KONY 2012

Case study

Reporting period:

05 March – 12 March 2012

Formalities

Only a sample of all the data posted was used to create this case study.

We only looked at English comments, but from a worldwide

audience.

Our reason for this case study is to showcase the impact social media

can have on any cause.

Timelines

On March the 5th, a short film was uploaded by Invisible

Children that aimed to make Joseph Kony famous. Not to

celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent

for international justice.

Only 10 days later:

The video has been viewed 78,064,750 times

It has received 1,329,136 likes and 95,612 dislikes

The Facebook page has been liked 3,051,788 times.

And 2,635,115 people are talking about it online.

Online buzz

The Numbers

We tracked the story for 3 days only

Over 150 000 comments were posted, mainly on social media

70%

15%

0.7%

1.5%

The remaining 12.8%

The Reach

More than 20 billion impressions were

generated by the audience.

Of course these were not unique impressions,

as people were exposed to comments from various sources

in this time period.

85.1% social media

1% news sites

3.5% website articles

10.4% blogs

Hot topics

Different hashtags were used to promote and track the

campaign.

The Sentiment

79% of the comments were neutral (retweets, shares, news posts).

20% of the people showed their love for the campaign.

1% of the audience did not like the campaign or agree with the

campaign.

The aim was to go viral. The high amount

of retweets and shares is an indication that this was achieved.

Positive Feedback

Negative Feedback

Attacks

There are a few negative

theories around the campaign that

are circulating as well.

These sort of rumors are

damaging to the campaign’s

reputation.

Attacks

Some claim the NGO is purely running

this campaign for financial gain.

Others ask questions on the relevance

of this campaign since there are

facts that were not included in the

video.

Others linked the campaign and the

numbers to issues closer to home:

abortion, crime, accidents, etc.

Impact

The campaign gained thousands of Twitter followers over night. And the

video becomes the most viral video in history.

So what?

This campaign, and others just like it, are great because they gain the attention

that they aim to acquire. However, the negative responses KONY 2012 is

getting are hindering the success of the campaign.

The aim of the campaign though, was

to create awareness.

Was this achieved? Definitely.

Will it make a difference? We will

only be able to tell over time.

More information

We have all the data and analysis available that went into writing

this case study. If you are interested in receiving this, please contact

us on the details below.

If you want to know what is being said online about your brand, then

contact us on the details below and we will gladly set up a demo

account for you.

South Africa: Tel: +27 11 021 8740 Email: infosa@saidwot.com Web: www.saidwot.com

United States: Tel: +00 (1) 704 450 2403 Email: infous@saidwot.com