What is a Social Media Marketing Campaign, Really?

I’ve been working in the Last Frontier (Alaska, of course!) using social media to stay connected to my industry (Internet) as well as friends and colleagues in the Lower 48 and worldwide. My company’s latest project is testing the power of social media marketing campaigns to reach highly-targeted audiences.

So what is social media marketing?

I define social media marketing as using online-enabled sites, applications and tools in an integrated way to empower others to share your message. So this could mean everything from uploading videos that others can pass along to having pages on social networks where others can not only “friend” your organization but also encourage their friends to connect.

While a campaign is usually carried out for a set period of time, the reality of the Internet is that once you upload anything, it tends to live on whether you want it to or not. A social media marketing campaign can leave a larger and longer-term footprint than you might think.

Getting Social in Alaska

The campaign I’m working on in Alaska is called Pick. Click. Give. (http://www.pickclickgive.org) and is very region-specific. The call to action is for Alaskans to consider giving to an Alaska nonprofit when they sign up for their Permanent Fund Dividend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund) in 2009. In case you hadn’t heard while Sarah Palin was on the campaign trail, every Alaskan receives an annual check from the profits of the Alaska oil and gas industry.

Many Alaskans use their PFD to pay bills or to put toward a major purchase such as a new car. The Pick. Click. Give. campaign is trying to not only build awareness of a new way Alaskans can donate while applying for their PFD online but to encourage Alaskans to engage in individual giving.

Will having Pick. Click. Give. on YouTube, mDialog, CauseCast, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networking and sharing sites reach the right audience? That remains to be seen.

But by carefully selecting the social media sites, applications and tools for rolling out a campaign online and immediately engaging some of our target audience to participate, we should be able to reach the right people. And all of their friends. And their friends…

What social media campaigns are you working on or do you support?

Can Social Media be used for Social Good? (Harte of Marketing)

From Beth Harte:

“From what I have seen so far, social media gives non-profits the ability to reach out, spread the word, develop communities, and have conversations in ways that traditional marketing never could─or at least not in a way that wouldn’t potentially eat up an entire year’s marketing budget.”

Read more of what she has to say.

You can also read a profile of her on Social Media Today.

Social Media For Social Good: Follow Up (Connection Cafe)

Did you miss the webinar “Social Media for Social Good” on Dec 17? Register to receive a recording at: http://www.convio.com/socialgood. Both Emily Riley from Forrester Research and Beth Kanter from Beth’s Blog gave presentations.

Read an interview between James Young at Connetion Cafe and the presenters.

How to Use Social Media for Social Change (Read/Write/Web)

A good summary of some ways social media is being used for social good in 2008 with specific global campaigns cited.

Written by Sarah Perez / May 22, 2008 5:00 AM

Did you participate in the Twit-Out yesterday? Do you even know what that is? To get you up to speed, a handful of Twitter users, fed up with the regular outages of their favorite service, decided to band together to show Twitter some tough love by boycotting the service for a day. (Unfortunately, despite having fewer users on the service, Twitter still went down). However, in light of recent world events, it’s a shame that the cause the tech community has chosen to rally around is that of Twitter’s instability. Aren’t there more important things going on right now?

Instead of watching Twitter’s ups and downs, we the members of the tech community could be using our social media super-powers to make a real difference in the world. We know how to spread news fast, share images and videos, organize our friends, and empower others all by using the same social media tools that we use in our every day lives. Isn’t it time we put them to use towards a good cause? Below are some great examples as to how that can be done.

Read more…