Probably many of you receive notifications from social organizations trying to achieve awareness and identification to global issues.
Some of those organizations are focusing on a distinguished, negative perceived behavior, to which they offer a Collective Action scheduled for a specific predefined date.
Such organizations are protesting for (or against):
- Clean air: Carfree Day
- Global warming consequences: Earth Hour
- Consuming less: Buy Nothing Day
- Addictions: World Smoke Free Day
Collective Action organizations as those listed above provide all the means for a potential success by ensuring a positive reinforcement for the participants:
1. Social motivation: People from all over the globe are called to join in, to take part in a shared cause.
2. Limited time: In most cases, the call of action is limited for a short period of time, short enough for people to follow (no more than 1 day or 1 hour).
3. Viral spreading: viral e-mails, activities in social networks.
4. Feedbacks: during the campaign and following it – the number of followers and the success stories are highlighted
- On the last No Smoking Day in the UK– 1.1 million smokers reported to actually stop smoking, and a third of all smokers took a positive step towards stopping smoking.
- 44,761 people, 2435 businesses have already signed out for the next Earth Hour. 22 cities are already formally involved.
Trend tools as Blogpulse and Google Trends reveal that those campaigns are slowly developing through out the year, peaking few days before and after their chosen date.
Following the work of Earth Hour, it sure looks as it is going to receive some vibes and real actions.
“A small step for a man, big step for humanity”
If you find more relevant examples for Collective Actions – please share it with us (today!)