Consider the statements “For every person who shares this message, we will donate ___ ” and “If 75% of viewers donate, we will ___”. These statements, commonly from a company supporting a cause, have becoming a common occurrence, spreading virally across hundreds of Facebook profiles in the matter of minutes. I have always considered these campaigns the most effective forms of marketing through Facebook but have never really considered what it is about these action-spurring statements that makes it so appealing. In fact, if I had to choose, I would think that the first statement, where every donation is matched, would be more appealing than the second statement, which contains a condition for the donation. Katya, the writer of a non-profit marketing blog, argues otherwise.
In Katya’s blog “How to make your donors twice as generous”, she states that the sense of collective responsibility and shared reward is more inspiring to donors than the knowledge that there will be an guaranteed benefit (matched donation) for our individual decisions. In fact, she argues that donors would be twice as generous if the condition was present , due to the sense of peer pressure. In some ways, I can understand the reasoning behind it. If I were a potential donor, the thought that my action just might be the difference between meeting that target is very motivating. However, didn’t we learn in finance and economics that everyone is generally risk-averse? Wouldn’t I feel safer donating to a cause that guarantees the result that I am seeking, rather than donating while leaving the result in the hands of hundreds of strangers I will never meet? With this mindset, I find it hard to believe Katya’s claim that that peer pressure is more effective than risk-less giving of a guaranteed reward. The possibility that is it exactly that risk that is present in the conditional sentence that makes the collective reward so much sweeter. Either way, this form of marketing, where viewers and donors feel empowered in that their individual actions shape the result of a campaign supporting a good cause, is one of the best uses of Facebook!
