Tag Archive: social media

Why Social Media and Cause Marketing Belong Together

Written on February 16, 2010 in Cause Practices
8 Comments

It seems lately the more I talk to nonprofits about cause marketing the more I talk about social media and how the two are inseparable. Unfortunately, many aren’t quite sold that these two belong together.

Here’s my case for why social media and cause marketing go hand in hand.

Social media teaches you cause marketing. Social media is the only tool I use to follow trends in cause marketing.

Social media is a prospecting tool. Linkedin is the platform everyone thinks of for prospecting. But what of Twitter, Facebook, even Foursquare? I’ve already made connections through Twitter. Facebook has been a great place to gather background information on prospects. (Not everyone’s profile is closed to outsiders. Mine is open to Facebook users within the “Boston Network.”) While Foursquare is the new social media player on the block, I’m already watching who’s using it and where they are checking-in. You never know when I might be there too!

Social media can build stronger partnerships. Social media is all about the conversation. The relationships I have with partners that use social media are almost always stronger than the ones that don’t. (Of course, I may not be the norm as I favor what Malcolm Gladwell called the strength in weak ties.) There’s a lot to be gained with a social media connection. It’s instant, casual, sometimes personal and generally informational as a lot of sharing happens. Think of social media as the letter that rarely gets lost, the phone call that more often gets answered, the email that usually gets the reply or the  unannounced visit that is not unwelcome.

Social media distinguishes you from your competitors. Cause marketing isn’t that new for a lot of the businesses you’re calling on. It has been around since the early 1980’s, after all. But social media is brand new for almost everyone. Heck, Youtube is only five years old! When you combine cause marketing with social media, you get a more powerful pitch that gives you an edge over your nonprofit competitors. Business partners will appreciate that their “cause expert” is staying abreast of the latest trends and is open to sharing their expertise.

Social media is the future. 350 million people on Facebook and you think it’s going away? Youtube is the second biggest search engine after Google and you think it’s a fad? 90% of the businesses on the Inc. 500 list use Twitter and you think only kids use it? Whether you like social media or not, it’s here to stay. It may not always be called Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, but the online conversation genie is out of the bottle.

If you still don’t think social media and cause marketing are the greatest match since PB&J that’s up to you. But cause marketing alone will make the mouth stick when social media with it will make your pitch better and easier to swallow.

Don’t be known as the person whose mouth is better stuck shut.

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My 2010 Goals for Selfishgiving.com

Written on December 28, 2009 in Cause Marketer's Journal
29 Comments

It’s hard to believe that this month marks my 5th anniversary blogging.

On average I’ve posted 100+ times a year. (Although for a time a good many of those were “Cause Marketing Links” (short news stories) from my Delicious account–something I don’t do anymore).

This year blogging took a back seat to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Mid-year I added Foursquare and Posterous.

Twitter is the best of the bunch. On Twitter I finally found a community that talked back to me and followed my tweets back to my blog where the conversation continued. It was great to finally be sharing posts that you knew people were actually reading and enjoying.

But even with my success on Twitter, not to mention all the fun I have on it, I’ve grudgingly accepted that Twitter is a great complement to blogging but not a replacement.

A great servant but a poor master, if you will.

When I look around at the avatars on my Tweetdeck the smart people are blogging first. Chris Brogan posts every day on his blog. Jay Baer and John Haydon post three days a week. Problogger Darren Rowse publishes three blogs with loads of content.

Some of these people also spend a good deal of time on Twitter and other outposts. But social media is their full-time job!

So in 2010 these are my social media goals for Selfishgiving.com:

Post three days a week. I like Jay Baer’s idea of publishing on consecutive days (he likes T, W, TH), but I can’t make any promises in the beginning. But posts on three days I will do.

Posts will be around 300 words. John Haydon has been encouraging me to write shorter posts all year. I’m going to give them a try. Every week or two, I’ll probably write a feature post that will be 500 to 1000 words, which is my normal length.

Posts will revolve around three themes. Sponsorship, cause marketing and social media. Sponsorship should be a more common topic on my blog as nonprofits are more often grappling with sponsorship issues when it comes to corporate partnerships. They view cause marketing more as an advanced strategy; one they may not be ready for. Social media is a great complement to both sponsorship and cause marketing and a hot topic a lot of people are interested in these days.

Publish my email newsletter twice a month. Right now my newsletter is geared toward readers who aren’t on social media and don’t subscribe to my blog via RSS. Sadly, this is probably most of the nonprofit thought leaders I want to reach! I’d like to offer something *special* in my newsletter for email subscribers who already read my blog, but this means creating new content. And right now, I just don’t have the time for this. I would love your suggestions on this front.

Update my Facebook fan page as needed. I recently created a fan page for Selfishgiving.com with two goals. First, to give people in general yet another reminder of new content on my site. Second, for those folks within the Facebook cocoon , an easy way to follow and read my blog that is familiar and comfortable.

Continue tweeting, just not as much. No worries, or cause for celebration. I’m never giving up Twitter. But I don’t think I need to be on it every twenty minutes, do you? I plan to check my Twitter stream each morning to my heart’s content (not too onerous as I only follow 200 people) and then shut it down for two hours. Repeat. I will no longer sip for pleasure. I’ll gulp for effect.

Personal blogging on Posterous will play a role. I’m just not sure how much at this point. But one thing is for sure. I. Love. Posterous. It’s so easy to use (even wrote a post on it). And when it comes to pictures and video it really is a snap to email media right to the site. I might just use Posterous for cause marketing videos or sets of pictures, and everything else non-text related. I recently read a suggestion to create a subdomain for your Posterous blog and post your pictures and video there. I just might do that.

Give Selfish Giving a major overhaul. During first quarter 2010, I’ll be moving Selfishgiving.com from WordPress to Headway with the help of @GrantGriffiths, @JohnHaydon and @mikhaelacraig. The overhaul will include a new landing page for SixFigureCauseMarketing.com and a custom design for my email newsletter and Twitter page. In addition to giving the Selfish Giving brand a more professional, consistent look, I want optimize my blog for SEO and to fully integrate it with my other social media outposts.

Market my teleconference cause marketing program. I think SixFigureCauseMarketing.com and teaching other nonprofits how to build successful partnerships with businesses is a great idea. The people I’ve talked to about it think it’s a great idea too. But I have yet to actively market the program to nonprofits. That’s will change this year.

[Added 12/30] Spend more time building community. For Christmas I got Gary V’s Crush It and it’s a good read. When I read this I felt like Gary was talking to me:

A lot of people get wrapped up in designing their blogs and writing or taping their content. But creating your content is the easy part. [!!!] Of course your product should be as good as it can be, but it should also be the least time-consuming element of your whole endeavor. What you do after you tape a show or write or record is the whole game. Creating community–that’s where the bulk of your hustle is going to go and where the bulk of your success will be determined.

I felt almost guilty when I read this because I knew outside of Twitter, this is an area with which I’ve been remiss. But like Scrooge at knees of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, I repent and will honor community in my heart and try to keep it all the year.

But enough about my goals. What do YOU think of my goals? Or just tell me about yours. Maybe we can learn together.

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Foursquare: Social Media for Cause Marketing

Written on October 13, 2009 in Cause Tools
15 Comments

foursquare_logo_girlOf all the different social media tools I’ve tried (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc.), a new one I just started using, Foursquare, probably has the most potential for cause marketers.

Why?

Because the backbone of Foursquare is the businesses at which its members visit, check-in and score points.

When you pop into a store, bar or restaurant you can earn points, badges or can even become mayor of your favorite hangout if you “check in” enough. You can also share tips and comments with your friends, check to see if any are close by, give them a shout-out via text or phone and broadcast your Foursquare activities on Facebook and Twitter.

Smart businesses recognize that Foursquare lets customers build the buzz for them. Customers spread the news of cool hangouts or great places to shop, flag meet-up spots for friends, visit new places for points and revisit favorites to retain their title of mayor.

And businesses are working with Foursquare to reward members with everything from special discounts to free products.

foursquare deal

As one article points out: “For businesses, it’s social media meets customer loyalty in a tangible and measurable way.”

And since cause marketing is all about helping businesses support their favorite causes in ways that enhances customer loyalty and favorability, Foursquare could be a great fit with cause marketing in a lot of different ways. Both in how Foursquare currently works and how it might work with future updates.

Here’s how.

1. A fellow Boston-based nonprofit colleague @gradontripp–and top ten finisher on Foursquare’s Leaderboard last week (201 points to my measly 68)–tweeted the easiest way nonprofits and businesses could work together.

foursquare gradon

2. I could use Foursquare this month to promote both Halloween Town and its presenting sponsor, iParty. With almost 50 stores in New England, we could offer the Foursquare mayor of each store on October 23–the day before the event opens–4 free tickets to Halloween Town. iParty would be thrilled because you become mayor by having the most check-ins at a particular business.

3. You all know that I’m a big fan of pin-up programs. Foursquare may be a good way of reminding and motivating consumers to support these lucrative programs. For example, this past summer my nonprofit did a pinup program with four New England businesses: Tedeschi Food Shops, Ocean State Job Lots, iParty and The Upper Crust. The program went well and we raised well over $100,000.

But what if Foursquare members were reminded when they checked-in to any one of these stores about the cause promotion–and maybe even got a discount when they supported it. This could help us raise more money at the register where cashiers are not always good about asking customers to donate.

It also helps the business to earn their halo by letting every foursquare member that patronizes that business know–in a way it’s hard for he or she to miss–that that business gives back to the community.

I also think you could offer a special discount to repeat shoppers at stores that sold pinups. Or maybe shoppers that checked-in at any three stores (say Tedeschi’s, Ocean State Job Lot, iParty) could be entered to win Red Sox tickets.

4. To support the above program, Foursquare could add a “Do-Gooder” badge for members to earn. And how about “Karma Points” for good deeds.

5. Foursquare could also be a useful for cause marketing percentage-of-sale programs like the Absolute Boston program I posted on recently. When you check-in at your favorite liquor store you could get a ping on Absolut Boston and its support for the Charles River Conservancy. Maybe Absolut or the store could throw in a 10% discount on a second purchase as an added bonus.

This would work great at Starbucks where Foursquare could remind members that five cents from every coffee sold goes to Product RED to fight AIDS in Africa.

6. I can’t wait for the Foursquare charity shopping event! A nonprofit could recruit businesses to offer generous shoppers a one-day discount when they show their Foursquare check-in. Imagine a bunch of Boston stores on Newbury Street hosting a weekend charity event. Donors/Shoppers donate $100 for discounts at some of Boston’s swankiest shops. When customers are ready to buy they flash their Foursquare check-in at the register, which confirms their discount, and then they move on to the next participating store.

The shopping fundraiser would be good for Foursquare too because shoppers would need to sign-up for the service to see all the great discounts right on their mobile device.

Foursquare is social media, but it’s also a game. And games are best played with others. Today’s game is how best to use Foursquare for cause marketing, and I think I deserve to be the mayor of this one. Sorry, Gradon.

But the games only begun and you can earn points in my book with your own ideas. You have the mayor’s ear.

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