The power of Social Media came to the fore this week with a three day campaign that resulted involving the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, (previously The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation).
Who are Komen
Komen, is the largest and most well known breast cancer organisation in the United States. After this week, it is even more well known. In 2010 it was rated the most trusted charity brand in the USA. The furore this week may have dented this. Its race for the cure is curently the world's largest fundraising activity.
Background
Komen paid Planned Parenthood to provide 170,000 clinical breast examinations and over 6,000 mammogram referrals over the past five years. The services were provided to financially disadvantaged women across the USA. Planned Parenthood state they "delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide" They are viewed as controversial by some, because Planned Parenthood is an organisation that also provides abortion services.
Last Week
On January 31, 2012, Komen stopped its funding to Planned Parenthood. They announced this was the result of a congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood. The investigation it has been reported was instigated by anti abortion advocates.
Komen say on their website: Are you a member of a social network and want to show your support for a world without breast cancer? Now you can! See how easy it is to communicate and interact with us...Feel free to share your personal stories, pictures and videos as well!
On this issue, people certainly engaged. Within hours, Twitter went crazy. See graph on the right. In seven days, there were 306 000 mentions of Komen. Crucially the phrases #shameonkomen ,and #standwithpp appeared in large number.
Huffington Post has a collection of the funniest Tweets in reaction to the situation.
Komen's Facebook page has had over
38 000 comments in a week from people supporting
and opposing the decision.
The head of Planned Parenthood on Friday said "I absolutely believe the exposure on Facebook and Twitter really drove a lot of coverage by mainstream media...I've never seen anything catch fire [like this.]"
(Los Angeles Times).
The Silicon Valley Mercury quoted one supporter as saying "It's almost like Occupy Susan G. Komen,"
People used social media to tell stories about how they, or someone they knew used Planned Parenthood's basic health services. And they expressed fury at the suggestion that politics may have played a role in Komen's decision.
As the Facebook and Twitter world went crazy, the mainstream media world followed. This was followed by a major increase in donations for Planned Parenthood (three million dollars in new donations) and threats to cut, reduce and end donations and sponsorship at Komen. Three resignations occurred at Komen and Komen affiliates distanced themselves from the decision.
Outcome
The uproar eventually led to Friday
February 3, 2012's about face announcement from the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors apologising "to the American public for recent decisions" and said Komen "will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants." Komen said it will amend criteria to "make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political".
Three days it took. And a massive social media firestorm.
I am not entering into the politics or the right and wrong, I am fascinated by the power of Social Media in this situation and the way Komen reacted.
Komen's lack of response on Social Media
Komen on their website regarding social Media say: We will keep you posted on the latest discussions, news, upcoming events, pictures, videos, and more! However..
What did they say about the situation on the blog http://blog.komen.org/? Nothing. No warning it was happening, no
explanation. No response. Their most recent two week old post was on the 2012 Susan G. Komen Bahamas Race for the Cure
On their Facebook page, Komen didn't comment on the situation on January 31 instead announcing a new sponsor: Energizer .
Wednesday February 1, the silence continued and then on Thursday February 2 there were a flurry of defensive sounding posts justifying the change.
On Friday February 3 came the official (and still defensive) sounding statement: The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Worse, there were suggestions that initially the Social Media team were deleting critical or negative comments.
In Twitter world there was no acknowledgement of the controversy on @komenforthecure. On Wednesday, Komen tweeted six times. Two were links to a video statement from Komen founder Brinker three were stats, and one was a reply about the Komen Facebook page.
On Thursday, there were 42 Tweets from Komen, all were statements not interactions or responses. On Friday, Komen finally began replying to tweets but the "damage" was done.
Learnings for Not for Profits
- Be careful what you wish for: Be ready fot the consequences, if you say to your world, as Komen did. Feel free to share your personal stories, pictures and videos as well!
- Explain controversial decisions carefully
- You need to monitor your Social Media all the time.
- Any spike in traffic needs to be prepared for, monitored and responded to in hours not days
- Pro actively respond to criticisms- don't ignore them
- Don't ignore what people are saying
- Avoid being defensive
- Always tell the truth in a situation (I m not suggesting anyone misled people in this case)
- Dont delete criticism unless the criticism are libellous or full of expletives- and even then think carefully about it
