I have been trying to hold this in for quite some time, but after seeing yet another organization within the movement choose Twitter over Mobilize Us, I can no longer hold my tong. I understand the appeal of free, especially when so many organizations are working with such little resources. But using such a service is short sided, and does not take into account many factors that are important to an organization’s overall impact on the future.
First things first… nothing is really free. Currently, Twitter is able to provide their service for free because they have a lot of really powerful Venture Capital firms pumping millions of dollars into their “business”. But do you really think they are doing it all for nothing? NO!!! They are doing it because they are expecting to get a 100x return on their investment.
But Twitter, (like MySpace, U Tube and Facebook) are not making money by selling the service to the people using it, so how in the world are they going to make all the money they borrowed back 100 fold? The way I see it, there are two possible outcomes:
1. They sell (like MySpace did to News Corp). MySpace sold for an ungodly amount because of eye balls… the sheer number of people that go to the website. What makes Twitter valuable is the personal contact information (particularly cell phone numbers) collected by the people following and being followed by others. Can you imagine what News Corp could make off of giving their extensive network of big bucks corporate advertisers access to the Twitter user base? 2. Twitter could sell advertisements themselves, start charging for the service, or sell the phone numbers of its current and past users. Any way you cut it, the end result is people’s privacy is violated and their usage of the service will be exploited for advertising purposes.
In some cases, it will not be a big deal, and the end users might find the unsolicited communications or advertisements as nothing more than a nuisance. Ideally, the people receiving messages from progressive organizations using Twitter are not as susceptible to advertisements that create false needs and desires, so really no harm no foul right? Maybe you think so but I certainly do not. Just yesterday, I received a link to a slideshow from one of my favorite organizations, doing some of the work I think is most crucial. The slideshow was incredibly moving, as it masterfully showed the devastation caused by military force. However, the banner advertisement above the slideshow was a recruitment advertisement for the Navy Reserves. Talk about mixed messages! How about a prestigious environmental organizations messages being brought to you by Exxon Mobile or one of Monsanto’s millions of subsidiaries?
I bring this up not only because my company, Mobilize Us (http://www.MobilizeUs.com) competes with Twitter, but because I think it is indicative of a much greater issue the movement needs to address. We, as a movement have forgotten how to think of things in the context of the big picture. All too often, the decisions we make and the actions we take are a reflection of our passion and commitment to advancing our particular causes… and they come at the expense of the overall vision of what we believe the world could be.
Instead of going with the free or cheapest option when we purchase things on behalf of our organization, it would serve us well to think a little more critically about what it means to vote with our dollars. It can be as simple as spending a couple extra bucks to make sure our coffee is fair trade, or purchasing t-shirts from a company that uses organic cotton. Or in our case, paying a small minimal monthly fee that goes to a social enterprise that is a member of the social change movement versus using a free service that perpetuates the faults of the capitalistic society we currently live in. The bottom line is we are all working for a more equitable, peaceful, and sustainable future and we have a responsibility to make sure the actions we take in pursuit of our own particular issues don’t come at the expense of equally important causes or have unintentional consequences that are contradictory to our values.
PS: If you would like more information on how Mobilize Us (http://www.MobilizeUs.com) contributes to the movement, or if you have an argument in defense of Twitter, I would love to hear from you.
