Planned Parenthood Federation of
America is the
nation’s largest non-profit
organization that
provides vital reproductive
health care and sex education, as well as maternal and child health services. PPFA has
its roots in Brooklyn,
New York, where Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic
in the US. She founded the American Birth Control League in 1916. She opened a new clinic in Manhattan, New York,
which changed its name to "Planned Parenthood" (PP). It has since grown and consists of approximately 77 affiliates
and over 800 clinics in the United States, with a total
budget of about US$1 billion. PP provides services to over three million people
in the country, and supports services for over one million people outside the
United States.
PP is the largest provider of
reproductive health services in the United States, with clinical interactions
focused on breast and cervical cancer screening, HIV screening and counseling, `contraception, and abortion. The main source of funding of PP is
from Medicaid, grants and contributions. One of the funding partner is Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation (nonprofit organization) who was funding as grants to pay clinical
breast examination and mammograms.
by Susan G. Komen (Komen), a
nonprofit organization that seeks to “end breast cancer by funding
groundbreaking research, community health & advocacy programs globally”. It
was founded in 1982 by Nancy Brinker whose sister died after battling breast
cancer. The year after, Brinker created the first Susan G. Komen Race for the
Cure, where the pink ribbon (logo) became famous between women that supported
the organizations goals. The foundation also licensed products to raise funds
that were in turn granted to health service providers, research centers,
academic institutions and other organizations working to cure breast cancer. By
2012 Komen operated internationally, sponsoring races, research and programs in
50 countries. The same year the organization supported 124 affiliates.
Komen began providing
funding to PP in 2005 because Komen thought PP was its sister in the nonprofit
world with common cause. But Komen had been considering whether to end funding
to PP in 2011 because Komen had been a target of anti-abortion groups. So
controversy between them occurred at that time. We have discussed the case
dividing the Social Media class in two groups.
During the course of
discussion, it was found that both used social media tools like Facebook and
Twitter and traditional media also. However, the proactive social media tactics
of PP played crucial role in regaining the funds from Komen. The a comparative
statement of Social media tactics played are as under:
Social
Media Tactics
|
Played
by Planned parenthood
|
Played
by Komen
|
1:
Alignment of Content Development with Social Media Metrics and Goals
|
Very
effective and prompt
|
Not
so effective
|
2:
Content Strategy with a Big-Brand Mindset
|
Twitter,
Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Google plus
|
Facebook
|
3:
Concentration on Increasing Daily Updates
|
Promptly
done
|
Not
done
|
4:
Engaged in Real Interactions with followers
|
Very
actively
|
Not
done
|
5:
Introduced Contents with Infographics
|
Done
in respect of actual beneficiary
|
No
infographics
|
6:
Network in All the Right Places
|
Yes,
Media, Congress, Facebook and Twitter followers, beneficiaries and
contributors
|
Not
engaged except one news agency and few anti-abortion groups
|
7:
Strengthened In-Person Events with Social Media
a.
Engaging—encouraging potential attendees to interact
with you early on by crowdsourcing feedback.
b.
Intriguing—creating an event page on event listing
sites (e.g., Facebook).
c.
Invigorate potential attendees with videos, press
releases, Twitter list of attendees, etc.
d.
Integrating—picking a hashtag for the event to get
people talking.
e.
Informing—asking attendees to vote on session
suggestions via text messages.
f.
Propagating—streaming live video of events.
|
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
|
No
No
No
No
No
No
|
8:
Regular interactions with Team Members to Keep up Momentum and Morale
|
Yes
|
No
|
Finally
Komen reversed the decision to defund Planned Parenthood projects. In February
2012, Komen board member John D. Rafaelli gave an interview to The Huffington
Post, were he apologized for failing in trying to keep abortion out of this. In
a public statement replied in the press, Komen reaffirm its commitment to their
mission of saving women’s life.
“By
focusing on the broader message of women’s health, rather than abortion
politics, PP was able to recast the issue of breast-cancer screening into the
larger context of public health, saying public health is not meant to be a
political issue”.
This case is a very good example of the potential of use of social media. But this also raises a question : In today's world, Whether strategy to use social media to propagate an idea/message has gained importance over the merit of the idea/message itself ??
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