If you are a motorcyclist read it further, yes
motorcycling is becoming a new trend for driving social changes. Many motorcyclists
now a days planning & executing their ride along with a social message or awareness
campaign. However in most cases the objective remains un-accounted. In current
time social media also plays a major role in driving any social campaign. If
one synchronizes the ride along with a powerful social media campaign the
result may be different. One hand reaching people physically and on other hand
driving the message through social media to masses will bring multi-dimensional
result, which can also be accounted too.
Rationales of Stake Holders:
Another area a motorcyclist inclined towards is
sponsorship for ride as well as conducting such campaign. When one thinks about
sponsorship, it has to looks in terms of pure business from the view point of sponsor.
These are stake holders who usually ready to support if they notice some
remarkable visibility. The constraint is they can’t travel physically to
evaluate the impact on ground, but they can reasonably evaluate the impact if
there is a social media activity going on related to the ride & campaign.
Discussion:
With 3.8 Bn people on Social Media today, nearly
half of world’s population is active on this digital tool of connecting people,
making it the strongest medium of penetrating the mind of masses (Statista,2020).
While face to face addresses have their inherent capability of touching every
nuance of an issue while campaigning, social media is the weapon of global
outreach. Despite all the advantages public addresses possesses in driving
public sentiments, it is often considered to be monotonous by young minds.
Because of the intrinsic faultiness and deficiencies in the education system in
our country, face to face public addresses often tend to lose their objective
in current fast speed environment. In an
era where even classrooms teachings are getting digital with the arrival of
various Ed-Tech segments in the teaching process like BYJUs, Educomp,
Extramarks, etc, use of digital technology in shaping the mindset of people is
no longer a luxury but the need of the hour (Fortune,2020).
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| An Example of Physical Public Address (PC: The Mystic Rider OneIndiaOneRide) |
Constraints & Flexibility:
Physical campaign has its own benefits, where
you can directly communicate and connect with audience. It also brings a
psychological advantage. The most effective and tried test method of driving
any social change. It’s also a fact that accessibility of social media is
independent of external factors such as physical presence, weather, and
environment like currently due to lock-down, people are unable to physically
attend public seminars but still, digital mediums are active, in a sense they
are omnipresent.
Impact Generating Social Media Campaigns:
It is to be understood that Social media
campaigns have proved their mettle in mobilising public opinion on a massive
scale. The kind of paradigm shift they have been able to bring in influencing
public is phenomenal. From private NGOs to multinational companies all are
switching to social media for campaigning. Also infusion of information
technology and artificial intelligence has further boosted the penetration
power of social media with stratification of targeted audiences as per their
location, interests, and online-activities. In recent times, India has also
become a country which is providing cheapest data in the world, inviting more
and more domestic users on social media, thereby making social media more
powerful tool of campaigning (Bigcommerce).
Beauty of # ( #DoYourPartRight ) :
With the advent of #(Hashtags) which have become
an important tool for categorization of data on social media platforms, it
streamlines the flow of similar data related to a particular issue making the
flow of information easier and faster.
The more people get associated with it, the
faster it trends on social media. A few days back, PM Modi launched a campaign
called #SheInspireUs in which people across the country were encouraged to
share their inspirational stories in which the winner was allowed to handle the
social media of PM Modi for a day.
In the current time, when the world is suffering
the menace of Coronavirus, a social media campaign named #ChineseVirus is been
trending across the globe, accusing China of being the dispenser of COVID-19.
The Campaign got so much support from people on social media that the Chinese
government, being the 2nd most powerful country in the world, had to intervene
dismissing the claims (BBC,2020)
#MeToo movement which started as a local battle
against exploitation of women in Hollywood in 2017 became a hope of torch for
women across the world who have suffered the hostility of men at some point of
their life(Wikipedia). Light of this spreading fire was seen in India too where
several women including popular celebrities brought up their horrifying stories
of sexual harassment and ill-treatment by few men. Such was the power of this
campaign that the women who were once insecure in sharing their distress to
anyone felt empowered to bring it before millions. Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP),
the ruling party in India, launched the campaign named ‘Mai Bhi Chowkidar’ in
2019 Lok Sabha elections dismissing the corruption allegations the incumbent
prime minister Narendra Modi, which led to the sweeping victory of the party in
elections then (Wikipedia).
A Balance Solution (The Combination):
The dynamics of approaching people has changed
drastically, the younger generation feels more inclined towards social media
rather than physical briefings. That's the reason an entire domain called’
digital marketing’ has emerged in the marketing industry to influence the
public mind with digital tools. Although there is still no substitute of physical
methods when it comes to campaigning in an elaborate manner, that’s the reason it’s
always advisable to combining rides with a great social media campaign plan to
reach out masses and effective stake holders.
CLICK HERE to BE a PART of SOCIAL CHANGE
REFERENCES:-
1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/
2. https://www.fortuneindia.com/ideas/edtech-telemedicine-startups-moment-under-the-sun/104382
3. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51928011
4. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sheinspiresus-the-seven-women-handling-pm-narendra-modis-social-media-accounts/article31015638.ece
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_Too_movement
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Bhi_Chowkidar
