Thursday, July 29, 2010

Face book; yes it attracts but it doesn’t prompt action

Every new day comes with new inventions on social media. Just when some social media early adopters are starting to leave Facebook, the mainstream majority who reached a record breaking 500 million seem to be more hooked on the world's favourite social network than ever.

But here is the paradox; I’ve discovered a problem with Face book dependency amongst ‘first year students’ on the treasured site. A few weeks ago we tried organizing a burial fundraising on facebook; we became so confident because scores of people had indicated their commitment on Face book.
Little did we know that showing interest on social media is not in any way linked to committing to a certain cause? Did anyone show up for the fundraising day? No….We resorted to old-fashioned word of mouth to salvage our noble cause.
While Facebook's success is based on its recreation of the real world of friendship online, the process doesn't work so well in the other direction. It’s easy to get people to click but where's the commitment in this? Where's the engagement? Barring a few posters, the old-fashioned means of publicising an event were missing: personal invitations, stunts (forcing the staff members to contribute), media publicity (death and funeral announcements), even celebrity endorsement (inviting your local MP).

It appears the real world is an increasingly confusing place for Generation F (facebook).
This was a real life experience….

3 comments:

Mike said...

I bet thats why FB should only be used to push advocasy campaigns not sellling things like ebay

Diana said...

it is purely social as they call it....a modernized dating agency......anything else maybe linked in...

Irene said...

I want to conflict with you on this one....Social media is yet to become a culture in Kenya..............Wait till it becomes a culture....Elections will be decided on face book..