Banyan Branch

Written by Megan Fleming & Allison O’Connor with infographics by Adam Cornille.

There’s no denying the power of social media in social movements these days.

Take the controversy surrounding Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision last week (which leaked on January 31^st) to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving further funding.  As you probably saw, public outcry erupted almost immediately on all forms of social media. From online petitions and heated blog posts to emotional Facebook and Twitter messages, the number of mentions for both Planned Parenthood and Susan G. Komen Foundation skyrocketed. Within a matter of days Komen decided to overturn their ill-fated decision and multiple key figures at the foundation resigned.

Let’s take a look at the conversation breakdown:

Twitter mentions rose swiftly immediately after the news broke on the 31^st. Both Komen and Planned Parenthood saw a dramatic increase in twitter mentions, but Komen was the focus of most conversation, with a 62%/38% ratio between Komen/Planned Parenthood mentions.

Total conversation peaked on February 2^nd (159,999 tweets), when Komen announced their decision to overturn the controversial new policy, but continued to spike as news of high-profile resignations went public. Komen, which usually gets an average of 1,399 mentions per day on Twitter, saw a 32,731% increase (that’s an average of 457,301 mentions a day from January 31^st until February 7^th, when Karen Handel resigned).

The style of interaction on social channels also changed during the Komen/Planned Parenthood controversy. An average post on Susan G. Komen’s Facebook wall before the crisis usually saw an average of 52.4 likes and 17.5 comments (with an average of 1.7 likes on users’ comments). During the time between Komen’s decision and its reversal however, comments increased by 31,417% (5,515.4 per post), likes decreased by 99% (0.3 likes per comment) and likes on user comments increased by 288% (6.6 per comment).  These numbers have neutralized a little since the reversal was announced, but the average number of comments per post continues to be 23,176% higher than normal.

When Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced that they were reversing their original decision on February 3^rd, it was no secret that they did it in large part (if not solely) because of the outpouring of criticism and threats of funding withdrawal they were suddenly faced with. If the initial decision was a political move, as many are alleging, it failed horribly. Planned Parenthood came out of the controversy with more supporters than ever and at least enough new funding to offset the (temporary) loss of Komen’s support.

Regardless of where your opinion lies on the controversy itself, it’s hard to deny the integral role social media played in the whole process.  Can you imagine it playing out like this if we didn’t have platforms like Facebook and Twitter spreading the news in minutes?