Using Craigslist, Google and Facebook for activism

My wife came across an unusual post when searching Craigslist for Montessori teachers. Among the many schools listed was a post from a ticked off parent warning people about a certain school in Mesa –the school happens to advertise on Craigslist. I have not seen this kind of activism on Craigslist before, directly insulting the advertising of another even though it is nothing new to online and social media.

It brings to mind a story I heard some time back where someone was so angry at a camera retailer that he took out pay-per-click ads for certain keywords on Google so that anyone typing in the name of the retailer who ripped him off would see the ‘ads’ that warned buyers of doing business with the store.

Today I heard an example of Facebook activism on For Immediate Release. It was a case of students in the UK using the social network to mobilize and protest against HSBC, a bank that had reneged on its promise of interest-free student loans. The latest update is that HSBC gave in!

Why Facebook is a media darling.

Hard to miss the reviews, the loving tributes and the non-stop attention to Facebook these days. Why all the fascination with a social network that has been around since 2004?

Apart from the fact that it was started by a student, and is run by a 22-year old, is what Facebook stands for. It “has Google sweating” (Advertising Age), is the Future of everything online (TIME), and is Advertising’s worst nightmare (Guardian).

As Lev Grossman in TIME says, Facebook is really about making the web grow up.

What this means is that it is not only stamping on the footprint of other business models, but pointing in the direction where they ought to be headed. And unlike in previous movements, where it was fashionable to follow and try to predict where the CEO of the company was taking the product (think Murdock, Ballmer, Bezos) everyone is trying to figure out what the Facebook members are doing to networks, and the Net itself.

And that’s a much more juicy story.