Integrating Social Media Into Your Campaigns

Social media is, of course, a very important part of our world these days. To consider any kind of campaign (fundraising, advertising, awareness) without incorporating a social component seems unwise. But it can be stressful to implement, especially if you aren’t super savvy in the area of Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

I think it’s best to remember that social media platforms are simply tools to help you achieve the campaign goals you already have in place. They’re just one more avenue for you to spread your message. If you know what tool is best for what, you’ll have better success.

One of my favorite recent campaigns was run by Boston Children’s Hospital. It was a big campaign, part of a re-visioning process for the organization and how they represented their brand to the world. The title (and new guiding message for the hospital) is “Until Every Child is Well.” The thread of this branding campaign stretched across print, TV, radio, publications, billboards, and the Internet. For their social media platforms, they didn’t create a completely different message or do anything fancy; they simply modified what they’d already created to best fit the capability of each online tool.

For instance, the hospital created a special “support badge” that donors, patient families, and friends could use on their Facebook pages. Each badge said something like “Smiling again,” with an arrow pointing towards the user’s profile picture (you could use your child’s photo or your own as a profile pic). This specific artwork wouldn’t have worked in any other context, yet it was easy to create, consistent with the themes of the campaign, and perfect for Facebook.

Part of their Facebook campaign also included photos of hospital staff, volunteers, and community members holding a sign that says, “I will ____ until every child is well,” offering them a chance to declare their commitment to the hospital (and patients). This brought the focus back to the individual, which was part of the overall campaign strategy.

This was, of course, a huge, national campaign by an organization with a large budget and a lot of staff. But even a small non-profit can take inspiration from what Boston Children’s Hospital accomplished. With proper planning and strategy, even those on a small budget can accomplish a lot.

Here are some tips to share:

1. Don’t create separate artwork or concepts for different pieces of your campaign. Rework what you have so it makes sense for each component. This streamlines the campaign and makes less work for you. For instance, Boston Children’s might have used a photo of a pediatric cancer patient on a billboard, told the child’s story in a fundraising piece, pitched a media story on the child’s doctor’s research, and encouraged fans to follow her recovery journey on Twitter.  One story, many angles, each modified to suit its outlet.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Boston Children’s borrowed from two popular social media memes – taking a photo of yourself with a sign and posting a Facebook photo with an arrow pointing to your profile picture. Neither of these ideas is revolutionary. And it totally doesn’t matter – don’t feel the need to create something completely new. It’s a-okay to adapt what’s already out there for your own purposes.
3. Really think about what your goals are with your campaign and how each platform might work for you. You don’t necessarily need to incorporate Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Flickr, and Pinterest – maybe just one.  Don’t create the goal to suit the platform – pick a platform that suits your goal.