Using propinquital loops to blend social media and offline spaces: a case study of the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge

Abstract

The social media phenomenon of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Ice-Bucket Challenge attracted more than 3 million donors to upload 1.2 million Facebook videos and give more than US$115 million. In fundraising terms, it was a social media anomaly. This article applies Kent and Taylor’s dialogic theoretical component of propinquity (immediacy of presence, temporal flow and engagement) to explore how the ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge leveraged a propinquital loop (and subsequent chain), to enable participants to move between social media and offline spaces, while creating relational elasticity between participant and cause. Propinquity and its function within a social media context is an area of research that has not yet been greatly considered in the literature, yet may have the potential of informing public relations professionals from the non-profit sector and more widely about social media practice.