Fund Raising is Mobile and Viral

Social media and marketers have increasing roles in dealing with social issues in general and natural disasters in particular. The effects of the earthquake in Haiti are devastating and heart rending. Let me sum up some of the things I’m seeing.

• Within hours (2 or 3 maybe?) of the first news about the earthquake I saw a crawler on CNN/Situation Room soliciting mobile contributions. There are several firms that support mobile fundraising. The Mobile Giving Foundation seems to be the largest and best known; their site gives good information on how it works. According to a press release yesterday, their clients had raised over $7million--all in $5 and $10 amounts to the best of my knowledge. This quote from one of their how it works pages sums it up:

Mobile often outpaces on-line donor acquisition by a 3:1 factor. It is also clear that mobile giving represents purely incremental gifts predominately by a new, younger demographic. Donor canibalization doesn’t occur.

• Consumers are confused and wary, and rightly so. Remember all the scams after Hurricane Katrina? ABC News was quick to explain how to tell the difference in a post that I’ve also seen on the national site and a local affiliate site. That’s helpful.

• But we’ve all seen how quickly rumors and incorrect information can flood the Internet via the social networks. The AdAge article about consumer confusion points to issues experienced by both American Airlines and UPS. The latter is particularly interesting; I had just watched a video on how (and why) they had been working on their social media strategy over the past months. That kind of preparation allowed them to respond quickly to the incorrect information with correct information on their own blog. The video is 20 minutes long, but it’s well worth your time—especially if you have a brand to protect!

The Internet is flooded with reports of corporations’ pledges of help, and that’s as it should be. Perhaps also, they shouldn’t expect anything in return for doing the right thing. But as a proponent of cause-related marketing, I don’t fault companies for wanting credit. I saw Art Hogan of Jeffries securities on CNBC this morning. Before he talked about stock prices he pushed his company’s efforts which include a corporate donation, the opportunity for employees to donate a day’s salary, and the donation of all their commissions today to the relief fund. That’s a joint effort and seems to me to be all to the good. He said they had already seen increased trading volume in London and, pre-market opening, it looked as if they would see the same in the US. I checked their website and there’s nothing there. They must have gotten the word out by emailing their clients. However they did it, good for them!

What are the take-aways? First, mobile and viral have both upsides and downsides; all channels need to be monitored for both. When it’s important, get out a correction. Distribute it as widely as possible; I couldn’t find evidence of the informative blog post on either UPS’s Twitter or Facebook pages. Second, cause-related marketing is usually a long-term investment, and the Jeffries anecdote provides nice support for the belief that it does provide ROI. It’s one part of the shift of marketing expenditures from traditional media to social media. Third, today’s environment calls for rapid response. You can’t respond rapidly in social media when the need arises unless you have built a solid foundation.

And needs will continue to arise from all quarters—you can bet on that!

Inventing A Successful "New" Business Model

Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a business going year-round in a resort area? I remember reading several years ago that the summer population of the town where I live is 20,000; it goes down to 5,000 for the winter months. If you consider that the peak season is no more than 10 weeks long, with “shoulders” on either side, you begin to understand the problem. Add to that the difficulty of finding housing for seasonal workers, and you have a prescription for small business woes.

Having emphasized with the businesses where I trade for a long time, I was intrigued with one I ran across recently. Two young women have invented a business model that allows them to solve the seasonality problem. The video is about two years old, so the statistics are out of date, but the energy and charm of these two entrepreneurs is much in evidence.



Megan Murphy and Catherine Bean have a single retail location in downtown Hyannis. That’s a high-visibility tourist destination and their store obviously does well in the spring, summer and fall months. Their website supports the retail store, but it does more. They close the shop from December to March, but they don’t cease operations; they just shift to the Internet. They stay fully occupied running online parties and fundraisers. When I
talked to Megan a few weeks ago, they were booked through Christmas. I checked the site and they are now booking for February and March 2010, so they continue to move right along.

How did they invent this business model—one which is different from the usual Bricks & Mortar? As stay at home Moms, they gave product parties in their homes, so moving parties online didn’t seem like too much of a stretch. They found a supportive marketing services supplier, and they were off. From a few email addresses collected in the store, they now have a list of over 20,000 that grows with every party.

What is the moral of this story? Give eparties? While I think virtual events have a great future, it’s more than that.

These two women used their own experience, their own background; they just moved their offline activities online. Think about your last online retail experience. Did the site “suggest” other items to you the minute you put something in your shopping cart? That’s what a good retail salesperson does, just moved online. That’s the moral—move successful offline marketing activities online.

There was a blog post last week by Mack Collier that got a lot of mileage on Twitter. I don’t disagree that we need fewer social media stars and more great social media ideas. My reaction was, “How do you know it’s really a great idea?” And then I thought about Megan and Catherine. Product parties had already worked for them in one context. They moved the same winning idea into another context, one where they could achieve even greater reach.

It’s a great example of not having to reinvent the wheel to develop a winning business model!

Facebook Grows Up and Twitter Grows Large

We all know that Facebook has been growing rapidly, reaching 200 million global users earlier this month. It gave itself and the whole Internet community an interesting celebratory present by setting up Facebook for Good.It also made itself a celebratory video with an interesting heat map of the distribution of Facebook users. Note the high level of activity in the US on the east and west coasts and in urban centers around the globe.

Facebook has long had a cause app. If you take a look you quickly realize that Facebook is not a good place to raise money, although a lot of people clearly have good intentions. We all know, however, that it’s a place to reach out—if you do it right.

So Facebook set up a special page. In its own words:

we've partnered with 16 charity/advocacy groups who are making the world a better place. When you purchase one of these gifts, 90-95% of the cost will go to that organization to support its efforts.

On this page you can also share your stories about how Facebook has helped you to give back. I particularly liked the posting from Sri Lanka.

This is a different approach to charitable works than the Ashton Kutcher/CNN Twitter challenge. If you missed that one yesterday, the first to reach 1 million Twitter followers would donate 10,000 mosquito nets to world malaria day. Kutcher edged out CNN by only a couple of thousand followers (see his celebration party). It made for a fun day of live television and got CNN (as well as Kutcher, obviously) lots of new Twitter followers, including me. Why don’t you comment on Anderson Cooper’s blog (he seems to be the one who spend the most time promoting the challenge) and ask CNN to make its donation anyway—as several of us already have done.

That’s what Web 2.0 is all about. Intrusive advertising is out. Doing well by doing good is in!

Now It's a Twestival!

Marketing Charts had a good summary yesterday of the recent Pew Report on Twitter use (get the full report here). Marketing Charts says it’s 10% of adult Internet users and Pew says 11% of them use Twitter or a similar update source. A little rounding error between marketers is not significant—Twitter has become a phenomenon.

So I was interested when C.C. Chapman used my Facebook page to invite me to a Twestival last week. I’ve been watching from afar; it seems to be the first Twitter effort of this kind in support of the non-profit Charity:Water.

This is a personal timeline:

• I saw C. C. Chapman’s post on my Facebook page via his Feed on or about February 10. It was interesting and unusual, so I clicked through to the Boston page.
• I checked out the main site. At that time, it was inviting people to the event. It has since been updated with results.
• I found out that David Karp from First Giving was going to use it as a case history in my social media class last night. He did a great job and the students were intrigued by this application of a tool that, interestingly, few of them use. (Wonder if that’s changed since last night. . .)














• When I opened my email this morning, there was a message from Scott Harrison of Charity:Water. The content was a report on a particular well project; he does a great job of bringing home the value of contributions to his charity. He had a thank-you and update on the Twestival at the bottom.
• According to what I see there were 199 cities besides Boston that held Twestivals on February 12. That’s reach!

The people I know who were involved are part of the social media community, as I’m sure are many I don’t know. They are connected; they communicate. If you take a look at the Twestival site, you’ll see that they also know how to build a website to support this kind of global activity.
This is all food for thought. The word spread on the Internet; people attended live events around the world; Charity:Water raised at least a quarter of a million dollars. This was done with a lot of volunteer effort and some corporate sponsorship.

It used multiple social media channels (including eBay—see the Auction button; is that social?); it engaged a lot of people who actively communicate.

Probably few organizations—either non-profit or for-profit—can entirely replicate this. But they can look and learn. And one important thing to keep reminding ourselves is that no one channel reaches everyone these days. Neither does random effort. It takes a lot of work, a lot of expertise to pull off something like the first Twestival. And it helps if you have a huge network of contacts!

So go forth, and keep building your networks!

A Brand-Driven, Viral Fundraising Business Model

One of my students introduced me to SocialVibe—thanks, Tao! It is another interesting business model—a combination of fundraising for non-profits and cause-related marketing for brands. As Tao pointed out, the focus on social networks also makes the efforts viral.

Leading brands have signed up as sponsors. Consumers who want to raise money for a cause (members) select their cause and create a widget (they call it a badge) using graphics supplied by the non-profit and the sponsor. The member then posts the badge on a social networking page and earns sponsor points by getting donations there. As the site points out, it’s a chance to do good without the member committing a lot of his or her own funds. For the brand, it’s impressions on the social networking sites that are probably a lot more effective than paid advertising impressions.

Some causes are seeing it as an especially effective way to reach certain target audiences. To Write Love on Her Arms is a teen suicide-prevention advocacy that is actively using the viral power of the site. But others are going beyond just the obvious teenage target audience. A Canadian publication talks about using sites like SocialVibe to get out messages that attempt to stem the tide of obesity and the related problem of Type 2 diabetes.

Another active user is Charity:Water, a non-profit with another “new media” business model of its own.

It is impressive and heartening to see non-profits making effective use of the Internet in their fundraising efforts. It is also impressive to see corporations and brands joining in these efforts in a way that is beneficial all the way around.

It’s a good thought for the holiday season!

Relating to Gen Y

The generation of consumers born between 1980 and 2000 numbers over 70 million. Many are well into their 20s and in the labor force. All, through their own earnings or through influence over household expenditures are a powerful consumer force. They are a prime target for many retailers. They have been raised on media and the Internet is their chief channel. They are a leading indicator, and often an influencer, of cultural change. Their opinion matters. New York magazine had a provocative article (free registration required)about their values and behavior recently.

I’ve had a couple of interesting encounters with the more broadly defined 18 – 35 demographic lately that have started me thinking. Both center around one of their favorite retailers, Gap.

In a recent class I assigned a short Internet marketing exercise. It started with my usual “select a website that interests you, one that you are reasonably familiar with.” Eight teams of graduate students worked industriously for about 20 minutes, with little or no conversation between groups. At the end, when we debriefed the exercise, two out of eight had chosen the Gap site. Not too surprising until I realized that both had focused on the (Product) Red ™ promotion.

Members of both teams had been following the promotion and gave every indication that it would affect their purchasing behavior and they wanted to encourage others to participate. Cause-related marketing can be powerful for young adults.
Their support of (Product) Red ™ lead to a broader discussion of social issues. The class occurred just a few days after the news about child labor in one of Gap’s supplier plants in India. They had been following that also, including being aware of how and how quickly Gap president Marka Hansen responded to the allegations and how quickly her response was posted on the Gap home page. They are paying attention. And always remember they are communicating. I searched Technorati and found 136 posts for “gap child labor india.” When I broadened the search to “gap child labor” I got 506 posts. I counted 13 video clips on the subject. All this has happened since the story broke in the British publication The Observer on October 28, and the posts continue.

What I heard from this small, unscientific sample is that they were giving a trusted brand the benefit of the doubt. Gap has a pretty good record for dealing with this type of issue and the reaction to this revelation was swift and decisive. So far, so good, but they are being watched.

A few days later a communication from another member of the target demographic revealed that Gap, too, has marketing feet of clay. The opt-in email offers a nice promotion. Unfortunately on the day it was offered, the entire site was down for a scheduled upgrade. Do Marketing and IT talk to one another? Not in this instance! And the site was back up a day later, so the promotion could easily have been postponed. Will the young adult continue to patronize the Gap? Probably, but they likely lost a sale this time.












Whether they are identified as Gen Y, Gen X or the 18-35 demographic, these consumers are connected and demanding. Their demands include the behavior of corporations as well as the products they offer. A trusted brand is built slowly, with considerable effort. It can provide a margin of error for unforeseen events. But news is viral among these consumers and marketers have to react quickly and effectively.
Sphere: Related Content

Using the Tools

It’s always a pleasure to receive an email from your daughter, especially one that has a picture of your adorable grandson. This one was special.

Her family signed up to participate in the Walk for Animals sponsored by MSPCA and Boston’s Angell Memorial Hospital earlier this month. The email included a link to their personal page complete with a picture, personal fund-raising goal and a link to their bulldog group web page. The scrolling list of donors indicated that various people and pets had already contributed.

Sure, I would have made a contribution anyway; they are my kids. But this made it easy for me. Even better, it made it easy for them. It was personal and appealing but very soft sell. Because it was a simple text email it was easy to forward. I did, and my friend’s cat made a contribution also. The system also provided an email template for participants to thank their donors along with the standard email acknowledgement by the MSPCA.

I wasn’t there, but I’m told that people, dogs, and a pair of ferrets had fun. The cats on leashes and the parakeets in birdcages strapped to strollers didn’t look as happy. But, according to the MSCPA, they raised over $330,000 with this event. Every communication provided links to the website and the HTML ones included a lot of the site functionality.

All this was powered by Convio’s TeamRaiser fundraising software. That made it easy to replicate some of the MSPCA home page components on the personal pages. It also interfaced with the MSPCA donor database, capturing new names and updating donor records.

The participants are an integral part of an event like this. Using interactive tools to improve their experience and produce desired results for the organization is a win-win.