that's for the business minds of FB to decide). But when it comes to issues like the Nepal Earthquake or the current Refugee Crisis, FB could've done more than just turn a blind eye!!

How?
They could've given people a simpler way to contribute (monetarily) and in return give the user an option of a profile filter. They could've made it both easy (one click) and transparent to ensure the actual cause benefits from this support! That is like a badge showing you've done the least you could and you're urging (spreading awareness) others to follow suit.

Eg:
During the Nepal Earthquake, they could've had a simple click to contribute to the rebuilding. Once a person contributes (however small), he gets to apply a Profile Filter.
Similarly for say the current Refugee Crisis, click to contribute to their interim welfare!

This feature however small, would've actually benefited millions (not to mention the immense positive business impact for Facebook). This would've tapped into our third fundamental urge of Empathy, and left a deeper / lasting impact on all of us.

Then in my opinion, Facebook would really be "social" media! (pun intended)

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