Network Effect on Social Media Activism
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hashtag-activism-hashtag10-twitter-trends-dresslik/
A network effect is the effect described in economics and business that an additional user of goods or services has on the value of that product to others. When a network effect is present, the value of a product or service increases according to the number of others using it. In the modern age, made possible by the prevalent use of social media, the network effect can be seen not only on physical products or services but also on political and social campaigns. For instance, the ASL Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014 set a precedent and record in the history of social media activism movements that many have tried to match in the years since. The unprecedented number of participants over all social media platforms and its astounding results perfectly exemplified the network effect.
The challenge encouraged nominated participants to film a video of themselves having a bucket of ice water poured over their heads and them nominating others to do the same afterward in an effort to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. The challenge immediately went viral on social media. According to New York Times, in the end, the social media activism campaign was able to raise over $220 million altogether worldwide for the disease while the ALS Association alone received more than $41.8 million from more than 739,000 new donors between July 29 and August 21, 2014, more than double the donations to the charity for the whole of 2012.
Such achievement would not have been possible without the power and presence of social media and its fundamental network structural properties. Firstly, social media made connectivity, the number of nodes that can reach one another and the distance and speed information can flow, more effective and efficient. With Facebook and Instagram, the users can easily connect with one another with the click of a button on his/her laptop or phone unbounded by physical distance. No matter where the user was doing the ice bucket challenge, all its connections would see the video via the internet and thus receive information and updates on the topic of ALS. Secondly, social media’s clustering effect, separation of nodes into sub-communities, made the ASL ice bucket challenge a popular topic and commonly performed activity among all groups. Once a person in the cluster group initiates the challenge, the rest of the group would follow because of persuasion, conformity, imitation, or a combination of them, and this phenomenon instigates actual action when it comes to social media activism. Last but not least, social media’s centralization property, the importance of a small number of nodes and their power over the rest, was another reason why the ASL Ice Bucket Challenge became so influential. On social media, celebrities possess immense influence over the rest of the crowd because of their fame, public image, and social status. As a result, when more and more celebrities started doing the challenge, the rest of the users on social media wanted to participate, thus generating more attention and momentum for the topic, eventually achieving the network effect.