Page 43 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

As you consider tapping into social media marketing to amplify your brand’s
efforts in the cause realm, keep in mind that consumers are increasingly skeptical
of these efforts. Make sure that you’re donating enough to make the effort genu-
ine and meaningful for everyone involved.

Social graphs for social change

There’s more to social causes than your ability to amplify your efforts around
causes using social media marketing tactics. A larger change is afoot that demands
attention, even if it doesn’t directly relate to your objectives. The web allows indi-
viduals to financially support a cause at the very moment that they’re inspired and
then encourage their friends who reside in their social graphs to do the same.

When an individual provides monetary support for a cause, he can — in that very
moment, using the social platforms and his own social media — broadcast his effort
to his network of friends and associates. By doing so, he becomes a social media mar-
keter, spreading the word about the cause and socially influencing his friends to con-
tribute as well. This instant viral effect (the phrase comes from diseases and how they
can spread rapidly from person to person) is collectively (and strongly) influencing
how causes are promoted and funded — more so than the traditional strategies of
backing by big corporations. This means that you, as a marketer, benefit from the
halo effect of supporting a cause, but you can’t just support it — you must be willing
to participate in this viral affect the same way. Here are a few examples in this realm:

» The Pepsi Refresh Project: In 2010 and 2011, Pepsi chose to give away
millions and millions of dollars to people across America who had ideas for
refreshing their communities in positive ways. But instead of making this a
traditional charity program, the Pepsi Refresh Project enabled people across
the country to submit ideas that deserved funding. Ideas were chosen by
other consumers. Ideas with the most votes were then funded. This award-
winning social media program, which Shiv was fortunate to be a part of
running, was social at the core (with more than 80 million votes and millions
of conversations about the ideas) and moved the brand’s brand health
metrics forward. In fact, The Pepsi Refresh Project has inspired many more
cause-driven marketing efforts and is today a Harvard Business School case
study used to inspire marketers of tomorrow.

» Causes: This Facebook application (which is available at www.causes.com) was a
perfect example of nonprofit organizations using social media as marketing and
fundraising tools. (You can see the Causes application’s home page in Figure 1-8.)
It allowed you to choose a nonprofit, contribute funds to it, and track how many
of your friends go on to support that cause after seeing your contributions or
receiving your invitation to contribute. Within a year of its launch, the application
had 12 million users supporting approximately 80,000 nonprofit causes

CHAPTER 1 Understanding Social Media Marketing 27