Social Media & Social Cause Marketing

Last class we found ourselves seated in the real world of PR agency work, brainstorming about how to get people to care about contributing money for a cause. The success of the campaign would not only benefit the charitable organization receiving the funds, it would also benefit (in terms of perception "profits") the for-profit companies linked to the campaign. While not a widespread marketing strategy, indications are that it is a marketing strategy on the rise. In a post yesterday by Arianna Huffington, she referred to a recent comment by Twitter’s president of global revenue, Adam Bain, that “humor, huge deals and humanity” are the three best ways to monetize a product. With social media, it is much easier for a company to identify what its customers care about. At the same time, a company must engage with its customers on social media, and it should do so in an authentic way. Doing so will give further credibility to its words and actions that speak to caring about something other than its brand. And as Jennifer Gilman of Weber Shandwick pointed out last week, “it must be in their DNA;” otherwise, no one will believe them.