In the beginning of August the starting point of the so called social movement was the launch of new social media platforms together with the offline sport event at the beach of Scheveningen in the Netherlands. After a discussion and uncertain situation with the organization of the event as depicted in the process of Figure 3 as well, it was allowed to be present with the team on the event for four of the fourteen days. The general Dutch citizen could experience what Gamma felt like with all its impact for the world. It was tried to gain as much awareness during this event by
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Facebook page likes over time
informally informing people passing by about the initiative and ask their opinions. The 12th of
August was the first day which stood in the theme of attracting people to the container and telling the story about the initiative. People were looking at the container from a distance and seemed to be curious. When asking them if they were known with the initiative, most of the times people responded with a no. Then the story about the initiative was told and people reacted very enthusiastic and saw the initiative as something inspiring. Although all the enthusiastic reactions, the social media fan base did not increase on this specific day despite the fact that people were asked to follow or like the initiative on social media. Therefore, at the end of this day, as can be recognized in the depicted process in Figure 3 as well, on the 12th of August
it was decided to design small cards with info about our social media pages and a call to action to follow or like us on Facebook or Instagram. These cards were distributed on the 15th till the 17th
of August. Soon it could be observed that distributing the small cards combined with telling the story, paid off. People who passed by the container, made many selfies in front of the selfie wall and shared it on Facebook. In exchange for this social media post, they received a nice drinking bottle which they could fill with drinking water. On the last day, the 17th of August it was decided
to distribute the residual bottles with the small card attached to it, while asking the people to come to the container, follow one of the social media pages, make a selfie and share it on social media. Soon, curious people passed by and wanted to receive a bottle. All the people were willing to perform the social media actions and reacted enthusiastically. It seemed that some of these people just wanted to receive a bottle and performed the tasks just to get one, while others listened carefully to the story of the initiative and thereafter performed the necessary tasks. In Figure 4 a notable increase in Facebook page likes can be recognized on the 17th of August. On
this day the Facebook page likes increased with 105 likes. This is the largest fan base increase compared to the other days in the entire process.
Figure 4. Facebook page likes over time
Overall, this offline event was a successful start of the so called social movement around the initiative. The fan base rose, people were enthusiastic about the initiative and pictures were shared on social media. However, it should be stated that people were quite sensitive for an incentive. Furthermore, only when distributing the cards with a real call to action on it and constantly informing people about it, people were willing to pass by. Taking the first step by the people themselves mostly did not happen and might indicate that the initiative is not yet known enough among the crowd. When looking at the number of people who unliked the Facebook page on the 17th of August or the days and weeks after it, in figure 5 below, it can be recognized
that on the 17th of August itself, only 8 people unliked the page and the days and weeks after the
17th of August the total amount of unlikes were 13. This might indicate that although many
people liked the Facebook page on the 17th of August due to getting an incentive, many of the
people remained connected to the Facebook page. This could indicate that the people did not
36 only like the Facebook page for the incentive of getting a bottle, but that the content created and posted on the Facebook page or the initiative itself made them stay connected to the Facebook page and feel psychologically engaged or attached to it. It might also indicate the social solidarity part as one of the elements of a social movement and other motivators are being triggered, since people who liked the Facebook page feel obliged to show solidarity towards the CSR initiative since it is about a topic to make the world a better place.
Figure 5. Daily Facebook page unlikes