mobilize your cause: 12 steps to a successful cause campaign
DESCRIPTION
First part of the Mobilize Your Cause Bootcamp, held at CUNY as part of Personal Democracy Forum 2010. This presentation covers: - 12 steps to mobilize your cause - some instructive cause campaigns, including charity:water, Tweet for a Cure, 93 Dollar Club, and the Greenpeace campaign against Nestle.TRANSCRIPT
Mobilize Your Cause!
JD Lasica Founder, [email protected] 2, 2010
Focus: Cause CampaignsPersonal Democracy Forum
B O O T C A M P
Relax!
(all sites in this talk have been tagged for later retrieval)
Creative Commons photo on Flickr: “relaxation, the maldivian way” by notsogoodphotography
http://bit.ly/mobilize
Today’s hashtag
Tweet this talk! Hashtag: #pdf10
Creative Commons photo on Flickrby Prakhar
Handouts! Be happy!
It’s the ecosystem, stupid!
77% US adults are frequent social media users.*
Almost 1 million blog posts created per day; over 346 million people globally read blogs
6 of top 10 websites in US are social sites (YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, MySpace, Blogger, Craigslist)
Twitter: 120 million registered users; 300,000 new users a day; 180 million unique visitors a month
Flickr: 35 million people have posted & tagged 3 billion-plus photos
Wikipedia: 10 million users have contributed
YouTube: 2 billion videos streamed per day
Whenever someone opens a computer, 60% of time it’s for social reasons
*Nielsen Online, spring 2010
Facebook: Freaky growthClosing in on a half billion members
Cultural norms of social media
Premium on sharing
Transparency
Conversation expected
Mistrust of traditional authority figures & marketers
Instead: trust in peers, people like ourselves — even strangers
It’s not about the technology, it’s about connecting people.
Trust is easily gained and easily lost.
Credit/attribution given
Collaboration
Types of cause campaigns1. Raise awareness for your cause,
build your organization’s authority
2. Grow a mailing/newsletter list
3. Sign up new members
4. Raise funds
5. Sign petitions or invite supporters to write letters
6. Find new volunteers or advocates
7. Attract new Twitter followers or Facebook “likers”
8. Enlist people to attend an event or pledge to take an action
9. Ask people to create content on your behalf
What else?
Dream cause campaigns
charity:water supporters raised $250,000 through Twestival.
Red Cross’s Text Haiti campaign raised $32 million. Oxfam UK received $50,000 via link in YouTube video posted day after Haiti quake.
Visible Children Scholarship Program: 700 kids in Uganda receiving scholarships & mentoring.
Care2 (if you have $$)
Effective advocacy campaigns
Matt Shepard Act to prevent hate crimes
Starbucks helps Ethiopian coffee farmers
Protecting Oregon’sforests
12 steps to mobilize your cause
1. First, listen and observe. Engage before the Ask.
2. Set clear goals & define metrics to measure
3. Define a clear theme4. Frame it with a personal story 5. Create a simple call to action6. Be transparent, create a conversation hub for participants7. Give your campaign social love handles8. Consider a mobile component9. Identify & enlist evangelists
10. Create ongoing mini-actions & provide updates 11. Use immediacy: Headlines & deadlines 12. Measure results, reconnect, refine, refresh
1. Create a listening postSet up a listening post (monitoring dashboard) to track what’s being said about your cause.
Choose from Google Reader, Feedly (left) or Netvibes, supplemented by a Twitter monitoring service.
See your handout! How to set up a Monitoring Dashboard
2. Set goals, map metrics
Goals
Grow email list of supporters
Increase comments on blog
Increase website visibility
Increase positive mentions of brand or campaign
Have visitors stick around
Increase virality of content
Get people to take action
Attend an event
Metrics to measure
# newsletter, RSS subscribers
avg. # comments/post
increase in traffic or linkback #s
mentions in social networks
stick rate
# of shares
# of petition signatures
# of registrants, year over year
3. Define a clear themeBoil down your cause to a strong, single sentence
Share Our Strength: End childhood hunger in America
ActBlue: Elect progressive candidates
DonorsChoose: Support public classrooms in need
Hope Blooms: Get kids adopted
4. Tell a personal storyUse videos or photos for maximum impact
invisiblepeople.tv
5. Create a call to actionInspire people to act with clear, motivating steps
6. Create conversation hubWhere will you engage with supporters?
Your blog
Community site (WiseEarth)
Social hub (Change.org)
Contest site (Giving Challenge)
7. Social love handles Turbo-charge your campaign with plug-ins, widgets
8. Consider mobile
This American Life: Facebook widget & text to give
GoodGuide.com:
Users can use iPhone app to see if a product is healthy, environmentally friendly & socially responsible.
9. Enlist evangelists
Use your listening post to identify high-value influencers in your subject area
Establish a rapport and only then reach out
Scope out Twitter Lists that intersect with your cause
Connect with other social media influencers through their blogs and other venues
10. Create mini-actionsAmerica’s Giving Challenge: Daily winners
11. Use immediacyHeadlines & deadlines: Play off the news & use a hard stop date
12. Measure, refine, refresh
http://dashboard.imamuseum.org/
Measure results, follow up, recalibrate, relaunch
Campaigns with impact
Cause It’s My Birthday: Microsite
Equality California: Wedding registry
SMA: Tweet for a Cure
93 Dollar Club: Facebook
charity:water: Website, blog, Twitter, video updates, Google Earth
Greenpeace & Nestlé
We’ll discuss other campaigns in Tools session
Ric O’Barry, “The Cove”
Cause it’s my birthday
$19,000 for malaria nets in rural Ghana
C A S E S T U D Y
No on 8 Wedding Registry1,700 couples raised $1 million+ for Equality California
C A S E S T U D Y
Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Slide show on Photobucket
C A S E S T U D Y
Tweet for a Cure2,000 people have tweeted reaching 1.6 million followers
C A S E S T U D Y
http://gwendolynstrongfoundation.org/twitter
93 Dollar Club C A S E S T U D Y
Grassroots serendipity: $83,000+ to fight hunger
charity:water & Twestival C A S E S T U D Y
http://www.charitywater.org/projects/map/
Greenpeace & NestléNestlé’s Facebook Page, March 17, 2010
C A S E S T U D Y
Greenpeace & NestléNestlé Killer microsite
C A S E S T U D Y
Greenpeace & NestléBoycott Nestlé pages on Facebook
C A S E S T U D Y
Greenpeace & NestléGreenpeace bought Google AdWords like “chocolate”
C A S E S T U D Y
Greenpeace & NestléNestlé partners with Forest Trust
C A S E S T U D Y
JD Lasica, Socialbrite.orgemail: [email protected]: @jdlasica
Following up
Resources at bit.ly/mobilize
Bookmarks at delicious.com/socialmediacamp/mobilize
Katrin Verclas, MobileActive.orgemail: [email protected]: @katrinskaya