My vote counts!

Today’s entry pertains to the power of influence though people you know. Elections took place yesterday all across the U.S. Election Day can be a sad day for American patriotism. We live in a nation where more people vote for American Idol than political elections. In some countries, people are literally shot at on their way to the polls. The only problems most Americans face is adding twenty minutes to take advantage of an incredible right often taken for granted.

I had a very full day yesterday and was actually not going to end up having time to stop by and cast a vote. This was until my professor walked into class with a sticker on his shirt that read, “My vote counts.” This inspired me to be late to my next class and go vote.

I thought about the power of a simple sticker, a piece of recognition, had on my decision. Being from Texas, a state as red as they come, my vote was not necessarily the most important vote, but seeing my professor’s sticker did draw me to action. I wanted a sticker. I wanted to boast on campus that I had fulfilled my patriotic duty.

This idea of inciting action made me think of how social media could use “stickers” to differentiate and excite people. Once I got home, I discovered I was not the only one who thought of this idea. Facebook had made a universal change to the top of all Facebook home pages. You could let the world know you voted. When I signed on late last night, 11 million people had voted. This is the message:

Why am I seeing the Election Day message on my home page?

We show the Election Day message to all users who are accessing Facebook from a country that is currently in an election period.

I was excited to click the, “I voted button.” I soon found out, however, that tons of people lied about voting. My roommates, who just told me they didn’t vote, had said they had voted to Facebook. This made the power of the online sticker less effective.

The reason the sticker got me to do something was because the only way to get one was to go vote. If Facebook could have somehow verified who had voted, then the app could have actually gotten people to vote.

For PR professionals to get people to take up a cause I believe a differential mark, that is exclusive, can motivate people. This can be true with a simple sticker on someone’s person, or a differentiating mark on social networking sites.

If businesses could somehow reward customers with some online uniqueness, only attainable from within the store, people would potentially react the same way I did. People could display all their “rewards” to the Facebook world. It would grow as a collection. It could drive people’s will to collect.

Just talking from experience on the power of a simple sticker and thinking out loud about how to effectively use this principle on social media sites. Any other ideas on how to use this idea?