Is Clicktivism Meaningless?
Posted by Allison Fine on September 14, 2010
I rarely have a conversation with an on land activist that doesn’t lead to a lament of clicktivism. It’s usually followed by complained about Millennials and their digital habits.
For years, my answer has been that clicktivism – clicking on a cause to share it with friends or give money – is that any action in support of a cause is a good thing. Organizations are charged with creating “ladders or engagement” to step up a portion of these people to deeper levels of activities. Surfrider Foundation is outstanding at doing this as we highlight in The Networked Nonprofit.
But then I read this article about Clicktivism ruining leftist activism and began to wonder, “Do we have it wrong?”
Here is the key graph:
Clicktivists utilise sophisticated email marketing software that brags of its “extensive tracking” including “opens, clicks, actions, sign-ups, unsubscribes, bounces and referrals, in total and by source”. And clicktivists equate political power with raising these “open-rate” and “click-rate” percentages, which are so dismally low that they are kept secret. The exclusive emphasis on metrics results in a race to the bottom of political engagement.
I can easily make the case that there is a huge need for a ladder of engagement that connects clickers to more meaningful engagement. This is something the Obama campaign did spectacularly well and the Obama administration has done atrociously. What I’m rethinking is the amount of effort so many nonprofits are putting into clicks that are, at their core, meaningless. Do we really have such low expectations of people and their abilities and passions, that saying that we “Like” something on Facebook is seen as even worth staff time to coordinate?
Not sure where I’m going where, just mulling, but just as service efforts lose meaning when done too lightly, so does clicking. Worth continuing to mull, I think.
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This entry was posted on September 14, 2010 at 5:56 am and is filed under Social Media. Tagged: clicktivism, email marketing, Surfrider Foundation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
4 Responses to “Is Clicktivism Meaningless?”
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Wendy said
Wow Allison. Thanks for pointing out that article. My brain’s makeup has always told me that click-throughs and open rates don’t matter in the way our industry evaluates them.
This is the first I’ve heard the term clicktivists but you’ve heard me tell the story about how discouraged I was in the week before the Haiti earthquake happened – I was having a What does it mean moment. We could get lots of people to comment and like stuff on Facebook, but were getting very few click-throughs to our preparedness resources. I felt like all our social web efforts didn’t matter. Then the earthquake hit Haiti and millions of people actually took action to do something good. My faith was restored that we built these relationships that allowed people to trust us enough to make something good happen for people in Haiti through us.
I think that’s one step, but we have yet to see the real impact of people coming together to create positive change through digital activism. I don’t think it’s impossible but will require us to think differently about our goals and how we measure our progress.
Allison Fine said
Wendy, thanks so much for sharing your story. The Red Cross/Haiti story is so inspiring and I love hearing you tell it. Part of my mulling is around the cost of groups spending so much time and energy throwing the net far and wide for clicks. I know it’s necessary to cast the net wide, I just wonder about the returns, just like you were. But, of course, your story is so inspiring, I should just stop mulling and get to work! Thanks!
Allison
Pamela Grow said
You are so correct about Obama. Having followed his campaign and use of the Internet during the election to promote his platform and head up lies and misinformation spread by the mainstream *press* (like FOX), I’ve been fairly astounded at how badly his people have used the Internet to truly engage us since then. Am I the only one who wonders about the “donate to Organize for America” emails NOW? I mean, hey, I gave for the campaign and now??? Well I pay my taxes!
I’ve been mulling myself … and think that what’s clearly missing right now – in political terms anyway – is SOLID storytelling. The middle class has all but vanished and their individual stories are well worth telling.
Allison Fine said
I totally agree with your frustration, Pamela, the administration seems so tone deaf. One other thing is that they stopped training organizers on the ground which could have remade the state parties and created an army of activists really ready to work on their behalf at a moments notice. I think of the last two years as a disappointing string of lost opportunities.