The new campaign, called “What Matters Most,” asks you to prioritize the three issues you care most about, heading into the 2012 election season.
“2012 Matters is an experiment in agency, social network and out-of-home partner collaboration,” the Page’s info explains, pointing to Facebook’s new partners R/GA and Thompson Reuters.
Once you Like the Page, you can create a unique set of three icons representing the three issues you care most about in the upcoming election. If you share your “issues that matter most,” your friends can Like and comment on your choices. You can also opt to possibly have your choices broadcast (along with your profile picture) on the Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ screens in Times Square.
If you chose not to have your icons broadcast, the Page says your choices will “just be counted,” although it doesn’t specify for what. It would be interesting if Facebook later released a list of the most important issues in the upcoming election to its users. Below you can see what the icon making process looks like (I randomly selected “economy” and “energy” as my first two icons):
Discussing politics on Facebook can get divisive. Recent studies show that while half of Facebook users post political messages, some 14% remove friends for political comments. Is promoting our political agendas a recipe for creating rifts, or worse, losing Facebook friends?
If you’ve ever listened to Mark Zuckerberg discuss his vision for the future of Facebook, you know how much he values sharing. But there’s a difference between sharing your song listening choices or photos from vacations past with your friends and sharing your political priorities.