Social Media for Social Good

It seems like there isn’t a day where social media is being blamed for some social ill –it is an easy target. There are a lot of people who don’t understand it and so feel it is appropriate to attribute all that is wrong on big bad ‘social media’. Recently in the news social media has been connected to stories about suicide, bullying, riots....the list goes on. So, to counter this negative way of looking at social media I decided to have a look at some ways social media is used to better society as well as deliver marketing results.

So far there have been a few blog posts and comments about using social media for social action – like Ivan's. I wanted to also look at this interesting area, partly because I work in the not-for-profit sector and partly because I recently came across a book called The Dragonfly Effect.

The Dragonfly Effect (Aaker, Smith & Adler, 2010) focuses on harnessing the power of social media for social good, to do something that really matters. The Dragonfly Model described by Aaker et. al., using the four wings of a dragonfly is: Focus + GET. This means:

1.       Focus: identify one single and measurable goal

2.       Grab Attention: be heard through the noise of social media, make people look by being personal, unexpected, visceral, and visual

3.       Engage: build a personal connection, involve emotions and tell a story. Engagement needs to empower the audience to want to do something

4.       Take Action: enable and allow others to take action

Using this as a guide I would like to highlight some social change/social justice/awareness issues that have found voice and strength in numbers through social media marketing campaigns

Stop Live Animal Exports

This issue captured the attention of Australians initially through graphic footage shown on a current affairs program, and subsequently through advertising and news coverage. Several organisations were part of the outcry and gave people an opportunity to add their voice/name to the cause through social media. This included:

Animals Australia – more than 27,000 people became fans of the cause through Facebook and the Facebook site utilised video elements as well as engaging conversation. As part of the Facebook page fans/visitors can ‘take action’ through making a donation to the cause.

WSPA – through uploading a photo of them, webpage visitors can join the Human Chain petition against live animal export. More than 11,000 people have uploaded their photos as part of this activity. There is also the opportunity to send letters to government and share through Facebook.

Poverty

Free Rice – World Food Programme to Help End Hunger

I came across this a few years ago, this interactive game gives players the opportunity to play a game where each correct answer is met with the reward of ten grains of rice being provided to the World Food Programme by the corporate advertising on the site.  To date, more than 91 billion grains of rice have been donated with 7,026,630 grains being donated yesterday. Since seeing this a few years ago, the site has developed to include social media platforms such as Facebook, blogs and Twitter. Although the grains generated have dropped off a lot since the peak of 43,942,622,700 grains in 2008 (last year a total of 13,198,863,280 grains were donated so there is a significant decline), it continues to offer a unique and interactive way of empowering people and giving them an opportunity to act.

Men’s Heath

Movember – Raising Awareness and Funds to Support Depression and Prostate Cancer Organisations

I think that Movemeber would have to be one of the best social awareness and fundraising campaigns using social media I have seen. Since humble beginnings in Australia in 2004 when $54,000 was raised, Movemeber has developed into a global movement which raised $72 million last year. In 2010, 130,000 Australians participated in Movember and together raised $25 million AUD. Movemeber use a peer-to-peer fundraising approach where people register online and then ask for their friends and family for financial support. The action of getting involved is to grow a moustache and seek donations. As part of the campaign website, social media platforms are built in, including Facebook, Twitter and You Tube.  

These issues based marketing campaigns activities include social media in different ways. The Animals Australia campaign seeks donations and ‘likes’ on a Facebook page. Selecting to ‘like’ this non-profit is a fairly passive activity that does not require too much effort or passion. There is slightly more effort and passion required to participate in the WSPA Human Chain and it is more personalised. The Free Rice game requires more involvement, the game is interactive and it is easy to see the ‘grains’ build as correct answers continue. Movemeber requires the most action and is also the only one of these examples that requires action beyond online. I think the key to the powerful Movemebr formula, which many non-profits would love to equal, rests in the following:

-          Outward physical activity/commitment which identifies participants and creates a community, build unlike shaving a head of hair is not a significant imposition for a man (as far as I can tell anyway!)

-          Peer-to-peer fundraising : people tend to give to those they know rather than to organisations they don’t know

-          It is fun and the marketing approach is humorous (it isn’t depressing like some fundraising asks end up being)

-          Online groups provide a sense of involvement and connection with people who share similar values, belonging to a team also works to add an additional aspect of competition between fundraisers

-          The approach is pretty simple, there is no need for a great deal of admin staff as all donations are processed and receipted online and the communication is all via the Web

What causes have you supported through social media? While organisations may strive to accumulate a number of fans, do you think that the ‘fans’ give a great deal of thought before clicking on the ‘like’ button?

Is it any of your business?

A recent report from Nielsen shows that Australian businesses are planning to increase their investment into social media. When asked what is driving this increase 66% of businesses indicated that social media is ‘the marketing channel we know we need to be in’. More than half (54%) indicated they used social media investment for marketing, other commonly identified applications of social media included customer relationship marketing (30%), customer service/support (30%) and public relations (30%). However, only 12% said they used social media for employee engagement.

This study also revealed that 24% of participating businesses had a social media policy and of this group 84% had such policies and guidelines to control their staff. I thought this highlighted an interesting area – there is clearly an effort made to control/manage the use of social media of staff but little effort to use it as a means of staff engagement.

While the focus seems to be squarely on using social media to engage with the people outside the organisation, there is a huge opportunity to use such platforms to engage and empower those within. Not only can the use of social media within the organisation create brand champions who actively seek to tell those outside how good their brand is, it can increase connectedness and offer a platform where everyone can be heard and everyone can share – vastly different to the top down traditional structures of internal communications.

Kieran Harrop provides a good example of how social media increased problem solving, enabled knowledge sharing and collaboration within a government department in the UK. A quick search through google or You Tube provides many more references to social media policy when compared to a small number of references to employee engagement.

Have you come across effective use of social media for employee engagement? Does your employer make use of social networking?

Is advertising through social media the best way to spend marketing dollars?

The relationship between social media and advertising continues to grow as more organisations see the advantages of communicating with consumers through this evolving channel.

The 29 July, 2011, edition of AdNews reported that advertising through Facebook is under huge demand from Australian advertisers even through there hasn’t been significant growth in the number of Facebook users. In the 12 months to June 2011, it was estimated that between $35 and $40 million was spent by advertisers in Facebook. In addition to this, Facebook recently increased its minimum monthly spend from $10K to $15K.

The question is – is advertising through Facebook a really effective way to spend advertising dollars? Is there a better and authentic way, of reaching consumers through social media that isn’t just a small ad down the right-hand side of the Facebook screen? If industry predictions are correct we will see a rise in the amount spent on Facebook by advertisers. The key benefits offered through this site include response effectiveness and improved targeting. This means that Facebook users should be not only seeing ads in Facebook that appeal to them, they are also ads that make them want to respond.

Interestingly, Hussein Fazal recently explored Facebook advertising and discussed whether it has the ability to overthrow Google in generation of revenue. Fazel discusses hyper-targeting where the use of Facebook intelligence and some serious mathematics means ads placed on Facebook are based on what the user has shown to be interested in. There is also the advantage of re-targeting ads through Facebook which can give strength to a campaign.

However, I am yet to see an ad on Facebook that has made me want to chick, have you? I’d love to hear your examples of successful/effective/creative advertising you have seen on Facebook or elsewhere in social media land!

Listen Up!

Social media is shifting the way organisations need to approach communications. It’s not acceptable to shout a message through social media that way a message is shouted through advertising. It’s not enough to be heard – the true power of social media comes through listening.

The opportunity offered to organisations through social media is powerful – honest and open insights into the minds of the brand community. Never before has it been so time efficient to gather research and real time data about what is important to customers and prospective customers. According to Radian6 an engaged brand shows it is listening, that they understand their customer wants and needs, and that they care about the people who like and buy their products.

David Alston proposed a list of ways that brands can better relate, they included:

1.       Listening – the first step to building a relationship

2.       Share content of value

3.       Collaborate – stop trying to convince, work together with your market to innovate

4.       Get to know friends of friends – develop more relationships

5.       Be willing to make mistakes and own up to them

I think collaboration is the key, social media is not about pushing a product/service/message at people. It should be about listening and learning about what is important to the community and responding in ways that shows these factors have been considered.

Great example of Creative Social Media - KLM Suprise

If you are not familiar with the KLM surprise campaign you may want to check out this short video – this is really using social media in a creative way as well as making people feel like they are heard!

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on this – have you had an experience where a brand has really made you feel like you have been heard? Or, have you been ‘approached’ by a brand in a way that is totally irrelevant and a really good example of a brand not listening?

Social Media Marketing and Customer Service – an Interesting Intersection

There is a lot said about social media, from a personal or truly ‘social’ perspective (or anti-social if you ask some parents of teenagers) through to the organisation gain delivered through harnessing it. I feel like I am fairly across the social aspect of social media but when it comes to how it applies in a business sense I am less clear.  Social media is a really intriguing area of marketing, I see great potential gain and also recognise the potential damage to brand reputation it can bring about. At least for now it is an area, as marketers, we cannot ignore.

In the August edition of Marketing (marketingmag.com.au), Brendan Lawley shares his perspective of social media – determining it to the “the new basic customer service”. I wanted to pick up on this point as it interested me. I’ve heard a lot about organisations like Westpac being absolute dynamite on responding to customer issues that crop up through social media. Optus use Twitter as a means for customers to raise issues and seek support – this is a really interesting application of the technology and presents some real business gain – for example, if Optus customers are communicating via Twitter there could be a potential reduction of staff in call centres and in retail stores, as well as the deeper customer connection which is harder to value. So, I wanted to share my two recent interactions via Twitter as part of this view.

I recently had a great customer experience at a Commonwealth Bank branch. Having an interest in how businesses are using social media I decided to tweet something about my experience and included CBA in tweet so that it would be picked up in any social listening they were doing. I was expecting a thank you or acknowledgement of my positive comments – and I got nothing.

I also recently objected to the use of an offensive term used in a Channel 31 program. As another test I also tweeted, making it clear I didn’t appreciate the use of this word. And again, I got nothing. To add to this I recently saw an ad on Channel 31 encouraging viewers to get in touch via Twitter or Facebook and share their thoughts; I am hoping that they have a new social media team ready to go and respond to comments subsequent to mine.

I guess we will continue to watch this space.