Social media as an effective tool to promote social causes

This week, in the social media management class, we talked about how companies and organizations can use social media to promote social issues and increase its brand awareness and preferences. In the “in-class exercise”, we also brainstormed that using the power of social media — how we can solve the most critical issues that students at MIT Sloan are facing everyday. “The recycling”, “alcohol consumption”, “mental illness”, “create inclusive culture of the diversified student body” and more.

Thus, the blog topic we have this week is to discus — what do you consider to be the key principles for a brand to adhere to when furthering or partnering with a social cause?

Based on our class discussion and some takeaways I had being a marketer prior to MIT Sloan, I would suggest brands can take below considerations in mind when planning for their social media campaigns with a social mission.

• Make the connection between your brand and the social mission you want to promote: in class, we talked about the “Pepsi” case study on its ambition to create a Pepsi fund that funds creative project with a slogan of “Can a soda really change the world”? However, the campaign didn’t link well with the nature of business that Pepsi is in; therefore, resulting in a less genuine tone and a less effective result.
• Consistency across all the social media campaigns with or without a social cause: it would probably be very awkward that a brand is promoting “moderate alcohol consumption” while tweeting about its fabulous year end party at a famous night club. Managing a social media account is like managing the PR of a person — consistency is important!
• Support one significant mission and devote to it, instead of promoting these and that: from a brand’s perspective, you would want to create clear linkage between your brand and the social mission that you support. For example, Dove works on the “natural beauty” campaigns for countless years. Therefore, there’s a clear linkage between Dove and its image of being natural, good to women, genuine, authentic. In addition, in the information explosive area, it’s even more difficult for brands to create associations (with a social cause for example). Create repeated and constant messages, so people remember them.

This is Michelle Shih, first year MBA student at MIT Sloan. I am originally from Taipei, Taiwan, working in the marketing field most of my career but making a career switch to management consulting now. I am a social media addict myself, and I am very excited to share my point of views of social media by this write-a-blog-everyweek homework in my Social Media Management class this semester.