style="font-size:15px;"> 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 marketer, spreading the word about the cause and socially influencing his friends to contribute 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 worldwide. Users raised $2.5 million for 19,445 different charitable organizations. Over its lifetime, more than a billion actions have been taken via Causes, with 186 million registered users in 156 countries. Since the success of Causes, Facebook has incorporated many of its features into the DNA of its platform directly allowing people to start supporting causes, raising money for others, and tracking the success of their efforts all via the newsfeed itself.
MTV’s Enough Campaign: In the spring of 2018, and in response to the horrific Parkland tragedy where a gunman shot students in a school, MTV leveraged its various platforms to amplify the voices of young people who were taking action to stop gun violence. When it came to social media, MTV turned over its Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts to students who were taking action. MTV also supported the March for Our Lives protest in Washington DC by tapping celebrity influencers such as Lady Gaga, Jimmy Fallon, and Yara Shahidi to celebrate these young voices.
Chase Community Giving: Chase bank uses a simple but effective approach to cause marketing via its Chase Community Giving program. Since 2009, the bank has asked its Facebook fans to vote for their favorite charity or non-profit to receive a donation from them. In addition to the voting, Chase bank also promotes other charities on national holidays such as military related charities during National Military Appreciation Month and the Arbor Day Foundation on Arbor Day.
FIGURE 1-8: Causes.com.
Chapter 2
Discovering Your SMM Competitors
IN THIS CHAPTER
Which consumers are using the social web is no longer a subject of much debate. Rather, the debate has shifted to how consumers are using the social web. How many teens are using Facebook actively, what is the true reach of Twitter, and how aggressively are Instagram and Snapchat growing? These are the more common questions today. What’s certain is that no one questions the scale or influence of the social web on culture, communications, and people’s lives around the world.
The truth is that it’s difficult to say who is using the social web and how. This is because the term social web is most commonly used to describe how people socialize and interact with each other across the web. With every passing day, many websites are becoming social platforms where visitors can interact and learn from one another. Even more critically, more and more websites allow you to log in with your Facebook or Twitter username and password. They then allow you to share your experience with the social network and, in some cases, customize the experience based on who you are and on your friends list. Those websites are becoming social, too. So how can you find out which consumers use the social web and in what way? The best way is to understand how your company fits into the big picture and how your competitors are using social media.
In this chapter, we explain how to do that. Having a firm grip on the lay of the land in the social web makes it easier to craft a marketing plan that works with it. Understanding what your competitors are doing helps you understand your customers’ expectations.
Classifying Consumer Activities
Before you launch a social media marketing campaign, you need to have a feel for what activities consumers undertake on the social web. After all, your marketing campaign is far more likely to succeed if it is in harmony with what consumers are trying to accomplish on the social web. Consumer activity on the social web is classified into these eight categories:
Information: The Internet, with its academic roots, was conceived as a virtual library and an information-sharing tool. And to this day, consumers use the Internet for finding information more than anything else. In fact, it’s no surprise that Google and Yahoo are two of the top five web destinations. (Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon are the other three.) Google and Yahoo are at the top because they’re primary search engines, helping consumers find the information they’re looking for. That hasn’t changed, and even with the Internet going increasingly social, searching and finding information remains the number-one consumer activity online. If you’re running a marketing campaign for a product or service that consumers seek, you’re most likely to get strong results. When people are in “information seeker” mode, they’re most apt to participate in campaigns.
News: One primary use for the Internet is news. More people read the news online than watch it on cable television. The instant, real-time nature of news makes it particularly suited for the Internet. Many cable television channels promote their websites to their TV audiences. But what’s even more interesting is that practically all the major news websites integrate social media functionality into their
