The Power Of A Tweet

Two nights ago, thinking about the devastation in Haiti, I saw a tweet come in from @knako, Kevin Nakao, VP of Mobile and Business Search for Whitepages.com.

I had been tweeting and posting onto Facebook and texting and generally trying to get the word out about how to help.  Because during these times of disaster, money is the most important — and immediate need — of  relief organizations.  So, I tweeted a simple request:

And, that was the beginning of a few tweets and dms that generated a link on WhitePages.com that night to donate to the Red Cross via text messaging.

Now some may poo-poo the link and think “so, what? Who looks at.”  But, you’d be surprised.  Links can generate anyway from .1%-1.5% conversions.  On a site like Whitepages.com that receives 20.8 million site visitors a month, according to Quantcast, even .1% can be significant.  For the Red Cross it could mean another  $208,000.  Imagine if 1.5% respond.

That’s a powerful tweet.

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Facebook Memes: Slacktivism or Social Movement?

Chances are, if you are a Facebook user, you probably have seen friends posting a name of a color as a status update.  The latest Facebook meme began on Wednesday this week as female users began receiving messages in their inboxes.

“We are playing a game for Breast Cancer Awareness,” one form of the message read. “Write the color of your bra as your status — just the color, nothing else!! Copy this and pass it on to all girls — NO MEN!! This will be fun to see how it spreads.”

And, spread it has.  While there are no official counts, it appears that thousands of Facebook users have joined in this meme by posting colors on their walls — whether they received the inbox message or not.

But, is the act of posting a color — and nothing else — enough to make a difference?  Or, is this meme just another example of slacktivism — feel-good online activism that has zero political or social impact?

I have to admit, when I first saw the posts on my wall, I rolled my eyes.  After a year of twibbons, twestivals and other social networking slacktivism campaigns, I assumed this was just another “all talk, no action” campaign.  And, then, I learned that the Susan G. Komen Foundation, who is synonymous with Breast Cancer, gained over 135,000 new Facebook fans as a result of this meme.  Though they did not start it, they have definitely benefited from it.  Prior to the start of this meme, the organization’s Facebook Fan Page had only 135 fans — even though they have been trying for two years with two full-time staff members dedicated to “cracking” social networking for good.  Today, as I post this, the organization now has over 136,000 fans — fans that can be tapped into to spread the word about early detection, lobby for research, participate in fundraising activities — and to donate online.

Then, of course, there is Charles Burch, who today posted on YouTube a video explaining why he started the meme.  He set up a Facebook Fan Page as well (it has 1000+ fans) and has raised $60.00 for cancer research.

To truly make a difference though, this meme has to motivate its fans to do more than post their bra color on their Facebook wall; it has to motivate them to get that mammogram, to tell a friend or family member to get that mammogram, to donate money for a cure, to lobby for policies and activities that help bring about a cure.  Otherwise, it’s just another slacktivist campaign — entertaining but empty.

Since I wrote the above post, I read an extremely moving post by Susan Niebur, a breast cancer survivor, on why awareness is not enough and how memes can be anything but entertaining. As cause marketers, its important to remember substance trumps entertainment.

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Contests for Good: A Marketer’s Take

Just before the holidays, a debate emerged among the greater cause community on the value and role of contests for good.  The debate was triggered by allegations that Chase Bank’s Community Giving program on FaceBook was flawed, that groups were unfairly eliminated and that Chase was not transparent in its management and communication of the program.  (For an excellent summation of the controversy and attendant commentary, see  writer and consultant Beth Kanter’s blog.)  The controversy prompted the Case Foundation — itself a contest sponsor — to consider hosting a forum to examine how these contests are designed and managed.

What’s missing from the current debate though are the perspectives of marketers and corporate philanthropic managers who sponsor and manage these programs.  Those of us who have planned, executed and evaluated these types of contests for good on behalf of major brands have done so with the best intentions and not to “cause wash” — i.e., buy good brand karma under the guise of philanthropy.  In addition, we know:

• These programs are difficult and resource intensive.  Programs, like Chase’s Community Giving and Pepsi’s soon to be launched Refresh Project, that reach millions of consumers, require significant support from philanthropy, marketing, advertising, public affairs, legal, and customer service departments within a corporation to develop, manage and promote.  This is not a program that one or two people — who have other corporate responsibilities — can do in their spare time.  Just evaluating all the submissions can take many, many people hours.  Amazon, in 2005, and Google, in 2008, learned the hard way.  Amazon discontinued their program after its inaugural year, opting instead to offer consumers a pre-determined list of charities to support.  Google’s 10¹⁰⁰ Project not only extended the contest timeline significantly — adding an entire year — but also changed the program mid stream after receiving over 100,000 submissions.

• They can be extraordinarily expensive to run. Like most marketing programs, these contests require promotional support to get the word out — not only to prospective project/cause submitters but also to the eligible voting population.  The brilliance behind the Chase Community Giving Program is that the promotion took place largely on Facebook; there appears to have been, at least for Round One, no above the line advertising support nor did the firm invest in the development of a separate program website.

• These contests can bring out the best and the worst in participants — particularly if the stakes are high.  The stories that pour in are astounding:  causes and issues you might not have known existed, intriguing solutions that upturn conventional wisdom, the courage and conviction of the individuals involved in these causes and issues.  But for hundreds and thousands of inspiring stories, there will be participants who will engage in questionable behavior — e.g., utilizing bots or offshore submission “sweatshops” to “stuff the ballot;” submitting ideas or media that they do not own the rights to; accusing fellow participants of foul play; gaming the program.

• Depending on the program design, participants may need time and support to mobilize their supporters. Riffing on American Express’ Members Project (disclosure: I was involved in this program), Pepsi Refresh Project has a downloadable toolkit to help participants develop their ideas for submission.  Online seminars that teach non-profits how to use social networking tools is also very helpful as is assigning mentors to projects, which Pepsi will be doing in their program.

• Leader boards can be deceiving if more than votes are required to advance. Some programs have multiple criteria — e.g., achievability, innovation — in addition to popular support as evidenced in vote tallies.  In those cases, displaying votes can inadvertently mislead participants to believe the outcome relies entirely on the votes.  Communicating frequently and prominently about the other eligibility requirements will help — but some will still be confused.  In the case of Chase, it might have been helpful to have a link to Chase’s Corporate Responsibility sitelet since aligning with their corporate responsibility goals was a key criteria.

• Despite the best plans and intentions, criticism will be levied.  Be prepared but patient. And, remember, there are important causes and inspiring organizations that will gain exposure and support because of these contests.

In the next two weeks, Chase Community Giving will enter its second phase of the competition and Pepsi will launch it’s Refresh Project.  I hope that the Case Foundation includes marketers and corporate philanthropy managers in its forum on contests for good.  Just as there are best practices and benchmarks for marketing online, via email, direct mail etc. so too should a body of knowledge be developed about contests for good.  And sponsors of these contests for good should be included in the conversation.

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