As some of you may know, I was recently involved in a tagline competition for The Printed Blog.
The prize for the winner was a Nintendo Wii. Despite being way behind after missing a day’s worth of voting, I ended up winning the contest, with over 51% of votes.
My sincere thanks to everyone who voted for me, from Twitter, Facebook and a few emails that were sent out. When the Wii arrives, I’ll be taking it down to the kids at the Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto. They need it far more than I do.
One thing this showed was that social media continues to be an amazing way to raise awareness about good causes, as well as foster support for them. Twitter in particular is beginning to shine as a cause marketing platform. Think about Tweetsgiving, Twestival and the 12for12k Challenge to name just a few. All great causes, all originated and supported via Twitter.
Which made me think.
Twitter’s main issue at the moment seems to be long-term monetization and financial security. They have just received a cash injection, but that won’t really sustain the platform in its journey to mainstream acceptance and profitability. What it needs is a long-term plan to achieve stability.
So how about this?
Twitter stays as it is – a great communication tool for personal and business use – but it becomes a standard for social media fundraising? Its ability to offer instant action and reaction is perfect for fundraising. And we’re already seeing success on it.
The founders of Twitter could speak to Bill Gates about his Foundation and see if they could receive annual funding towards their charity work. Businesses could also sponsor Twitter for its cause marketing work. And all the fractured causes on Twitter at the minute could fall under one umbrella, benefiting from increased support and promotion.
Obviously it’s just the most basic of ideas at the minute and it would need some serious think tanks to bring to fruition.
But isn’t it something worth thinking about?
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Great news, Danny. I’m glad my vote counted — congrats on the tagline win! How thoughtful of you to donate the prize.
I can definitely see where you’re going with Twitter’s role in cause marketing. It’s great for an instant heads up and reaction. But I’m confused, are you suggesting that Twitter receives sponsorships and funding for their charity work? Wouldn’t it be the individual users on Twitter utilizing the social network to raise awareness for charitable projects?
If Twitter was sponsored for its charity work, then do you think that would involve some sort of daily announcement or message board that they list with all charitable projects? Or am I completely missing the point?
Hi Jamie,
First, thanks to you and all the good people that supported the vote – it definitely made all the difference and there are a bunch of kids who will really appreciate it!
With regards Twitter, I was thinking along the lines of Twitter offers a unified charity network. There would still be separate causes, but they’d all fall under the Twitter Foundation (for wont of a better phrase).
This foundation would get sponsorship from the Gates Foundation and other businesses that sponsor non-profits. The Twitter foundation would keep a certain amount for admin costs (this would be monetization part) and then the rest could be offered to the various causes being supported by Twitter users.
Twitter would have an account purely for announcements, supported charities, etc, and how the community could get involved.
Obviously, this is all just running with ideas and why it’d need someone far smarter than me to make into more tangible suggestions.
Just getting people talking about it would be a start, though.
Are think you are on to something with how Twitter has really connected people and found success raising money, awareness, and participation in causes. The only problem is that Twitter is isn’t solely used for charity or even good causes. The group or “charity section” is definitely something I would love to see incorporated, but getting funding overall as a charity tool might be a stretch. Twitter should really develop a way for people to connect even more with these opportunities.
Off-topic, but I can’t help it. I love the smiley faces; they make me feel welcome before I get even the chance to read the article. Keep smiling!
I’m tricksy that way…
I love the way you’re thinking here Danny.
You mentioned it during the week in your Tweets and I didn’t feel a positive at the time.
But I DO get where you’re coming from with this and think you’re really onto a potential.
I’m sure the pro charity network can help with all the details of how to interface Twitters ‘long term monetization and financial security’ (I’m happy for them to look at mine too!) with it’s integrity and ultimate survival and usefulness without being sold out.
Go danny!
Danny, I can see your vision for how Twitter could be used and I agree with you 100%. I was on a team that planned Twestival for our city and it was mind-bogging to see how much support and funds we were able to raise in just 3 weeks timeframe from the first planning meeting to the event itself. Once the Twestival was over, I was ready to move on to the next fundraising idea since I could see how valuable Twitter was in uniting people around a cause and donating towards a charity.
Twestival was a great example of how Twitter can work with the right motive and support. It just seems such a natural fit for charity work with its networking and interaction – maybe something for Evan and his friends to look into?
Interesting we recently launched 3bl.me, a URL shortener – each use supports a donation to a cause. This amounts to a pretty direct route to using Twitter for good.
Thanks