Which organization do you believe used social media more effectively and why?
In my point of view, Planned Parenthood acted more professionally in organizing their social media policy. Besides, as their actions of the Internet were called ‘responsive and fast’, the reaction of their supporters was immediate too. What is more important, the social media policy of Planned Parenthood soon grew into a more conscious campaign with controlling the content, as well as the special apps to search the potential supporters (Lopatto & Edney, 2012). First of all, they were first to turn to the Internet as the free of charge resource to popularize their ideas. One of the examples of the quite thoughtful social media campaigns is the Tumblr blog ‘Planned Parenthood Saved Me’ wasrun by one of the Planned Parenthood Managers. Alongside with such an active and professional social media policy of Planned Parenthood, the reaction of Komen was too slow. That is why I believe Planned Parenthood is more effective in social media.
What role did social media play in this conflict: as a supporter of TV reporting or did it lead the TV reporting and the TV reporting was the supporter of social media? Please explain your reasoning and cite specific social media platforms that played the largest role in the conflict?
In this conflict, mass media and social media have shown the tendency to cooperate closely. However, when taking as an example ‘Planned Parenthood Saved Me’, here TV reporting played the role of the supporter of social media. This blog was mentioned by the broadcaster Rachel Maddow on her show. After this appearance on the TV, Zandt’s blog started receiving more supporters than previously (Blasio, 2011). Additionally, television, supporting the social media, has improved its popularity among the social media itself. Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook were the most common social media websites which shew most of the attention towards the blog.
The concepts I find the most significant in this conflict are those to connect with the search of supporters, the extension of the social media platform via the mass media and the quick response to the most popular social media initiatives. In my judgment, these three concepts have made the Planned Parenthood’s social media policy more effective than Komen’s one.
The concept, which is connected to the search of the potential supporters
This concept helped Planned Parenthood extend their base of supporters and increase the number of people, who were aware of the conflict. Simply using Facebook, the managers arranged the search of the users with a special set of features, which made these people a potential audience of the Planned Parenthood (Ward, 2012). In fact, this search engine optimization has helped them to draw more attention to their official site or official Facebook page in order to make their campaign more popular.
The concept, which is connected to the mass media interference with social media
The already mentioned case with the popularization of the blog by mentioning it on the TV is the representation of this concept. The connections which exist between the audiences of the TV and the social media users is the power, which can be used to draw more attention as well as find more supporters.
The concept, which is connected to the social media response
The ignorance of Komen and its failure to make use of this concept has made their social media campaign less effective. The example is Komen’s reaction to the video called “Straight Talk” when after the enabling of the comments there appeared up to 5 thousand users supporting Planned Parenthood. After such a success, Komen has failed to react immediately and has lost the chance to take the initiative. Besides, after this case, Komen’s social policy was considered “totally outflanked” (Handel, 2012). This lack of on time and professional response in the field of social media has made Planned Parenthood’s social media policy ‘responsive and fast’ on the contrary to their competitors.
References
Handel, K. (2012). Planned bullyhood. New York: Howard Books.
Ward, A. (2012). Stand with Planned Parenthood: Lessons from Crisis Response Campaigns. Non-Profit Times. Retrieved from http://www.thenonprofittimes.com/article/detail/stand-with-planned-parenthood-lessons-from-crisis-responsecampaigns-4462
Blasio, B. (2011). The Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-de-blasio/the-conservative-war-agai_b_826615.html
Lopatto, E. & Edney, A. (2012). Planned Parenthood Gains Online Push for Komen Funds.Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 29 June 2016, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-02-01/planned-parenthood-seeks-to-replace-lost-komen-group-breast-cancer-grants
