Using social media to further your cause or promote philanthropic efforts is not new, but the more sophisticated that social media becomes, the easier it is to share your message. Unfortunately the more sophisticated social media becomes, the harder it is to spread the message that you are sharing.
Many people are familiar with the pink ribbon associated with Breast Cancer awareness. It is this symbol that has been use
d over the years and along with the color pink automatically coincides with breast cancer.
These memes are often considered viral because they gain a lot of traction. This is partly because of how easy it is to share them on social media. People are very willing to share these memes because doing so gives the perception that they are participating in a worthwhile cause. “Calls for cyberactivism can spread quickly, but make little difference in the world because they are not linked to any real-life mobilization.” (Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change, Mahoney/Tang, 2017). Unfortunately, breast cancer memes that may go viral do little to produce an economic impact for cancer research which is one reason to raise awareness.
Can mobilization do more than raise awareness? In my opinion, yes! It has been my experience when mobilizing members of my community that there are four things that must happen to move an intended audience from awareness to action. These four steps also help diffuse the message by getting others to participate.
- Mobilizers must create a call to action for their audience
- The audience must respond to the call
- The audience must involve others (share) in their responses
- Mobilizers must interact (engage) with responders
In the case of breast cancer memes, along with sharing on social media, people need to be called to an action. Like having a test performed, making a donation or participate in an event. This must be available as part of the “ask” for sharing. As audience members share both the meme and their response to the call mobilizers can engage with those members to start and continue conversations around the action.
Memes must present a gateway to something larger, something more engaging to be most effective. For more information about breast cancer and what you can do visit http://www.breastcancer.org or https://www.cancer.org/cancer/breast-cancer.html
