Conversation, not Context or Content, is King

What do you think you would need most to harness the Internet to transform Facebook’s privacy policy in Europe?

Great storytelling (a.k.a. content)? Opinion leaders or household names driving traffic to your killer web presence and its top-notch user experience (a.k.a. context)? Or an easy way for people to act to support your efforts and spread the word to their friends? (a.k.a. conversation)?

Tough one!

What turned out to be the answer for Max Schrems, a 24-year-old Austrian law student, is both fascinating and surprising. Last summer, after finishing his thesis on Facebook’s violation of privacy law in Europe, Schrems:

• Formed an activist group called Europe v. Facebook
• Published his thesis online along with a redacted version of the 1,200 pages of data Facebook had collected on him since he joined the social media site in 2008
• Bombarded Facebook with complaints
• Prompted a probe by a European privacy regulator and Congress to question the social media site
• Persuaded 40,000 people to contact Facebook in Ireland, where its European headquarters are located, to demand a summary of all the personal data the U.S. company is holding on them

His vocal campaign has been so successful Facebook’s European Director of Policy Richard Allan and another unidentified California-based Facebook executive flew to Vienna to meet with Schrems earlier this week to discuss his concerns.

Now the Web 2.0 cliché that “content is king” would have you believe great storytelling must be behind Schrems’ success. If you examine at least the English-language part of the Europe v. Facebook website, you see the content is outstanding … for a law student whose first language isn’t English. But I doubt it will be used as a case study for inbound marketing anytime soon.

The user experience on Europe v. Facebook is also fairly average, except content is offered in five languages, and the New York Times is reporting Schrems started with a one-person operation, not a bunch of celebrity endorsements. So his context isn’t case study material either.

What? Another Web 2.0 cliché doesn’t apply?

The key to Schrems’ success seems to be conversation. His website’s main menu gives people an easy way to “Get your Data” and the Europe v. Facebook Facebook page he set up allows them to join the conversation. An article in Forbes also suggests users of the social news site Reddit were crucial in Schrems’ message going viral.

Lesson learned? Content and context do not necessarily rule. Sometimes the most important thing you need besides a great cause is making it easy for people to act and share.

Do you think content, context, or conversation is the most important to Web 2.0 success? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

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