Today, I mostly think this…

Facebook statuses do more these days. At first they were just a chance to share news or tell everyone how fabulous, funny or fed up you are. Now they’re gaining the momentum and power to spread important messages too.

Take the recent Breast Cancer Awareness mini campaign. Suddenly, a large proportion of my Facebook homepage was full of girls saying ‘pink’, ‘bright blue’, ‘lacy’ and so on. The idea was for women everywhere to post the colour of their bra as their status update. The result was something funny and intriguing – men even joined in too! But more importantly, it was a little reminder about the cause and a nudge to action.

The latest Facebook app created by Mccann Erickson Israel, for gaming company ‘Yellow Retail’, takes ‘status power’ further still. The app searches through your friends to find the ones leaving ‘sad’ statuses. Friends saying things like ‘I’m depressed’ or ‘I’m fed-up’ will then be sent a notification with a coupon for a free game to cheer them up. A nice little app to help your pals get happy.

And after all, isn’t that why you post a status update? You know that people will see it and a response is what you’re really asking for. So whether you’re after a *hug*, a thumbs-up or an opinion, you can be sure someone’s listening.