Wikipedia, Google, and other sites slowed, if not killed, the SOPA and PIPA legislation with their blackout protest on Wednesday, January 18. The big sites behind the blackout clearly exploited their massive reach and place in people’s daily lives, enabling the protest to grow with amazing speed. Equally important, the sites adeptly employed key strategies for sparking a movement.
Other organizations can mobilize people for their cause by understanding the key strategies of movements and examining how the blackout followed those strategies.
1. Share a Purpose
Having a purpose inspires passion and participation. At the heart of the protest was a belief that the Internet and information should be free. But a purpose doesn’t have to be altruistic. Many Wikipedia or Google users probably acted out of concern they’d lose access to these incredibly convenient resources.
2. Pique Curiosity
Curiosity leads people down the rabbit hole. Many people had probably heard little or nothing about SOPA or PIPA. A new and imminent threat certainly provokes curiosity – and alarm.
3. Direct the Action
Give people a specific and easy way to participate. HelloFax created a very simple form to send a fax to your members of congress, based on your ZIP code. Wikipedia also encouraged visitors to contact their members of congress and streamlined the process by providing email addresses and links based on ZIP codes. As a result, four million looked up contact information, according to Wikipedia.
4. Open Up the Movement
This is a no-brainer for a public advocacy campaign, and the protest spread to many sites, big and small. It also holds true for movements meant to support a particular brand or company. Give advocates a purpose and the tools and they will build a movement themselves. You don’t try to own it or control; you work to fuel it.
5. Create a Spectacle
Many sites and companies had voiced opposition to SOPA and PIPA prior to the blackout, but with limited effect. It took the spectacle of the blackout to gain public attention and media coverage. Creating a cultural spectacle is also a motivator and reward for participants – they can be part of something big.
6. Show Real-Time Results
This is one strategy where the blackout could have done more. Participants didn’t get much real time feedback or social proof. The sites could have shown that tallies for faxes sent or petition signatures, or perhaps that friends and colleagues had also participated.
Perhaps the best example of a movement with immediate feedback is Earth Hour – when participants see their city go dark and know that thousands or millions of other people are turning off their lights at the same time.
There are many other examples of savvy and successful movements, from the public to the commercial: the 2008 Obama campaign, the Nike+ Human Race, and the ilovebees alternate reality game for Halo2 (below). Each one serves a different purpose and employs the key strategies in different ways.
What are some other examples of successful movements?
I’d appreciate reading you thoughts: What you would add or change to the strategies?
