Wednesday, December 10th, 2008...8:52 pm
Smart social media strategies for a cause: interview with War Child Canada
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Right now, there are an estimated 300,000 children around the world who have been forced to take up weapons – many as young as 6 years old.
Since 1998, War Child Canada has been working to educate and mobilize Canadians on this issue. War Child is known for to creating innovative and unconventional outreach strategies, often using the media, music, and entertainment industries. For example, everyone from Radiohead to Luciano Pavarotti has backed them up – literally – on albums and concerts to raise funds.
Last year, War Child Canada ran a provocative campaign describing a fictional “Camp Okutta” for training little suburban Canadian tykes to be child soldiers. It was a take-no-prisoners approach to marketing a social cause that caused some controversy – and it worked. On Monday, they delivered their latest multi-media campaign, Help Child Soldiers. Like “Camp Okutta” it is intentionally deceptive, and designed to get your attention.
What’s really interesting to us is the way War Child Canada used social media and the internet. This is a great example of a non-profit organisation that is smart and saavy about using the net. So what can you learn from them? In the midst of their campaign launch, War Child Canada’s Director of Marketing James Topham was kind enough to take time out and share some insights with us.
Social Change: How long has WarChild had a presence on social media sites like Facebook or MySpace? How important is social media in your overall outreach/marketing strategy?
James Topham: We’ve had a Facebook presence for a couple of years and a MySpace page for about the same time. Social media is increasingly important to our outreach – it is changing the way non-profits communicate with their supporters and potential supporters – or at least it should be! Non-profits have a tendency to come across as lecturing—Social networks give us the opportunity to channel that discourse into a conversation, which is much more effective.
SC: You have specifically reached out to bloggers as a way of promoting this campaign – why? Why not stick to traditional press releases and big media outlets?
JT: Last year’s campaign, Camp Okutta, was a great testament to how messages can spread online because of blogs and social networks. In fact it was the way it spread across the blogosphere that made the campaign such a far-reaching success. With so many communications vehicles available these days, it’s important to take advantage of all of them to spread the word about the plight of children in conflict zones. Canadians find their information in so many ways these days, and blogs are becoming just as influential as traditional media.
SC: How do you maintain online communities once you’ve engaged with them? Do you have staff who stay on top of social media communication, or do you have volunteers within the online communities?
JT: We have been doing offline outreach to young people since we started in Canada in 1999. We still do it but more and more that outreach is backed up with online community building, be it Facebook, Twitter or the next new social network. Various staff keep in close contact with FB groups, many of which are run by supporters and volunteers. With Twitter we are always communicating because of the nature of the platform.
SC: So, do you worry about losing control of your core message on sites like Facebook?
JT: I think letting go and giving up control is one of the hardest things when you first engage with social media. But when you look around at all the user generated content out there, there’s a good case to be made that no company really has control anyway. You just need to be confident of your core message and communicate that message clearly to the community. Empowering our advocates to spread War Child’s message in a way that is unique to them is something that inspires us, rather than something we try to contain.
SC: What’s the most important piece of advice you have for other groups using social media to promote a social cause?
JT: Empower people – give your advocates the power and the tools to advocate for you. 9 out of 10 times they’ll be the ones that stand up for your brand.
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