All in Social Media
Toys for Tots is one of the best known causes that rings the bells of joythroughout the holidays. It's an easy thing to do. Buy a toy. Drop it in the box. Help under privileged kids have at least one day of sheer joy. This program is one of many that makes it easy for people to help others during the holidays. With the help of social media however, it's getting even easier.
For example, dressbarn raised money for the Toys for Tots organization by asking folks on Twitter to follow @dressbarn and mention that they are raising money for Toys for Tots! If users Tweet using the#dressbarntoys, a dollar would be raised for the cause.
"We are so proud to be partnered with Toys for Tots again this holiday season,” said Vivian Behrens, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of dressbarn inc., "By working together, we can bring even more smiles to thousands of children this year."
Just Google "social media" and "holiday causes" and you'll come across a slew of others. One example is Angel Giving, a program developed by JCPenny using a Facebook fan page, targeted towards holiday bargain hunters and the sweepstakes crazed. In conjunction with the Salvation Army, JCPenny asked fans to entering a zip code, desired age group, and gender of the Angel they wanted to "shop for." Fans were then be presented with matching children and their holiday gift wishes. Once fans selecte
Over the weekend I had a spirited Twitter convo with a contact of mine about social media experts and the books they have, are planning to and eventually will publish. His premise was that it was all nonsense and that these self help books were written by people that don't care about you. All they want to do is make a quick buck and they are pretty much taking advantage of the reader.
I agree with this and don't agree with this. Here's why:
Flickr: March of the Unemployed in Great DepressionI've been thinking about how nutty the social media space has been lately. More and more people are blogging, using Twitter, on Facebook, leveraging the network of LinkedIn, etc., There are services popping up all the time. Content is being created at a frantic pace.
It's only going to get worse.
As consumers, how the heck are we going to find the value in these communities if it's cluttered with people and content that provides no value? On the other end, how are brands going to make connections with consumers if their target audience is so turned off by the noise?