Social Causes Are Becoming Critical Elements of Business Plans

Social cause is not becoming a “popular” marketing tool and a way for companies to show their “humane” side to potential customers. An article on Mashable.com highlighted that 90% of Americans are more likely to trust and stay loyal to brands that back some social cause. Today consumers expect to see the companies they buy goods and services from to have some evidence of social good, be it CSR, cause marketing or good content. Not only do they expect companies to do good, they also would make their purchase decisions taking that into account. 88% of people said that they will buy from companies that do some social good and 84% will talk about the company with friends and family. This is a great marketing opportunity for firms to have consumers advertise on their behalf.

In the age of social media, “cause” marketing has become even easier to spread quickly. As we know, 64% of millenials use social media. If company wants to get virality, the content has to be good, the cause company backs has to be genuine (avoid cause washing), and the campaign has to trigger some emotional response that resonates with consumers. What is the good content and what are the strategies company can employe to engage consumers?

Live Strong team

1. Share Individual Stories: Fostering emotional connection through stories (either in videos, pictures, etc) is critical to engage consumer. Every single cause has a story and sharing an individual story is the most best strategy. LIVESTRONG campaign started by Lance Armstrong sharing his own cancer survival story. It has gone viral. A full-time social media evangelist is now on the job (7-day job) to make sure their social media still has a voice. They have 63K Twitter follower, 1.5M Facebook followers, and over 3K Youtube subscriptions. The key to success was to share fun and not boring content.
2. Show the Numbers: When people see numbers in a story with a context, not only they get the emotional triggers, but also are able to put in better understand how and what part. For example, the “1,000 Playgrounds in 1,000 Days” program/campaign has resulted in the participation of 59,515 community volunteers and 99,555 Team Depot Associates, contributing a total of 954,435 volunteer hours. Putting the numbers of 1000P in 1000D helped form a volunteer group who wanted to see these 1000 days not go wasted. The power of numbers in the campaign is well demonstrated and perhaps that among the dedication of both KaBoom and Home Depot made this cause marketing successful.
3. Use the Audience: Clearly, all the three mentioned strategies most likely are embedded in a campaign to ensure that it is truly successful. However, the use of audience can really make a campaign go viral or not if audience is emotionally moved, cares, and knows how to contribute to the cause. As McMillan, the social media specialist at Live Strong Organization, puts “you want to give your audience voice and power to share their own stories. If you can do that, you can ensure that more people will hear about it without you spending additional dollars.” After all, 36% of consumers say they will share posts on social media about the causes they care and they can connect. Arm them with the ability to do so for the good of everyone.