Facebook launched two new initiatives related to donating to charities on their platform this week. First, they have updated the "Donate" button on Facebook which encourages consumers to donate to causes that might be of interest to them or that their friends have donated to. In addition, they are piloting several new tools. First, they are allowing charities to show how far they are to reaching their goal in consumer posts about the charity donation they have made. Second, they are making the posts by donators more dynamic and allowing consumers to encourage friends to donate via their posts. Most importantly, they are now allowing consumers to donate within Facebook via Paypal. This would require/allow consumers to attach a credit card to their Facebook account. As with all changes Facebook makes, there are critics of this seemingly charitable effort on their part. First, many are saying that this is a ploy of theirs to encourage consumers to utilize their platform for e-commerce. The theory is that once a consumer has attached a credit card to their Facebook account, they will be incentivized to purchase other items through the platform. Second, many are saying that Facebook is trying to get consumers hooked on donating in this manner so that they can then charge charities a processing fee for consumers who donate via Facebook.
Overall, I think that it's an interesting way for Facebook to pilot and perfect their e-commerce platform through a good cause. It remains to be seen whether these adjustments will increase consumer donations via Facebook or elicit positive feedback from charities and consumers alike. One thing that is becoming clear is that nothing is safe from Facebook's internal testing!
Link: http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/facebooks-new-tools-make-it-easier-to-donate-money-track-fundraising/
1 comment:
Will be interesting to see if/how they market this around Giving Tuesday next week, and whether this will get some traction from users then, too!
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