Exploiting News & Internet Fads for Your Organization
09:50, 28 April 2010
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a story with the headline Twitter Tampon Trend Becomes Fund-Raising Opportunity for Charity that, at first glance, seems to be a story about the successful use of Twitter and micro-blogging. But that's NOT the crux of this story, not really.
The lesson from this story is this: you can use national news or events, international news or events, or Internet fads or trends to generate interest in -- and maybe even donations to -- your nonprofit.
The Chronicle story is about when Apple announced the forthcoming release of the woefully-named iPad in January. Jokes flew all over the Internet about how the name "iPad" sounds like a feminine-hygiene product. An activist from GlobalGiving saw a connection between the jokes and an effort by her organization to raise money to provide eco-friendly feminine products to girls in Uganda. On GlobalGiving's Twitter page, she tweeted a post that linked the iPad jokes to the Web page for the Uganda project:
"#iPad and #iTampon jokes are funny. But in #Uganda girls leave school for lack of sanitary pads.
She posted similar messages to her other online social networking sites. And the result was a big increase in donations to this Uganda project, as well as more widespread awareness about an issue faced by school girls in poor countries that most of us have probably never thought about before.
I blogged in January about a missed opportunity by various organizations regarding something similar: when many thousands of FaceBook users posted the color of their bras on as their status. It could have been a true social marketing/health marketing campaign regarding breast cancer awareness, with real impact (changed behavior, new awareness, etc.), but instead, it was just... bra colors. It was a perfect example of Slackervism, where people clicked something online, or did something equally simple online, and walked away thinking, "Wow, I really made a difference", but they didn't.
Your organization needs to be ready to exploit news events or sudden Internet trends/fads to build awareness about your work and, even better, attract donations. This means:
- Associating with the story or trend in your FaceBook page and other online social networking profiles, and literally linking to an online story about the event or trend.
- Blogging about the story or trend and, again, literally link to an online story about the event or trend.
- Sending a tweet to your followers.
- Emailing a press release to your local media contacts, associating your organization and its work with the news event or online trend.
- Writing in the comments section of an online news article, noting the links between the subject of the article and your organization.
- Adding a note to your "What's New" section on your web site or even your home page that associates with the news or trend.
Also, look for ways to leverage United Nations-designated days, weeks, years and decades. This is a great way to prepare for press coverage on an issue that's related to your organization's mission. More advice on how to do that here.
