THINKing

#tweeta20 – That’s A Wrap

Well, #tweeta20 – the social media project designed to raise awareness and funds for Thompson Child & Family Focus -  is behind us now and I think it was a success. I think we raised more awareness of the good work that Thompson does than we did money. Although we raised at least $4,000 via social media at last count.

Here’s how it happened. Friend Kathy Rowan (@PRQueen) works closely with Thompson and has for a longtime. She asked me to help with the project she had conceived.

First, we recruited  a great group of Charlotte Twitterati to participate and I’d like to recognize them once more.  I hope you will follow these wonderful people:

@CrystalDempsey

@AlexisAcosta

@ScottHepburn

@prettyannoyed

@beccabernstein

@daily_pinch

@lisahoffmann

@brandonuttley

@kateymarie

Next, we decided upon a catchy hashtag – #tweeta20 – to help track the stream.

Then, we:

- rounded up some Wicked tickets for a drawing from the pool of online #tweeta20 donors (oh, by the way, the winner was @ppnc09)

- pre-promoted the May 11 event to friends and followers to try to prime the fundraising pump

- developed Tweet Cheat Sheets for our 10 Twitterati to utilize and to keep us on message

- mounted a media relations effort to garner media interest, and this paid off with pre-event publicity from The Charlotte Observer and Fox News Rising. The momentum continues: WCNC-TV visited the facility the day after the event, spending two hours there filming.

- set up a Twitter account for Thompson and began following Charlotte, NC area people with the account

- set up a Thompson cause page on Facebook to involve our non-Twittering friends

During Thompson’s May 11 annual luncheon, its big fundraiser for the year,  our group sat at the Twitter Table,  twittering like crazy, utilizing two 4G Overdrive hotspots that @Sprint provided.

We’ve learned a lot about how to use social media for nonprofits, and I want to figure out how to translate this knowledge to other charities in our area. I’ll get back to you on that once I’ve figured it out.

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Meet The Tweeters

We talked recently about #tweeta20,  a social media project in which I’m participating along with @PRQueen.The project is for Thompson Child & Family Focus, aka @ThompsonCFF.

A number of prominent Charlotte, NC tweeters have graciously volunteered their time to assist in this worthy cause.  Please follow these good folks:

@CrystalDempsey

@AlexisAcosta

@ScottHepburn

@prettyannoyed

@beccabernstein

@daily_pinch

@lisahoffmann

@brandonuttley

@kateymarie

As a thank you, I’m profiling our social media volunteers as their bios come in.  Let’s get started:

Crystal Dempsey, @CrystalDempsey, 45, owns From The Hip Communications, a Charlotte-based communications consulting company that works with nonprofits (Crossroads Charlotte, Dress for Success Charlotte) and businesses. During her 20 years at The Charlotte Observer, Crystal was an editor (Style, Eye, UCity), writer (fashion/lifestyle), page designer and copy editor. She continues to be a contributing columnist for the Observer’s Style section. Crystal serves on the TEDx Charlotte steering committee and on advisory boards for Charlotte Community School for Girls, UNC Charlotte’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Women’s Inter-Cultural Exchange.

Scott Hepburn, @ScottHepburn, is a father, transplanted New Yorker (who isn’t, really?), and PR and marketing veteran. His consulting firm, Media Emerging, provides social media training, content marketing strategy, and copywriting for agencies and mid-sized business. He once wrestled a bear. No, not really, but wouldn’t that be cool? He’s an avid trail runner, coffee lover, and debater.

@prettyannoyed prefers anonymity. She is a Charlotte resident who, despite spending time micro-blogging about the annoyances we all encounter in our daily lives, enjoys spending free time helping worthy causes such as Thompson Child & Family Focus.

Becca Bernstein, @BeccaBernstein, is a Senior Content Developer and Social Media Strategist for Lowe’s Home Improvement. A writer and a graduate of the Portfolio Center, Becca has worked at several of the top agencies in Charlotte. She was also the Co-Founder of the Dave Thomas Fan Club. When she’s not working, Becca spends her time with her husband, her daughter and a dog that looks like a cow.

Brandon Uttley, @BrandonUttley, is a social media strategist for Wray Ward, helping create conversations and connections in the social media space. Uttley has a practiced perspective on social media and, as a 20-year veteran in the fields of marketing and public relations, brings a keen understanding on its role in integrated marketing communications. 

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Tweeta20 – A Non-Profit Social Media Pilot Project

On Tuesday, May 11, nine Charlotte social media folks and I will spend an hour trying to raise money for Thompson Child & Family Focus, an organization that has spent nearly 125 years providing education, treatment and support for children traumatized by sexual abuse, domestic violence or rampant neglect.

During Thompson’s annual meeting at noon May 11, we will sit at a Twitter Table and encourage our followers to Tweet A $20 or more. Each contributor of $20 or more will be entered to win two tickets to WICKED at Charlotte, NC’s Ovens Auditorium.

We’re using the hashtag #Tweeta20 in all of our social media postings  so we can keep up with the social stream, primarily from our Charlotte area social followers.

How can you help? I’m glad you asked.

• Follow Thompson on Twitter @thompsoncff
• Become a Facebook fan of Thompson Child & Family Focus
• Share news on your blog, in your tweets or Facebook status updates about the promotion and use the #Tweeta20 hashtag
• Follow our Tweets from noon to 1 p.m. on May 11 and please RT our #Tweeta20 tweets
• Go ahead and #Tweeta20. We’re taking donations!
• Send any other ideas you have to tweak our #Tweeta20 promotion.

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8 Ways To Use Twitter Lists

UPDATE: We just launched our Fortune 100 Twitter list. Feel free to follow it or any of our lists mentioned below.

We talked recently about the Twitter lists set up by My Creative Team. Are you using Twitter lists? Tell us about it.

We now have a Twittering Media Outlet List, a Twittering US Journalist List, and a Twittering Canadian Journalist List. Because Hootsuite – our favorite Twitter appliance – now allows you to import your lists, we also set up a Social Media List of our favorites in that category.

We have found a number of ways to utilize Twitter lists. Let’s take a couple of minutes to think about the how-tos of lists.

1. Experts. We established our social media list for the purpose of following experts in this milieu.

2. Social media monitoring. There’s a good piece on this at Fresh Networks‘ blog.

3. Industry news monitoring. We have set up the Twittering Media Outlets list to keep up with breaking news. You also could set up niche news monitoring lists, as we are going to do for our client, Camstar Systems, so we can keep up-to-date on topics such as manufacturing execution and quality management.

4. Employees. A number of businesses, ranging from Mashable to the New York Times, have set up employee lists. This could be a good customer service tool for your company, particularly if you work for a Fortune 1000 size firm.

5. Promote Causes. NonProfit Tech 2.0 has a post about how to use Twitter lists for promoting non-profits and causes.

6. Geo-Specific Lists. My Creative Team has been listed in a number of Charlotte, NC-area Twitter lists, like this one. This is a good way to keep up with what’s happening where you live, or where you used to live.

7. News Sources. Poynter Online has a solid post telling journalists how to use Twitter lists to help streamline their jobs.  Mashable also has a piece on how journalists are using Twitter lists.

8. Job Search.  Looking for a job? Set up a list of companies for which you would like to work, so you can get a sense of the corporate culture. Add executive search contacts to the list so you can discover what jobs are available.

Those are just a few ways to use Twitter lists. Got other ideas?

Oh, before you set up your own list, there may already be one out there. Check Listorious, the directory of Twitter lists.   Here’s one we found about job searches.

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Feeling Charitable

I need your help. I want to get more people signed up for the My Creative Team monthly enewsletter. So, I’ve decided to donate a dollar to charity for every person who signs up between now and Christmas Eve.  Even if you decide to opt-out after Christmas, I’ll donate up to $1,500 to the Crisis Assistance Ministry. Why Crisis Assistance Ministry? Because, as they say on their website,

When there is nowhere else to turn, we provide emergency financial assistance, clothing and household goods to families in need.

The need this year among the so-called “working poor” is profound. Because they are actually working and making some money, they get very little, if any, government assistance. The help of Crisis Assistance often means the difference between eating and not eating.

Will you help me reach my goal of 1,500 new subscribers so that together we can help the truly needy? Sign up here.

Please spread the word to your friends, particularly those in marketing and HR at Fortune 1000 size companies, since that’s our target market. Additionally, feel free to share this across your social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Thanks for your help. Are you doing anything charitable this year? Tell us your story.

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How About Giving Charities A Holiday This Year?

Despite a recession, Americans spent more on holiday shopping in two months in 2008 than they did all year on charitable giving. Holiday retail sales for November and December 2008 in the general merchandise category totaled roughly $460 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Charitable giving for 2008 declined to $307 billion from $314 billion in 2007.

Don’t get me wrong – I am pro-capitalism. But I think that Americans should be giving at least as much to charity as they are spending on holiday gifts. So, we started a program called Holiday For Charity in 2002, and once again My Creative Team is promoting the program that provides some simple ways to help the less fortunate.

The number one thing you can do is ask friends, family and business associates to donate to charity instead of buying you gifts. Here’s why: a lot of people would donate to charity in someone’s name but they don’t feel right doing it unless they have that person’s approval. So, give them your OK and help someone who needs it more than you need a Christmas gift.

Here’s how Holiday For Charity works:

1.     sell the holiday gifts you receive online at eBay’s GivingWorks, and donate the proceeds to charity

2.     register and shop at iGive.com, whose merchants donate a portion of each transaction to the charities of your choice

3.   offer to do volunteer work in lieu of buying holiday gifts

4.     donate directly to charity in lieu of buying holiday gifts for clients and customers

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Use The Neglected Weapons In Your Marketing Arsenal

Business marketers have a lot of weapons in their arsenals but they often overlook some very important ones. So, let’s do a quick inventory.

Of course, you already have a company name, a positioning statement, logo, stationery, business cards and a website.
Right?

The next thing I suggest is an employee survey. Ask them about what’s happening where the company meets the customer. Find out how employees feel about the company. A recent survey shows that employee attitudes have a huge impact upon a company’s bottom line. Motivated employees provide great service, and great service can separate you from your competitors.

Next, develop a customer retention program. It costs five times more to develop a new customer as it does to keep an old one. E-newsletters are an essential part of my customer retention program and should be a part of yours too.

Finally, here is a random list of other items that can be considered part of your marketing arsenal.

- your reputation

- advertising

- consultations, demonstrations, seminars, samples

- community involvement, cause marketing, philanthropy

- media contacts, bylined articles, op-ed pieces

- guest speaking program

- great working environment

- employee training & development program

- networking, referrals

- contests

- customer surveys

- special events

If your time for marketing related tasks is limited, take some advice from my marketing mentor: pick three things from above and do them right.

Are you using any of the neglected weapons? Tell us about it.

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Give It Up

Christmas is a time for giving, but somehow we’ve gotten this holiday turned around a bit. Every year I promote Holiday For Charity, a simple way to help charity during the season of giving. I just heard about a couple of other ways to augment the Holiday For Charity program – GoodSearch.com and GoodShop.com. Here’s what they say about the programs:

More than 70,000 nonprofits have partnered with a new Yahoo-powered search engine called GoodSearch.com, and online shopping mall GoodShop.com to enable their supporters to generate donations just by doing something they do everyday – search the Internet or shop online. What makes the system so compelling is that it doesn’t cost the users a thing. It’s a form of philanthropy that works for everyone in this tough economy!

Consumers are helping their favorite causes by shopping at GoodShop.com where they can choose from more than 800 well known retailers including Target, Apple, Macy’s, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, Petco and others. The shopping experience and the prices are exactly the same as going to the retailer directly, but by going through GoodShop, up to 37% of the purchase price is donated to the user’s favorite cause. In addition, GoodShop provides the user with coupons and deals for the stores so not only are they helping a cause, but they’re saving money while doing so!

Similarly, with the GoodSearch search engine, approximately one penny is donated to the users’ favorite charity with every search. You use it exactly as you would any other search engine (it’s powered by Yahoo so you get quality search results) and the pennies add up quickly – just 500 people searching four times a day will earn around $7300 in a year! It doesn’t cost the users a thing!

So, help spread the word through all your social media channels. Word-of-mouth can help make a difference this year.

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Holiday For Charity Is Back

Americans spent more in two months on holiday items than they did all year on charitable giving in 2007. Holiday retail sales for November and December 2007 in the general merchandise category were up about 1.7 percent, totaling roughly $469.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Charitable giving for 2007 set a record, topping $306 billion.

I am not against capitalism – far from it. But I think that Americans should be giving at least as much to charity as they are spending on holiday gifts. So, we started a program called Holiday For Charity in 2002, and once again My Creative Team is promoting the program that provides some simple ways to help the less fortunate.

The number one thing you can do is ask friends, family and business associates to donate to charity instead of buying you gifts. I think a lot of people would donate to charity in someone’s name but they don’t feel right doing it unless they have that person’s approval. So, give them your OK and help someone who needs it more than you need a Christmas gift.

Here are some other elements of Holiday For Charity:

1. sell the holiday gifts you receive online at eBay’s GivingWorks and donate the proceeds to charity

2. register and shop at iGive.com, whose merchants donate a portion of each transaction to your charities

3. offer to do volunteer work in lieu of buying holiday gifts

4. donate directly to charity in lieu of buying holiday gifts for clients and customers

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Links 11/6/2008

A lot of brands are jumping onto Twitter, the latest being Dunkin Donuts. Here’s the Dunkin Donuts Twitter page. Where’s Krispy Kreme?

While we are on the subject of Twitter, Darren Rowse of Problogger has launched a new blog, TwiTip, that’s all about Twitter. If you are into Twitter you’ll want to read this. If you are into blogging, read Problogger. It’s on my must read list.

Here’s another blinding glimpse of the obvious: LinkedIn users have higher incomes.

And, in case you missed it, check out my recent posts on cause marketing.

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