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• Category:Social Media

With all the power that social media has to drive traffic, doesn’t it make sense that they should put more emphasis on driving traffic to stories that inform about issues and offer ways for people to help?  On the surface, the question seems like a no-brainer, but as we explored the subject further and discussed it with other users, challenges started popping up.

Charity has never been a strong point of social media.  The concept that drives most of these sites is that they display current events and the opinions surrounding them submitted by users and voted to the front page by the community.  With politics and technology issues dominating the popular sections of most social news sites, it makes sense that philanthropic stories get very little play.

When I wrote an article about Social Media Power and how sites like Digg, Reddit, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Newsvine, NowPublic, and Yahoo! Buzz could do more for the world, I placed too much emphasis on how these sites themselves could contribute to society.  My mistake: it’s the users who are better positioned to help.  They just need a little push in the right direction and incentives from the sites themselves.

To that end, I have revised the ideas based upon input received about that story.  One strong social media user gave this feedback:

Good idea but charity isn’t really news unless its for a related current event. But no harm implementing it. Better IMO for these sites to offer free or reduced ad spots for charities.

It’s a nice perspective, proposing that social media sites help through advertising.  The only problem is that social media sites are having a hard enough time generating revenue.  When was the last time you intentionally clicked on an advertisement from a social media site?

I think the first part of the suggestion, however, really hits the nail on the head:

“…unless it’s for a related current event.”

That’s the key.  Social media is about today and tomorrow.  It’s news.  It’s opinions.  From today.

It really made me take a look at what was really happening on these sites.  Digg, for example, has a complex algorithm that leans favorably towards sites that have a strong readership who are active in social media.  In other words, websites like HuffPo, ArsTechnica, and Telegraph are able to make it to the front page a few times a day because of two reasons:

• They are known by strong submitters to hit the front page often and are watched religiously.
• Thousands of the readers of these sites have Digg accounts.  Each submission receives a strong diversity in their Diggs.

With that in mind, it became apparent that social media sites themselves would need some major overhauls to make the idea work.  Digg and the other social media sites are not going to make drastic changes to their algorithms to help promote charities.  It goes against what they represent.  It took a comment on the last article by Jeff Flowers to really open my eyes to a large part of the solution:

“There really should be more people who submit stuff that they are completely passionate about, and can also help raise awareness of certain issues that touch them to the core.”

Bingo!  Social media sites by themselves would lose users and contaminate their results if they force-fed charities on the front page.  Users, on the other hand, have the ability to push high-quality, important issues and promote philanthropic ideas.  Still, so few do.  There really needs to be an incentive.

To that end, we came up with a hybrid solution.  If social media sites created proper venues for stories that “helped the world” and users adopted causes to promote, the combination could have the desired effect of promoting charities without tainting the results on the front page.  In short, it would take both parties to bring about the change.  Here’s how:

Social Media Websites - Create Charitable Venues

By creating a category called “Charities” or “Giving Back” or “Philanthropy” or whatever they decided to call it, Digg, Reddit, Mixx, Propeller, and the other social media sites would start the ball rolling.  Users would see these new categories and potentially seek out stories to submit to them.  That in itself would be huge as many users would consider the option for the first time in their social media life: “I need to find stories about causes that I believe in.”

Some social media sites can take it to the next level.  Digg and Mixx in particular use categories and sub-categories in their structure.  They could create a “Causes” category and sub-categories for

• Charities - News about organizations making a difference.
• Take Action - Stories about ways to get involved.
• Research - Media that looks at how science is finding solutions to world problems.
• Outreach - News about people and organizations helping those in need.
• Outrage - Stories about people, governments, and organizations that are doing wrong.

Social Media Users - Find (and submit) Your Passions

Politics has always had a strong representation on social media.  Over the last year, through the early stages of the presidential campaigns before the primaries and on through the election, the front pages of these sites have been flooded with politics.

Why?  Because people are passionate about it.  Social media users lean in one direction or the other on the issues and their candidates.  This lean is strong and made apparent by the number of votes that are cast on controversial political stories.

After election day, the level of political submissions will drop dramatically.  The battle will be over and users will need something new to focus their social media attention on.  Many will stay with politics as the topic is nearly inexhaustible.  Others, satisfied or disappointed with the results of the election, will need something new to submit.

My suggestion: find a cause (or two, or ten).  It could be a charity.  It could be something shocking that needs attention.  It could be anything that needs to be brought to the attention of the world.  Find it (or them) and start getting the word out.  Social media is excellent for promoting ideas and causes.  When the election is over, adopt a cause or two and fill your social media sites’ front pages with it.

Together for the World

Despite what I felt the last couple of days, I now realize that social media sites cannot force people to read stories about charities and causes.  Social media users could, but they still need a push in the right direction by the sites themselves to encourage it.  Regardless of how it happens, the important thing is that social media is powerful but selfish.  It’s time to use this power for good.

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