sociauxanswers

For some time now businesses and organisations have been dipping their toes into the social media pool. More recently, we have seen some harness the medium to create some spectacular campaigns.

Charities however have struggled with implementing effective social media campaigns and it was only last week when I wrote a post on this very topic.

Yesterday, Bono changed everything. In honour of World Aids Day, we were given the ability to turn our tweets and facebook posts red.

This is a simple concept yet incredibly effective. Rather than the usual direct requests for cash, we’ve seen a charity which is enhancing the user experience and making use of the tools at hand in a highly creative way.

The results paid off – an instant trending topic and well, everything had turned red!

This heralds a new benchmark, particularly for the not for profit community. I’m certainly looking forward to the creative innovations to come.

Giving to charity makes me feel warm and fluffy. I even don’t mind getting regular updates from charities I support, as it’s comforting to hear some good is going on in the world.

So why would I mind the occasional tweet trying to drum up support?

In the past few months, charities seem to have jumped on the social media bandwagon and have been tweeting to ask for financial support. The most widely reported has to be Tweetsgiving, the American, Thanksgiving themed charity, which raises funds to build schools and buy supplies for children in Tanzania.

So far, so good. But the backlash has been incredible. Whilst there are loyal supporters, there are a significant number who feel charities are exploiting their followers to drum up cash.

In their essence, charities are set up to raise funds for a noteable cause. It’s nothing new and their choice to interact with their supporters in this way should be encouraged.

Come on people, let’s welcome our new fund raising friends in the spirit that Twitter is intended – it’s all about collaboration after all.