Did Starbucks' Social Politicking Miss the Mark?

Starbucks recently waded into the churning political waters of the federal government shutdown and debt ceiling deadline with a social-media petition drive dubbed #ComeTogether. Over 2 million voters signed the petition to tell Congress to reopen the federal government, pay its bills and craft a bipartisan long-term budget by the end of the year. The campaign started Oct. 7 with a Tweet and ads in major newspapers, followed by an Instagram video, a Facebook campaign, more Twitter requests, and a Pinterest post. The petition delivery to Congress and President Obama was set for Oct. 16. Starbucks has been involved in advocacy before, including support of marriage equality, and has been criticized for using its commercial market for cause marketing. However, a recent article for ClickZ highlighted a different problem with Starbucks' most recent social media politicking: The petition campaign missed opportunities to engage beyond a one-time click, noted Boyd Neil, senior vice president of Hill+Knowlton Strategies, in an interview. Boyd suggested tactics such as using supporter zip codes to send contact info of Congressional representatives to incite more targeted voter pressure, as well as gathering e-mail addresses for followup, action-oriented advocacy e-mails. The increased engagement would have made the campaign more powerful and less open to charges of "slacktivism." Neil is quoted: "It's the responsibility of people who organize opposition to move people from where they are now to a place where they take more action. If I sign the petition, it's not my fault I don't do something else. It's the weakness of the person who's posted the petition." Political campaigners, take heed. For the full article, go to http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2301109/how-starbucks-cometogether-social-media-petition-could-have-been-better