Using Collaborative Content for a Cause ~via @PhotofyApp
Collaboration is at the heart of effective cause-based marketing. 'Good' Organizations work tirelessly to leverage the passions and motivations of individuals and connected groups to support worthy causes and effect change. Often these efforts are funded by corporations, foundations, magnanimous donors and perhaps, most importantly, from the cause community itself. Social media has created a significant boost to cause organizations of all types by making it infinitely more accessible for like-minded supporters to connect, share and advocate for causes they care about. On the other hand, social media has also increased competition for attention, activation and ultimately funding, for those that cannot keep up with the pace.
As with commercial marketing, the most influential resources are family and friends. There is nothing more powerful than a genuinely passionate individual that shares a direct connection or story to a cause. And through social media, the impact of that share can be scaled exponentially. One of my favorite examples of grass-roots good is the work that Joey Hilburn and his friends are doing at The Grown Ups Benefit. Joey has created an organization to help those in need directly within his community and uses a variety of social media channels to support events and fund-raising challenges. Joey's community self-reinforces through its social channels as its members create and share content about its initiatives. Along with financial support, media produced in this way helps spread awareness, build engagement and ultimately do more good.
I have worked directly with several Good Marketing organizations for the past five years and the common theme I find is that while fundraising is often an ongoing challenge for many, the ability to reach and engage supporters is as hard, if not more so. Social media can make this easier, but also more difficult as the competition for attention drowns out messaging. At GoodXChange, we approached this problem by first measuring cause-related brand warmth - that is, the way people feel about your brand in response to your cause-marketing initiatives - and then focusing our efforts on people, partners and programs that connected to the measurable drivers of brand warmth. By connecting with people similar to those already engaging (which can be observed through existing content), creating relevant content for those people and scaling reach by engaging the networks of all partners, overall interaction grows thanks to activating the personal influence of participants. This approach consistently delivers higher levels of engagement for causes like Walgreens Red Nose Day, which GoodXChange helped to amplify in May 2017.
At Photofy, we are seeking to now amplify the effect of personal influence through our collaborative content creation platform. We've been helping businesses active their associates and partners networks with beautiful, on-brand content to build personal engagement for years and we are now creating platforms specifically for Good Organizations and their supporters, friends, partners and even related causes. Our first effort is seeking to bring together GoodXChange's partnership with the cause art company, Sevenly, that inspires people to wear what they care through seven-day art giving campaigns that support various causes. Right now, they are partnering with a new participation oriented organization, called “solver:”. Its mission is simple — to get people to take action in real life. Passionate people come together to get others in their community to tack action, just as Joey and his friends are doing with The Grown Ups Benefit. Content becomes a central connection point as people share their experiences bring even more people together around a cause they care about. The Photofy platform helps people easily participate through content creation and sharing with their personal networks.
For Earth Day, solver: is supporting the Wolf Conversation Center and its efforts to protect wolf populations through education. Sevenly has created product designs that coincide with these efforts and solver: is bringing people together to promote local conversations about the Center's efforts. Supporters are encouraged to host an Earth Day Conversation in their area and in doing so will unlock $10 for the Wolf Conservation Center from Sevenly for every picture post via Photofy, truly a good exchange. While providing direct support for the cause, these efforts serve to raise awareness and gather more people into direct action. By enabling more participation through content, we are helping to unlock the value of collaboration through inspiring content.
Want to get involved? Jump in here!
Using the Photofy App, simply search #EarthDay to connect with content related to this campaign.
HOST AN EARTH DAY CONVERSATION! On April 22nd, host a gathering of 10 or more people to discuss three questions about the conservation challenge, and post a picture of you and your group using one of Photofy’s Earth Day filters. Each Photofy upload will unlock $10 toward conservation of national wildlife (UN Sustainable Development Goal 15, supporting Life on Land) through a grant, in your name, from Sevenly to the Wolf Conservation Center - up to $5,000. The first 50 hosts of an Earth Day Gathering with 10+ people will be outfitted with one item (up to a $30 value) from the Sevenly Outfitters Collection, featuring artisan apparel and accessories created for and benefiting the @wolfconservationcenter! #wearyourstory #becausepeoplematter #Earth Day #WeSolveIRL
