At Etna Interactive, we cultivate success through partnership, and we know that many of our own clients partner with local organizations to help worthy causes in their areas. Right now, many charitable organizations are in need of resources, from blood banks desperate for donors to food banks running low on supplies to homeless shelters searching for more help. Now is the time for us to come together and help one another out.
If your practice is looking for something timely to do to help a local organization that needs support, consider these ideas to harness the power of social media to do some good in your community.
Highlight local organizations in your social posts.
Use Facebook, Instagram, and your other platforms to call attention to organizations in your area. In your posts, explain why each organization’s work matters to you and what your practice has done to support them so far. Encourage your followers to check them out and to consider joining you in supporting them. Make sure to tag their official pages or include their hashtags so your followers can easily connect with them.
Our clients at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre chose to support the San Diego Food Bank, leading the way with a donation of their own and adding an incentive for followers to donate by matching contributions with gift cards to their practice.
Any social post will help draw attention to the cause, but consider posting a video of yourself speaking about the group’s work and why you’ve chosen to support it. Not only does video typically perform better on social media, but it helps create a more personal connection with your followers when they can see your passion and enthusiasm shining through.
Our clients at Synergy Plastic Surgery chose to team up with local organization Austin Smiles to donate PPE to healthcare workers, showing their support with great posts on their social channels. Check out their feature on CBS Austin.
Invite a local organization to “go live” with you on Instagram.
Hosting a livestream with a local charity is a great way to bring new awareness to their work. If the charity goes live on their Instagram account and you join, it will alert all your followers that you are live with them. This helps both you and your charity partner quickly pull together a live audience you can speak to about the organization as a whole or a specific goal you’re teaming up on together. You can also organize it so that you go live on your account and have the charity join in.
Be sure to save the live video to your story and add it to your highlights after it’s over so you can continue to promote it. Consider saving a copy of it so you can upload it to your IGTV as well.
Spotlight a local hero.
Ask your followers to nominate someone in the community deserving of some extra appreciation, whether it’s a healthcare worker, first responder, or someone in the area who has simply gone above and beyond to help others. Create a hashtag your followers can use and encourage them to create their own social posts shouting their nominees out. Award your winner with a gift card to your practice and consider donating to an organization they may be connected with.
Check out a great example from CaloAesthetics, who called their followers to nominate a frontline hero in their community.
Harness the power of your staff or agency partner to plan a campaign centered on charitable giving.
Building a campaign in partnership with a charity benefits everyone involved by:
- Generating positive PR
- Increasing charitable donations
- Building brand awareness
- Attracting local media attention
Consider how you can also use other channels for your campaign, such as your email list or Google My Business listing. Don’t forget to encourage your charity partner to also promote your campaign on their channels to create a mutually beneficial partnership.
The Wall Center’s annual Wall Center Gives Back campaign has generated thousands of dollars in donations for charities in their area and has solidified the practice’s reputation as philanthropic, engaged members of their community. Check it out.
Talk to your agency partner about running a campaign of your own. If you’re an Etna client, reach out to your account executive about charitable giving campaign models we’ve run successfully in the past and how they can work for you.
Bottom line: Never underestimate just how powerful social media can be for bringing people together to support one another when it’s needed most. It’s a tool you can easily use to help a local organization in need of support, whether you’ve worked with them before or are looking to build a new relationship.
If you have any questions, please reach out to the marketing experts here at Etna Interactive at (866) 374-3762. If you’re an Etna client, talk to your account executive about how we can work together to support your practice and charities making your community (and our world) a better place.
If you have a question or a story to share about using social media to do good in your community, post it in the comments field below.
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