I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve reverted to my old ways, happily sharing away every time an Amnesty petition grabs my attention. With every new headline of horror, my conscience gnaws away at me, berating me for sitting idly by while others across the globe suffer in unimaginable ways. That was last year, and 2021 has predictably brought with it a fresh crop of disasters, human rights abuses and social injustices. I felt ashamed and vowed in that moment to stop sharing petitions and crowdfunders that inspired me, opting instead for a quiet donation behind the social media wall. It made me examine my habit of resharing virtuous third-party content on Facebook, which I’d deliriously been doing in a sporadic, semi-conscious fashion since 2008, and look critically at my burning need to be admired and ‘liked’ by others, both in the literal and digital sense of the word. To my shame, I first heard the term virtue signalling (defined as ‘the sharing of one's point of view on a social or political issue, often on social media, in order to garner praise or acknowledgment of one's righteousness from others’) only last year.
For others, it’s just downright irritating and can even prompt them to unfollow a particularly saintly friend or family member. For some, this ostentatious benevolence can feel overwhelming and inure them to the urgent and potent suffering at the very root of these posts. So what’s the problem with this? If you’re like me and you are lucky enough to have friends who are kind, politically attuned and concerned by the state of the world, your news feed will be littered with countless birthday fundraisers and calls to action from a never-ending plethora of causes, ranging from crowdfunders for treatments for rare diseases to government petitions on curbing the powers of the media in the wake of Caroline Flack’s mistreatment and death. This effortless form of indirect marketing may also support acquisition of longer-term donors, volunteers and campaigners, as new signatories opt in for marketing updates, learn more about the organisation and, down the line, explore additional ways to give their time and money, such as taking part in fundraising challenges or buying virtual gifts from ever-emerging e-shops, such as Crisis' own Shop to Stop Homelessness. When the cause is compelling, organisations need only ask their core of devoted supporters to go that extra mile and post the content to their personal feed and then sit back and watch as their reach is amplified tenfold. Marcus Rashford was rightly crowned as the hero of the campaign, but his groundswell of support from ordinary people (‘clicktivists’, even) should not be overlooked.Ĭash-strapped charities don’t have to break the bank to achieve growth.
MEANING OF VIRTUE SIGNALLING FREE
At scale, public pressure can and does achieve real change over a million signatories forced the government to reverse its decision and provide free school meals to children in England in 2020. Widely shared articles, petitions and campaigns garner digital footfall at an exponential rate a lucky few will even strike internet gold and go viral. While ‘clicktivists’ are a much (and I’d say unfairly) maligned group for their seemingly half-hearted attempts to change the world, the power of sharing is nonetheless an incontrovertible fact and a major tool for charities and NGOs, when harnessed right. Charities such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International and platforms like JustGiving, and GoFundMe know this and have woven sharing into the fabric of their supporter journeys, swiftly taking those who sign their petitions or give a one-off cash gift onto secondary but even more vital calls to action, such as posting the petition on their social media channels and even signing up for a monthly Direct Debit.
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