The Dragonfly Effect Summary

of

The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media
to Drive Social Change

By J. L. Aaker and A. Smith

Using Aaker & Smith writings and the stated references, this compilation was prepared by Dr. Victor
Ramos. Its design and use is for academic purposes only.

In Brief

The Social media that we have available today is an influential instrument, and it is a true measurement of
the value of a products, services, social media products and books. This paper provides a summary of the
book the Dragonfly effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful ways to use Social Media to Drive Social
Change by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith.

Why the dragonfly?

The dragonfly is the only insect able to thrust itself in any direction when its four wings are functioning in
harmony. It symbolizes the magnitude of integrated effect and is analogous to the ripple effect, which is a
term used in psychology, sociology and economics to point out how small acts can create gigantic
changes.

The Book

While there are many books teaching the art and application of social media in business, the Dragonfly
Effect is the first book to show how to tap social media and psychological insights to achieve a single,
concrete goal (Aaker & Smith, 2010). In her summary, Bates (2013) wrote, the “book, The Dragonfly
Effect, teaches every day people to achieve their goals in life by using social media tools that will make a

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positive change for the social good. The Internet, e-mail, texting, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn,
You Tube – the list goes on – enables us to tap into these media to obtain the support of others. The
intention is to create a social change or a movement that will empower others to take action.

The book is designed for learning and features case studies of companies such as Gap, Nike, E-Bay,
Charity: Water, Kiva, Starbucks, Twitter and Facebook to give the reader examples of how companies,
organizations and individuals have successfully utilized the social media to make an impact. Flowcharts,
practical tips, and other dragonfly tools are outlined strategically throughout the book. Expert insights
from corporate executives and entrepreneurs on various social media topics are featured to capture the
reader’s interest (Bates, 2013).

Social Media Reviews

Of the many reviews, I am sharing two reviews. Daniel Pink, author of Drive, wrote, “The single best
roadmap to social media I have ever seen. It offers both big strategies and small tips that you can use to
invigorate your business, increase your happiness, and maybe even change the world.” Additionally,
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, wrote, “The Dragonfly Effect is actionable, credible, and absolutely
necessary for anyone looking to use social media and Facebook to drive social good.”

Caution: there are social media sites purporting to describe the Dragonfly Effect. The information is
presented in a manner that is inconsistence with Aaker & Smith principles, for an example see Smiciklas
(2010). These sites should not be used for the purpose of your projects

The Dragonfly Effect Model

The Dragonfly Effect Model was shaped by husband and wife Andy Smith and Jennifer Aaker. The
principle of the model is to generate an efficient way to use Social Media in the furthering of
merchandise, an initiative, or a purpose. The dragonfly effect model has received credit for finding an
almost impossible bone marrow match for a friend, raising millions for cancer research, or electing the
current president of the United States. Conceptually, the Dragonfly Effect Model has four components
named after the dragonfly wings. These are focus, grabbing attention, engagement and taking action.
These components are subdivided into multiple attributes or design principles, see table 1.

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Table 1: The Dragonfly Effect Model and Design Principles.

Wings 1: Focus 2. Grab Attention 3: Engage Others 4: Take Action

Humanistic Personal Tell a story Easy

Principles
Actionable Unexpected Empathize. Fun
Design Testable Visceral Authenticity Tailored
Clarity Visualize Match the media Open
Happiness.

The Dragonfly Effect, like the dragonfly, relies on four wings that achieve great results when they work
together. It starts with focus. This is where you identify a concrete measurable goal. Next you grab
attention by telling a personal story with unexpected, visceral, and visual aspects. Then you engage,
which is where you empower your audience to care enough to want to do something. Finally, you enable
and empower others to take action. To make action easier, you must prototype, deploy, and
continuously tweak your approach towards making your audience team members.

Wing 1: Focus

“Focus” means to determine how you identify a single, concrete, measurable goal. Focus has five design
principles for individuals to follow, which are to get to know their audience (humanistic), put a plan into
action (actionable), test it out (testable), be specific with goals (clarity), and to make the overall goal
meaningful (happiness) (Greene, 2010, p.6). The HATCH design principles include humanistic,
actionable, testable, clarity and happiness (Aaker & Smith, 2010).

The first design principle (principle) is humanistic which states that one should focus on who you want
to help rather than jumping to solutions. It proposes one should understand who your audience is by
listening, observing, asking questions, and empathizing. It requires you to empathize with your audience
to develop Points of View (POV): [USER] needs to [USER'S NEEDS] because [SURPRISING
INSIGHT]. The second principle is to make your goal actionable by breaking down long term goals into
multiple short term goals. It requires the development of tactical micro goals to achieve long-term macro
goals. The third principle is to make your goal testable. This principle requires the identification metrics
that will inform your actions and help evaluate success. You should find a way to measure progress and
success. It recommends celebrating small wins along the way. Run low-cost trials to test your
assumptions. Plan how to solicit feedback from your audience before you launch and establish deadlines
to track your progress. The next principle is clarity means you should keep your goals clear to improve

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your likelihood of success. It will help you to generate momentum. Start with the simplest activities you
can transform at a low cost. Happiness is the last design principle of the focus wing. Aaker & Smith
wrote “Ensure that your goal is personally meaningful such that the thought of achieving the goal would
bring happiness to you and your audience – in some way (Aaker & Smith, 2010).

Wing 2: Grab Attention

To “Grab Attention” means to determine how to catch someone’s eye. It’s like standing in the middle of a
busy street, activating your target’s fight-or-flight survival-based neurons. (Think of it as: “Made you
look!”) Personal. Find personal hooks, ranging from physiological to self-actualization needs that can be
understood within seconds. Unexpected. People like consuming and then sharing awe-inspiring
information. Draw them in by piquing their curiosity. Look to reframe the familiar. Visceral. Design your
campaign so that it triggers senses– sight, sound, hearing and taste. Music is powerful and can often tap
underlying emotions. Visualize. Show, don’t tell. Photos and videos speak millions of words. Synthesize
your thoughts with quick visuals and show them to your POV for feedback.

Wing 3: Engage Others.

To “Engage Other” means to determine how to create a personal connection. A key question is how to
create a personal connection by accessing higher emotions, compassion, empathy, and happiness. It’s
about empowering the audience to care enough to want to do something themselves and actually do it.
(Think of it as forging a connection, deep and real). Tell a story. Find compelling, sticky stories to
convey critical information. Remember: less is more. Stories have arcs. Empathize. Build a 2-way
relationship with your audience. What really matters to them in your campaign? Authenticity. True
passion is contagious. The more authentic you seem, the easier it is to connect with you and your cause.
Build common ground by sharing values and beliefs. Match the media. How we say something can be as
important as what we say. Align your communication with the right context.

Wing 4: Take Action.

To “Take Action” means to empower others to take action. Enable and empower others to take action.
It’s about creating, deploying, and continuously tweaking tools and programs designed to take audience
members from customers to team members, in other words, furthering the cause beyond themselves.
(Think of it as enlisting and enabling an army of evangelists.) Easy. Make it simple as simple as possible
for others to act. Prioritize your calls to action. Your campaign is more likely to succeed if people

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understand what you need and can take immediate action. Fun. Consider game play, competition, humor,
and rewards. Can you make people feel like a kid again? Tailored. People glom on to programs that they
perceive they are uniquely tailored to them – where they are uniquely advantaged to do well and have
disproportionate impact. Here, people feel special and a part of something bigger than themselves.
Open. No one should have to ask you permission to ask. Provide a frame – your POV and a story – and
empower others with accessible tools.

A lesson learned from reading the book is that social media campaigns will be more likely to succeed if
the people can take quick action (Aaker & Smith, 2010).

Case Studies - How Obama Won with Social Media

Involvement through Empowerment. This was the mission of the Barack Obama campaign. The first
political campaign in history to truly harness the power of social media to spread the word, garner support
and get people engaged. The Obama campaign reached 5 million supporters on 15 different social
Networks over the course of campaign season; by November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.5 million
(some sources say as many as 3.2 million) Facebook supporters, 115,000 Twitter followers, and 50
million viewers of his YouTube channel. “No other candidate has ever integrated the full picture the way
[Obama] has, that’s what’s really new about his campaign,” said Michael Malbin, executive director of
the Campaign Finance Institute.

How Exactly Did They Use Technology To Change The Face Of Campaigning?

The campaign didn’t simply create a Facebook fan page and a YouTube account and expect things to take
off: they created energy of involvement, of participation, and a sense of purpose in their supporters, each
of which was funneled through social networking technologies. The medium wasn’t the message, so to
speak; it was the vehicle. It connected real people, with real enthusiasm, in real time, and gave them an
easy and accessible way to show their support for change. Obama’s ever-present campaign slogan was,
“Change we can believe in”. In retrospect, the slogan could have been, “Change we can be a part of.”

We can all learn something from the Obama campaign when looking to recreate this sense of energy and
involvement:

Focus on the individual; When you think about what you’d like to achieve in your project, always think
in terms of one person and stay focused on that individual. The Obama campaign stayed focused on
Obama. This idea came directly from the way people on the campaign personally connected to Obama. “I

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connected to Barack as an individual first. It just so happened that he was in politics,” Chris Hughes said
in an interview with Fast Company.

Be authentic: Obama brought personal connection to the social web, which is what was so effective
about his campaign, says Randi Zuckerberg, who led marketing, political, and social change initiatives on
Facebook. “One thing that really strikes me about Obama’s Facebook page is how authentic he is. He has
his favorite music up there, his interests, basketball, spending time with kids, Godfather I and II are his
favorite movies. His staffers were constantly updating their profiles, telling people they were on the
campaign trail or eating pizza or stuck in traffic. It was this kind of voice that made everyone feels like
they were in one conversation together.”

Remember: every bit of support counts. 80% of the $639 million dollars Obama raised came from
donations that were 20 dollars or less. The Obama campaign acknowledged that everyone, regardless of
income or background, is an important participant in creating change. Over the course of the campaign,
the team hosted two “Dinner with Barack” events, broadcasting the events on YouTube and on the
campaign’s website. Those videos went viral when viewers re-posted them on their blogs. The team
selected four donors who had given any amount and who had shared their stories about why they were
motivated to donate. It promoted the unusual effort on mybarackobama.com (nicknamed MyBO by
volunteers): “While a typical political dinner these days consists of officials being wined and dined by
Washington lobbyists and bigwigs from special interest PACs, Barack will be sitting down with four
regular people from across the country, who will share their stories and discuss the issues that matter most
to them.”

More generally, the campaign maximized their message by creating a clear goal and funneling all their
energy towards garnering support to achieve it. Consider this mini-case of ideas presented in The
Dragonfly Effect:

 Present a focused message and vision. Obama focused on three key words: Hope, Change, and
Action.
 Map out your digital landscape. Know the top bloggers, the top social networks, and the
central communications hubs.
 Build relationships. Listen, be authentic, and ask questions.
 Have a clear call to action: Every action in the Obama campaign was geared toward getting
people to vote. The sole purpose of online activity was to create offline activity.

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  Empower brand ambassadors. Embrace co-creation; let the brand evolve without you directing
all of the evolution.

The Obama campaign illustrated the massive, meaningful impact that social media can have on getting
young people engaged and involved. Mybarackobama.com was not merely a website; it was a movement
that made politics accessible through social media people were already using every day. It changed the
face of political campaigns forever; but even more so, it made getting involved as easy as opening up an
internet browser and creating an online profile. Above all, The Obama campaign made history: It showed
the power of social media to do nothing short of changing the world.

The Dragonfly Effect Summary

Social media is progressing and changing rapidly. This social technological era is just beginning and the
peak is yet to come. As our channels of communication change, we need to change with it. It is will
become easier to adopt the tools available to reach a multitude of people in a timely and efficient way
without expensive costs. The Dragonfly Effect principles demonstrate how harmonized thoughts can be
used to create rapid transformations in the course of social media campaign. By applying the symbolic
four wings and the design principles associated with each wing, any person, anyplace can capture an
audience. All it takes is one creative idea that will bring people together to achieve remarkable results.
The wings of the dragonfly effect principles are a quick, effective, and powerful ways to use social media
to drive social change.

Using Aaker & Smith writings and the stated references, this compilation was prepared by Dr. Victor
Ramos. Its design and use is for academic purposes only.

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<http://www.dragonflyeffect.com/blog/>

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Chang, V. & Aaker, J. (2010). Obama and the power of social media and technology. The European

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