This weekend friend after friend of mine on Facebook changed their profile picture. One changed it to a Smurf, another to He Man and another still to Bart Simpson. In total probably 25 of my 171 Facebook friends had a cartoon character as a profile picture by the time I had lunch on Saturday. And it wasn’t just my friends entering this craze – all over Facebook, profile pictures had been changed. Any why? Well that’s the pivotal question. If you were lucky enough to have a friend who had also added a status update that read:
Everyone please change your profile pic to your favourite childhood cartoon character until Monday 6th December in support of the NSPCC charity.
As the NSPCC announced on Twitter this morning, the cartoon profile craze was not initiated by it but rather grew organically, virally even perhaps.
Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do 
That the NSPCC did not create this campaign did not come as a surprise, mainly because however successful it might have been, the ‘campaign’ showed clear signs of not being strategically-led. OF not working as hard as it might for the organisation. Why? Well the idea is a good one – make people reminisce about their own happy childhood to raise awareness of those children less fortunate, the work of the NSPCC to help them and, presumably, to provoke an action (supporting or even giving to them). The problem was the cartoon profiles did not do this. Not only was there, in many cases, no reason given for the change in to a cartoon, there was also no call to action to support or even to donate to the NSPCC. In fact, I suspect the campaign also failed to raise significant discussions about the work of the NSPCC and of child protection in the UK. My suspicion is that most people would actually be more likely to talk about the cartoon than child abuse.
There have been many similar ‘campaigns’ in social media and social networks – changing profile pictures or annotating them in some way, or even passing messages in your status updates (such as the ‘I like it on…’ breast cancer awareness status campaign). The problem with many of these is that it is often not clear what the change is in aid of, and there is rarely a clear call to action or next step. Both are critical if you are to successfully get benefit from campaigns in social media. Tell people who you are and give them something to do next – if you engage them with something fun then give them something to do next, somewhere to find more information, learn or engage further.
Charities, on the whole, show some of the most innovative use of social media. Even with simple status-based tactics. From simple Twitter status takeovers (passing a clear message with a link through to donate to a charity you are supporting) to micro-donating on Facebook as we have seen with charities such as Breast Cancer Care in the UK.
The cartoon profiles this weekend were not started by NSPCC, they probably did raise some awareness of the charity and of the issues related to child abuse. But they could have done so much more. Social media can be a great media through which to raise awareness or to get a message out. But it is important to give people a way to find out more, a way to keep them in the experience with the organisation and to engage more deeply. It is important to let people know why their status or profile picture is changing and to truly educate them not just about cartoons, but about the real issues that you want to raise. If a ‘campaign’ is going to go viral, then make sure your message and call to action goes viral with it.
(Note – I didn’t change my own profile picture. If I had, it would probably have been to Penfold from Dangermouse)
8th December 2010, 03:23 pm 
