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Tellefsen
Paul Tellefsen
12 December 2011
EMAC 4372
Kim Knight
Virality of Giving: Convergence Culture Affords Social Activism
“Giving is what fuels us. Giving is our future”
-Blake Mycoskie
Welcome to the 21stCentury. We live in a new world—a convergence and participatory culture (Jenkins, 11). Henry Jenkins, author of Convergence Culture, said, “Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interactions with others (Jenkins, 3).”We are in constant interaction with friends and family, whether they are physically with us or digitally on the computer or device’s screen. News is now at our fingertips, and unlike the past news, we can now interact with it through social media like Twitter and Facebook.
In this new age of connection, we have access to knowledge faster. With this new collective intelligence, we also gain an insight into social issues that are occurring in this nation and second and third world countries around the world. Poverty, sex trafficking, starvation and disease are issues that did not have a widely known about. But in this convergence culture, organizations have been created, with new knowledge, in response to the issues.
Through the aid of new media, these organizations have begun what Zoe Fox of Mashable calls “philanthropic ecommerce, (Fox, 1)” or giving to a cause and getting something in return. Giving is beginning its viral climb, but not the giving we know. Instead of giving just to give, giving to get is the new style of support. This generation needs incentive to give.
Viral media is changing the way we handle social issues and convergence culture affords our support to change each one. Through studying for-profit and non-profit organizations like Hello Somebody, Krochet Kids, TOMS and Sevenly it’s evidenthow each individual culture is shaped and grounded in aspects of viral media—specificallygiving.
Hello Somebody
Founded in 2007, Hello Somebody is a food initiative to help end world hunger. Their goal each year is to feed one million meals to people in need across the world. In their first nine months, they had already given one million meals. This was only possible with supporter’s help. For every product bought, Hello Somebody sends a certain amount of meals to people in need.
Most of their advertising and marketing is done through social media. They are most active on their Twitter and Facebook accounts.On Twitter, they have over 9,000 followers and they have over 6,000 Facebook likes.In their field, Hello Somebody is a “maven.” “Mavens are those who collect information and are seen as experts in their subject matter (Westerman, 201).” Maven is a proper term for Hello Somebody because they collect information from the 5,000 tweeters they follow as well as through their relationship network. Hello Somebody encourages their followers to show their support by tweeting pictures of themselves in their apparel on Hello Somebody Wednesdays. “It's a Hello Somebody Wednesday. Tweet us a pic of you wearing your HS gear” (@HelloSomebody Tweet from December 6, 2011).
They encourage interaction with their media with the incentive of feeding more children. We participate in this cause by posting a status update or telling someone about it to help spread the word. We interact by buying the cause products or creating our own media about the cause. Convergence in this cause would be spreading the word about the company with the aid of the cause products.
The man behind Hello Somebody is Ben Pirtle. One of the many reasons Hello Somebody has been so successful is because of Pirtle’s influence and connections. Without him,the organization would not be where it is today. Anyone can start an organization, but to make it “go viral” and to make a change, you need connections.
Hello Somebody has viral aspects to its structure. It has grassroots beginnings and some of those characteristics still exist. When they sell a product, they use a connection of Pirtle’s for the shipping and handling. Even the spread of the cause was grassroots. They partnered with musicians who reached a certain audience to further their cause.
Corporations– and even individuals within corporate media– still exert greater power than any individual consumer or even the aggregate consumer (Jenkins, 3).
Most of the artists who support Hello Somebody had more influence than the organization to begin with. And so by partnering with these artists,Hello Somebody gained a larger influence. After the artists were on board with the cause, they would unknowingly advertise the cause products by wearing the product or by tweeting them in it. Then, the people that they influenced would receive the message about the cause, and the loop goes on. This spread mimics the spread of a biological virus; the cause spread from one to another either over the air or by contact.
This cause has gone “viral” in certain large circles, but in certain circles it has yet to become a widespread and known cause. It was not the company that made it viral, but the supporters.
Krochet Kids
“Buy a Hat. Change a Life.” This slogan has been the heart of Krochet Kids International since it was founded in 2007. CEO and Co-Founder Kohl Creceliuslearned how to crochet from his older brother in high school. During college, Kohl and his two friends, Travis and Stewart,were encouraged by family to “teach people in developing countries how to crochet as a means of breaking the cycle of poverty” (Our Story, 1). Each hat bought from Krochet Kids is hand crocheted by a woman in one of the partnering countries—Uganda and Peru. There is even a tag on the inside with each women’s hand written signature. The money from each hat goes to helping each women make a living and give her family a good life.
In 2011, Krochet Kids partnered with Bing to run a series of commercials that aired nationwide. Unlike most of the organizations discussed in this paper, I discovered Krochet Kids through mass media and not social media. It seems that this marketing was successful from an outside perspective because there has been an influx in the amount of support. There was a shortage of hats just recently.
Buying a hat gives the consumer a sense of ownership in making a change. This is what will make Krochet Kids viral; we can change the course of those women’s lives forever. There are viral aspects to the Krochet Kids culture. The Godfather, Kohl’s brother, is respected as the man responsible for starting Krochet Kids, because he taught them to crochet. In his honor, Krochet Kids has set up a section of their website and their culture to him. They have created an image meme of his face and you can upload images of you and him. They have a photo feed on their website, so you can see where he has been. It also is a sign of where the cause has spread.
One way the customer can interact with Krochet Kids, and more specifically the woman who crocheted their hat, is through thank you notes. After receiving the hat, the customer can go on Krochet Kids’ website and write her a thank you note. They will then print and send the letter to her. It is something simple, but uplifting for the womenthat connects you to the women.
TOMS
Giving is the foundation upon which TOMS Shoes was built. The One for One Movement was birthed out of Blake Mycoskie’s desire to protect the feet of Argentinians in 2006. “With every pair [of shoes] you purchase TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need” (One for One Movement, 1). Just a simple pair of shoes can help protect a child from soil-transmitted diseases. The shoes also provide an education, because dress code calls for each student to have shoes.
TOMS (Tomorrow Shoes) has gone viral. It is one of the most widely supported organizations. TOMS is the Facebook of social justice organizations. If someone set out to start an organization they would first look to TOMS to see how they run business. They are the first organization I supported.
One part of the TOMS culture is the TOMS Flag meme. In every box of shoes purchased they insert one of their TOMS flags. The flag is a great way to show support and it is also great to take pictures with and post on social media. The flag is also useful on the influential Day Without Shoes. Annually in April, TOMS hosts a nationwide day event where supporters go without shoes to raise awareness about the conditions in developing countries. The day was actually started by TOMS supporters and later adopted and branded by TOMS Shoes.
Besides TOMS being viral, Blake himself is viral in some regards. Most spokespeople for these organizations are not as well known as Blake. He is the face of TOMS. Because he travels and speaks to big crowds he is spreading their message of giving.
I had the pleasure of hearing Blake speak in April 2011. He spoke of future plans for the company as well business philosophies. He said that if giving became your business model that your customers would be your greatest marketers (Mycoskie, 1).This statement is true. I not only want to support these organizations, but I also want to tell everyone about the cause. This paper is proof of that fact.
TOMS had grassroots beginnings. Starting in Blake’s apartment, it was not until they were featured in a 2006 edition of Vogue, that the company achieved their viral status. Now they have almost one million followers on Twitter, and they have over a million likes on Facebook. TOMS has changed from viral to popular, because they reached the peak of virality. The shoe itself is now more popular to own than the cause. But TOMS is still making giving viral. Blake even published a book recently, Start Something That Matters which debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list(About Blake Mycoskie, 1).
Sevenly
With the massive amount of non-profit organizations,many other organizations get overshadowed, underrepresented and underfunded. This is where Sevenly steps in. “Sevenly is an organic funding movement to raise capital and awareness for the world’s greatest causes”(Sevenly, 1). Dale Partridge and Aaron Chavez are Sevenly’s co-founders. Each week, Sevenly partners with a different non-profit organization and creates limited edition t-shirts and hoodiesthat sell for seven days. For every $22 shirt and hoodie sold, seven dollars go directly to the company.
They not only set monetary goals, but also social goals. Part of the Sevenly culture and model is “viral social media awareness.” They want to aid each non-profit in raising awareness and commitment to their cause. When a customer buys a shirt, Sevenly’shope is they share it on their social network and that more people will then buy a shirt and share it (Mission, 1).
When Sevenly was created, they had the non-profits in mind. In an effort to give more to non-profits, Sevenly is a for-profit company because there are fewer restrictions in giving. In fact the $7 they give is more than 30% of their revenue (Frequently Asked Questions, 1).
One reason Sevenly has been successful is the viral fairytale. Non-profits want to partner with them because they hope to create a viral and committed following. The customer wants to support these organizations because they want to aid in making a fairytale come true.
Most of the non-profits Sevenly features have been successful in spreading viral awareness and raising commitment. Many have seen an influx in Twitter and Facebook followers and likes. Not only, have these non-profits been viral, butso has Sevenly. They have fewer followers than some of the organizations they have partnered with, which is interesting. This shows that the supporters of Sevenly have more influence online than Sevenly themselves.The organization first partnered with an established company, International Justice Mission, to gain a following and to get in the viral door (Fox, 2). Now the organizations they support are in need of awareness and funding and because they have an influence they can effectively see change.
Conclusion
Every company discussed participates in philanthropic ecommerce through selling products to customers. Clothes and jewelry have certain affordances. Clothes afford wearing or using to keep warm. Jewelry affords wearing and showing meaning. We look at products like clothes or jewelry and think there could never be more to them. When we do this, we suppress its potentiality. But these companies are giving potential back to their products, when they are used for more than just fashion. They can change the appearance of a nation. The standard object of clothes is to wear, but each organization is breaking that standard object by giving their products a new function—change (Fuller, 88-91).
The organizations we support affect the way we see reality. It seems that there is an aura with supporting these organizations. Walter Benjamin gives a proper definition of aura.
We define the aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch (Benjamin, 1).
Aura is all about authenticity. The aura of an organization is when we see their authenticity and cry to take action. When we experience the aura, we are almost drawn to support. Not only does supporting that organization help foster change, but it also gives us purpose and value.
Lauren Beckham Flacone says that social activism is not all that active. “Armchair activism only goes so far. Changing your status doesn't change anything. Getting off the couch and doing something does (Beckham Falcone, 1).” I would agree that just sitting on the couch and posting an update does not necessarily change the any lives. But when someone says “armchair activism” can never change anything, we are suppressing the potential for interactivity and change (Beckham Falcone, 2). Some supporters do just update their social netoworks, but others take another step and get involved in an organization and invest money and time into it.
Giving has changed. These organizations are definitely giving, but what has changed is the donor. The donor is now a customer because these organizations give in return for the customer’s donation. What if there was an organization that did not advertise products, but when money was donated towards their cause they sent the donor something in return? Would this organization even survive? With the overall social activist culture as it is today, the organization would probably not survive.
It is not these organizations going viral that matters, but the idea of giving that needs virality. The philosophy of giving is what runs deep in the culture of each of these organizations; it is the key. It does not matter if they are for-profit or non-profit—eachone is making a difference and making giving viral.
Why does any of this matter? Nancy Proctor in Digital: Museum as Platform, Curator as Champion, in the Age of Social Media cites Chris Anderson saying that “things we’re most passionate about tend to be ‘niche’ as opposed to ‘mass market’” (Proctor, 40). These social issues are not just ‘niche’ issues. They are issues that are affecting the world that we live in. We need to take part in fostering change across the world. Giving should become viral and something that is apart of every organization and business because it rallies support, and it also fosters change on both sides—thegiver and receiver.
Works Cited
"About Blake Mycoskie | Start Something That Matters." Start Something That Matters I A Book by Blake Mycoskie. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <
Beckham Falcone, Lauren. "To be charitable, online activism not worth much." Boston Herald (MA) 07 Dec. 2010: Newspaper Source. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
Benjamin, Walter. "Walter Benjamin." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 01 Nov. 2011. <
Fox, Zoe. "Is Sevenly the Next TOMS Shoes?" Social Media News and Web Tips. Mashable | The Social Media Guide. 12 July 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <
"Frequently Asked Questions | Sevenly, Support a Cause." Tee-Shirts That Raise Money for Charities | Sevenly, Support a Cause. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <
Fuller, Matthew. Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.: MIT, 2007. Print.
Jenkins, Henry.Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2008. Print.
"Mission | Sevenly, Support a Cause." Tee-Shirts That Raise Money for Charities | Sevenly, Support a Cause. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <