6 minuti
Elisabetta
#Culture
Social responsibility in times of health emergency
Everyone, or almost everyone, has seen it: The Social Dilemma is the Netflix-produced docu-film that has rocked the big web giants like Google and Facebook. A documentary that brings the testimonies of former employees who left these realities driven by ethical motivations. In the cast we find the greatest programmers of the digital era, from the inventor of the Facebook ‘like’ button to the man who created new features for Google’s email in order to induce users to use the app more consistently.
These people asked themselves: to what extent can my work create harm to others?
What this documentary tries to explain is primarily this concept: ‘if it is free, then you are the product’. So socials are available to everyone and are free, because behind it there is a system of algorithms that studies the interests, hobbies, passions of the users. Facebook sees us as possible buyers of a product that it sponsors. The more time we spend on social with content that interests us, the more we are possible buyers of companies’ products.
Secondly, the problem of fake news emerges . It is now clear that through mechanisms such as ‘recommended videos on YouTube’ users can feel conditioned by ‘untrue truths’. Fear and misinformation can grow to the point of creating even very serious social side effects, as in the example of the genocide of Muslims in Myanmar, where the platform gave the military the perfect weapons to encourage incitement to violence, with terrible consequences such as murder, violence and other crimes.
The phenomenon of fake news is now so ingrained in social networks that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between fiction and reality. In most cases, the pages offering this kind of news rely on headlines that create feelings such as anger, indignation, sadness. The user generally shares these posts without even reading the article and without checking the date of the news, which is often months or even years old.
The portals that ‘host’ the news are also full of advertisements, so as to generate income from page views and sponsored banners within them.
The most widely used system is Google Adsense, where advertising images and videos are shown, managed through Google Ads (display campaigns). Each view generates a micro-gain for the platform owner and the volumes must be very high to become a satisfactory source of income.
Sensationalist headlines serve to generate shares organically among Facebook users, without the need to sponsor posts. This is also because in many cases the control system would block this type of news, especially if it is related to racial, medical or social issues.
According to the latest report published by Contenuti Digitali, a digital marketing resource site, of the unreliable sites that have published false claims about Covid-19 as many as 23 are in Italy, and in August alone they generated a total of 16.3 million visits. Typically, only 2 pages are visited, but the average visit duration is 5′ 36. It makes one think that only 8% of the traffic of fake news sites comes from search engines, while the majority comes from social networks.
Thinking about the current pandemic situation, the NewsGuard portal tells us that there are 352 unreliable sites around the world that have published false claims about the coronavirus and counting. Thought-provoking numbers that explain why there is so much misinformation on health issues.
In this situation, one wonders what is the escape route to these dynamics.
Surely the solution cannot be the one proposed by The Social Dilemma, i.e. to delete oneself from the various Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc. and return to a pre-social life. It is anachronistic but above all unrealistic.
It is hard to think that we could really stop using social networks, and also hard to believe that the so-called ‘algorithms’ are not being increasingly refined for commercial purposes. We must always bear in mind that social networks and search engines help companies to grow and thus generate wealth.
Can we believe that brands, creators and influencers can also play a socially useful role in this context?
The answer is undoubtedly yes. There are a great many brands and influencers who have made efforts to raise awareness, both during the first months of the year when the whole country was forced into a period of general shutdown, and today, when the pandemic still continues to strongly affect our lives. Even in a small way, operations can be done to create positive ‘noise’ around the brand and work towards awareness, while also doing good and promoting a positive use of social channels.
The “INFORMING FOR LIFE” project
INFORMING FOR LIFE is a communication project promoted by the MSD Foundation in partnership with CICAP (Italian Committee for the Control of Claims on Pseudoscience) with the aim of promoting validated scientific information on the web. The project stems from the desire to identify a shared response to the issue of fake news applied to the scientific and health sector. This type of information in fact has non-negligible repercussions at a social level, with potential consequences on people’s health.
Journalists, researchers and web experts met to discuss how social media can be exploited to limit misinformation and possible tools for verifying images and sources.
According to data released by Mark Zuckerberg’s colossus in April 2020, during the lockdown, in our country the time spent on its own apps such as Facebook and Instagram would have grown by +70% and with it, unfortunately, also the spread of fake news.
In addition to pushing the quality of information, communication on health issues should also involve creators and influencers, people who are trusted by their followers . This is actually nothing new if we think that already in 1956 Elvis Presley lent his notoriety to a public health cause: he took his polio vaccine on camera. Also thanks to his influence, vaccination coverage grew from 75% to 90% and in 10 years polio cases dropped from 58,000 to 910.
We recently had the example of one of the most influential couples on the social scene: the ‘Ferragnez’. Following the Prime Minister’s invitation, Fedez and Chiara Ferragni posted stories on Instagram inviting young people to use a mask. That day, posts, stories, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that contained the quote ‘use a mask‘ almost doubled within 24 hours.
Burger King’s appeal for solidarity
On 2 November 2020, Burger King literally flooded social channels with a headline that really left one speechless: ‘order from McDonald’s!’
The text read as follows:
<< We never thought we would ask you to do this. Nor would we ever have thought of encouraging you to order from KFC, Subway, Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Five Guys, Greggs, Taco Bell, Papa John’s, Leon’s or any of the other independent food outlets too numerous to mention here. In short, from any of our sister chains in food (fast or not fast). We never thought we would ask you to do this, but restaurants employing thousands of employees really need your support right now. So if you want to help, keep treating yourself to tasty meals through home delivery, takeaway or car delivery. Getting a Whopper is always best, but ordering a Big Mac isn’t so bad either. Take care >>
This kind of open letter was posted on all his social profiles and in different languages according to the country, at a very particular time for the restaurant industry, given the new restrictions and lockdowns imposed across Europe due to the increase in Covid-19 infections. The vulnerability of the sector is shown, with the irony typical of the communication of this brand that is no stranger to this type of provocation.
In this case, Burger King wanted to deal with an issue of real depth for the historical moment we are living. The company is the spokesperson for a common difficulty, asking for help with an open heart.
The communicative intent is one of solidarity, and beyond possible image returns for the brand itself, this call for a common front was appreciated in all the countries where Burger King published this note.
The Cinico Tour to boost Italian tourism
Cristina Fogazzi, alias‘Estetista Cinica‘, is an entrepreneur from Brescia and owner of the Veralab brand that sells cosmetics online. A brand that is very active on social media, with an Instagram profile that counts almost 800 thousand followers and with revenues that in the first half of 2020 exceeded 35 million euro, with peaks of 4-5 million per month during the lockdown.
During the summer, the brand wanted to use its popularity to promote Italy at a time when tourism was particularly affected by the global pandemic. The desire is to ‘take to the streets’ to meet customers and followers, thus creating added value. The Cinico Tour is a road show that touches several Italian villages, offering beauty consultations to followers together with the beauticians of his beauty centre in Milan.
These events are completely self-financed and if we think of the 2019 edition, the cost was a good 230 thousand euros. During these events, free guided tours are also offered to discover the beauty of the city accompanied by local tour guides.
Surely one has to ask, why does a brand like this spend thousands of euros on a promotional tour that is potentially a loss-making operation (economically speaking)?
Certainly for marketers, the objective of generating Awareness is obvious, breaking away from online mechanisms to focus on offline ones, with a physical and well thought-out presence in the territory. But this initiative also serves to take a stand, as Cristina Fogazzi stated: ‘at this time, if you have the opportunity to help the economy, everyone in their own small way must do something’.
The people who participate in the events travel, eat and drink, and this means work for hotels and restaurants, as well as the promotion of tourist and cultural attractions through the telling of events on social media.
There would be many other initiatives to tell and in all these stories emerges the possibility of making social networks and the web in general a place of positive sharing, solidarity and above all optimism, at a time when they seem so hard to find for users and brands themselves.
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