Virtual Love Not War: Israel Loves Iran

Posted on by carisamiklusak

The newly created Facebook Page “Israel Loves Iran” has attracted over 43,000 likes, a 5,000+ person increase since midnight of last night. Iran has returned the love with an “Iran Loves Israel” page that’s received over 11,000 Likes , despite strict censorship.

Ronny Edry, the Israeli creator of the “Israel Loves Iran” page explains his motivation; “Israelis think of Iranians as crazy people who want to bomb them. I wanted to reach the other side and show that they are just like us – mothers and fathers who want the best for their children.”

A little over a year ago, the world’s eye was on Egypt as their population leveraged social media to talk to the world, condemning their long-time political leader ex-President Mubarak. They used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to broadcast their real-time demonstrations that ultimately helped overturn a government that had been in power for almost 30-years.  Throughout 2011, we saw other countries, like Syria, employ a similar strategy to garner global awareness and support for their political unrest. Today, our attention is again captured as Facebook hosts the global political theater as citizens of Israel and Iran tell the world who they are and what they want.  However, this time citizens aren’t just talking to the world – they are talking to each other.  Despite current government imposed censorship efforts, Edry has received messages from thousands of Iranians expressing support and love for Israel and the no war campaign.  One such anonymous message read, “We love you too. Your word reaches out there despite the censorship.  And Iranian people, aside from the regime, has no hard feeling or animosity toward anyone, particularly Israelis.” You can see many such public exchanges live on Facebook right now – a direct one-to-one conversation between Israelis and Iranians hosted in the public eye.

I often speak on the practical business uses of social media and discuss the power of segmentation – the practice of isolating one segment of a target audience and speaking to them directly, serving them with highly relevant content that will resonate with them, while demonstrating to the whole world the target audience is important to the organization.  Edry’s no war campaign is a perfect example of this strategy.  It targets Iran directly with a very specific and important no war message, and it leverages the world’s stage to gain awareness and momentum for its position within this segmented audience.  And to date, the campaign is proving successful as it’s gained the attention, response and engagement of the targeted audience, Iran. In business, this has proven to be an incredibly effective strategy. In Egypt, citizens prevailed and they overturned a long-standing dictator regime.  Can Israeli and Iranian citizens stop a heated conflict with a user-generated NO WAR campaign?

Edry, and the initial almost 40,000 people that have collectively liked the Israeli and Iranian Facebook pages, hope the answer to this question is yes and they are working to expand efforts both on and offline.  Edry was initially surprised by the immediate support for the campaign and subsequent positive media attention, but he’s quickly moved to leverage that attention setting up a separate site for fundraising.  In a Facebook post on March 23rd, which gained 1,100, likes in less than twelve hours, Edry wrote:

only one week.

we started one week ago, we shared and spread a simple message.

we love you.

and we got so far. basically this week we just went from one poster to every major media.

we have said: we ,as people from israel and we ,as people from iran, are friends. as people we are alike. we don t want a war.

now we must make the message loud, so loud that we prevent the war….

 

but hey, that s for next week

tonight is shabbat. we are having shnitzel and rice,

2moro: day off (heat@pistons, don t miss the game)

shabbat shalom anywhere you are

ronny

Edry does have big plans for next week.  He is using raised funds to build other communities and websites, create signage and purchase billboards working to spread his heartfelt message.  If Edry and his efforts prove successful, we will soon be seeing a lot more of the no war campaign between Israel and Iran online, in print and in video.

“My idea was simple, I was trying to reach the other side. There are all these talks about war, Iran is coming to bomb us and we bomb them back, we are sitting and waiting. I wanted to say the simple words that this war is crazy,” said Edry

Wouldn’t it be fabulous if citizens really can prevent the war?  Like in Egypt, it’s not social media that changes political fate – it’s a combination of the people’s will and the world’s support that pressures political leaders into conceding to demand.  That’s not to say that social media’s role was not critical in Egypt and is not the launching pad to this new political campaign; it certainly is – and it is powerful.  Social media provides the awareness and engagement platform necessary to build a significant following and truly make a difference.

But isn’t that what our leaders have always strived to do…build followings and make a positive difference?  This logic lends itself to the belief that social media is a simple expression, a tool, in the evolution of communication.  And recently, most evident in the huge adoption of social media, we have entered into a time when our global population will not accept static communication, or one-to-many communication formats from governments and news channels. People want to be heard, we demand to collaborate and we are shaping strong forces with the voice of many.  This again sounds like history repeating itself with one strong and disruptive factor: technology.  The combination of the internal human drive to truly make a difference and the technological ability to quickly broadcast it to many, has resulted in a global democratic media platform where the ideas that get the most attention (or votes) become movements in real life. I’ve termed this the Open-Dialog Market (ODM); a marketplace where politics, businesses and individuals flourish and thrive on user-generated communications.

Citizens Leverage Social Media to Demand

NO WAR!

Want to support the user-generated no war campaign efforts? Like this page:

Israel Loves Iran: www.facebook.com/israellovesiran

Stop the War Website: http://www.indiegogo.com/israeliran

About the Author

  Carisa Miklusak, CEO

As the CEO of tMedia, a media strategy and training firm, Carisa Miklusak gains daily experience planning, executing and measuring emerging transmedia campaigns for diverse clients and initiatives. Carisa is an author and keynote speaker, frequently approached for comment on emerging media developments and trends. Coupled with over a decade of online strategy leadership, she translates these learnings into engaging journalism and keynote speeches.  Carisa holds MBA from Queen in Kingston, Ontario and a Master of Online Marketing from the University of San Francisco.

To learn more about Carisa visit www.CarisaMiklusak.com

To learn more about tMedia visit www.tMedia.com

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