Friday, November 25, 2011

Companies/Causes using Facebook to generate donations.

Facebook is discovering functions to partner causes and companies in such a way that creates a tangible benefit: donations.

This includes:
1. Like for Donation

- this is a great idea because people love to be seen doing good things. Liking a cause and giving a donation allows all of your friends to see.

2. Simple Action for Donation

- this asks customers to post a picture for a cause or comment on a brand’s or campaign’s Facebook page in order to unlock a donation. This is great for generating awareness among other facebook friends.

3. Interactive Action for Donation

- these are custom designed applications that are meant to generate interest in a cause or campaign and to share it with other friends. This is meant to make joining a cause seem more appealing to generate donations.

4. Voting Campaigns

- companies promote their image through this method by offering cash to causes in return for the votes of consumers. The Pepsi Refresh project is a well cited example. This is great for companies in promoting their public image.

These methods are all really great at generating donations because they play on the validation people/companies desire of being seen as good people - something that will be done with making donations and sharing it among their Facebook friends.

Here is the article:

http://mashable.com/2011/11/25/facebook-cause-marketing/

2 comments:

Daniel Mochon said...

Some of these campaigns are pretty powerful. I remember about a year ago a campaign by Gap where they donated $1 to charity if you liked their page. I really hated liking a company that I didn't have much interest in, but at the same time it felt just plain wrong not to do it, if such a simple action would actually help people.

Thomas said...

I agree, they really get into the emotions of people and use that to their advantage. Replace a "good cause" with another type of incentive and I think many would consider using incentives like this to be a form of manipulation by making people feel guilty about not liking a page... regardless, its hard not to like a company that helps the community.