As the holidays roll around, so does the time of year when charities make their largest concentrated push for donations. Hoping to cash in on the goodwill of the holidays, nonprofits focus on finding the least expensive way to reach the most people and raise the most money for their cause.
Facebook has become a leader in the cause-marketing industry. Organizations can create company pages and promote their brand with very little time and expense. What makes Facebook even more ideal for cause marketers is the overwhelming popularity the social site has garnered among consumers - with almost everybody on Facebook. Facebook gives online users a convenient way to learn how they can help their favorite causes, and how to suggest that their friends do the same.
"Brands really started incorporating cause into their marketing five to six years ago," Elizabeth Ming, spokesperson at Proctor & Gamble, told ClickZ News. "Now there's so much potential with social media, goodwill campaigns have picked up even more."
The same way that major corporations such as Coca-Cola offer donations on the behalf of their consumers, nonprofits are learning how to garner donations for their causes through the exchange of information on Facebook. For example, companies like Coca-Cola provide consumers with a code underneath a bottlecap that users can then enter online to request the promised donation be sent to a specific cause. Now, all an online or Facebook user has to do is share a link or "like" a page in order for their donation to be actualized.
"The ability to engage consumers via social media for charitable campaigns represents the first time cause marketing hasn’t been inextricably linked to product purchasing," Paul Smailes, senior brand manager for Dos Equis, told the news source. "You don’t need to buy a product to get a code, then log on to a website to donate $1. In many cases, you need only to re-tweet a message or 'like' a Facebook page."
Making the donation process easier is one of the biggest benefits of social media. By allowing nonprofit organizations this fast and easy way to account for donations by simply asking supporters to share a link while they're already logged on, Facebook is tangibly increasing the charitable reach of non-profits this holiday season.
Worth recognizing, however, is that online users actually need to see the links in order to participate in the donation programs. If users aren't aware of an organization's efforts, they will be in vain. That's where facebook microTargeting by Semcasting can help.
Facebook microTargeting is the perfect way for nonprofits to increase their visibility on the social media network. By targeting their digital campaigns to the users most likely to align with a cause and share a link with their friends, nonprofits increase their outreach effectiveness. Semcasting helps them achieve this by creating predictive look-alike models of an organizations current contributors. By focusing their efforts on the most qualified audiences at the times they're most likely to be on Facebook, nonprofits can count on holiday goodwill to prompt users to share their links and raise donations with little time or expense to the consumer.
Ray Kingman : Feb 11, 2015 7:35:34 PM
