Facebook gives a new “face” to marriage equality

Last week, Facebook profiles were a sea of red. After a call to action from the Human Rights Campaign, millions of users changed their profiles to show solidarity for marriage equality as the Supreme Court debated DOMA and Proposition 8.

According to Facebook, profile photo uploads jumped 120 percent. In all, 2.7 million more users changed their photos than compared with the previous week.

Even brands jumped on the meme and created their own red and pink logos, from men’s online retailer Bonobos to Bud Light. No matter your thoughts on the topic, if the user-generated Paula Deen and her two sticks of butter didn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.

But, will it influence the court’s decision? Nope.

So, what did it do? The campaign helped individuals announce support for a cause that was important to them. It was a virtual fist bump to say, “Yeah, I support that!”

Essentially, this was an online version of the American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women Day” or wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. But, instead of wearing a red ribbon, people were able to easily change their profile photo to show solidarity for a cause.

The average Facebook user has 245 friends. I don’t know about you, but that’s a lot more people than I see and talk with in-person on an average day. HRC’s online campaign gave people the opportunity to amplify their voice in a way that hasn’t been done before.

Other impressive results from the campaign included HRC’s Facebook Page receiving 200,000 “Likes” in just two days. In addition, the organization gained 26,000 Twitter followers.

For any nonprofit or cause, putting a human face on an issue helps garner support and, as a result, creates change. HRC was able to do just that, through some two million red faces.