Clearly, the biggest winner in this situation is women without medical insurance. Planned Parenthood provides a broad range of services to women for free, including mammograms and reproductive health screenings. (Yes, they also provide services for men, too.)
The net impact? Over $3 MILLION in three days, plus 10,000 new donors to Planned Parenthood – including a $250,000 personal donation from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
It seems that social sentiment flew to Planned Parenthood’s defense this week. But what remains to be seen is the long-term impact this has on Komen’s image.
Is the genie out of the bottle?
I, like many people, considered Komen an apolitical organization, focused on finding a cure to breast cancer. This has exposed them as something completely different.
Through Komen’s leadership, the color pink has become synonymous with breast cancer. Sports teams, cereal boxes, 5K races – pink = breast cancer research.
And it’s been wildly successful from branding and fundraising standpoints.
But what will people say the next time they hear about a Komen event?
Damage on both sides
Even if you supported Komen’s initial decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood, you have been taken on a roller coaster ride this week.
This organization made a clear stance and then reversed it under pressure. That doesn’t sound good.
Lessons Learned
Instead of spending a week focused on helping people, two major health-based organizations have been tangled in a politically-driven funding mess.
In my world, I know many breast cancer survivors and many, many people who have used Planned Parenthood’s services.
My hope is that both organizations can get back to their missions of healthcare. No politics. No red tape. Just helping human beings across the board.
But perhaps the greatest lesson learned is that if you make a mistake, the social sphere will let you know swiftly and soundly.
From 2010′s major relaunch campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa answering fan questions via YouTube, it’s clear that Old Spice understands who their ideal customer is.
The next evolution of their awesome/campy campaign involved the brand “crashing” other commercials, since they are just too powerful.
Poor Bounce.
This awesome, smart campaign is made possible because both products are in the Proctor & Gamble family.
I have not heard many brands very excited about how Timeline would work for them, yet. Perhaps brands are happy with the current functionality and don’t want to lose it — or perhaps Facebook hasn’t given them enough information to form a true opinion yet.
If the brand timeline is anything like the personal timeline, it will provide great challenges for brands in their marketing.
Some areas of concern:
- Apps/Tabs – Where will they live in the new layout? Will their importance grow or be diminished?
- Community Management – Will Timeline make it easier to manage communities?
- Multi-Media – One frequent concern is how photos and videos appear on Timeline. They are stretched, squeezed and cut-off. Will that fly on brand pages?
- Switch Prep – What work will brands have to do to optimize their Timelines? Will ALL comments about a brand appear on a Timeline? Or can you toggle that feature like on the current brand Walls?
What questions do YOU have about Timeline for brands?
As bookstores continue to close around the country, I remember spending hours going from section to section, sampling best-sellers, sports books, sci-fi and more.
The brain-child of Bob Fine, the magazine discusses everything in the social media world from various perspectives, with regular contributors and guest writers.
One of my favorite features is the cover. While many magazines have a cover “formula,” The Social Media Monthly has custom-made pieces of art contributed by different artists each issue. Brilliant and beautiful!
Full disclosure: the January edition featured an ad for my company, iostudio, included below (in the interest of shameless self-promotion).
But regardless of my or my company’s involvement in the magazine, I absolutely love the concept of a print magazine for a digital industry. If you want to learn about ANYTHING, there’s a magazine for you. So why should social media be different?
Recently, I’ve been honored to make a few high-profile media appearances and receive a tremendous honor.
1) When high-end on-call car service Uber came under fire from the DC Taxi Commission, WJLA, Washington’s ABC affiliate, interviewed me about the clash. You can read my initial post on Uber here, read the WJLA.com here and watch the story here:
2) One of my favorite new websites is www.DistrictTribune.com. They combine two totally different business models: online news content gathering and traditional print journalism.
Despite being a website, they produce a full update each week, creating a reason to come to the site each week, to see the latest content and analysis.
When they asked to profile me, I was flattered and excited!
Henry, the new site’s editor, asked me about social media, my career, fatherhood and a bunch of other topics.
I discuss my favorite professional moment (so far), how businesses can use social media, and what projects are on my plate right now!
It’s an honor to be considered in the same breath as the people on this list – and a blast to see so many friends recognized for their excellence, especially Krista Paplau, who’s blog was my favorite addition to my reader in 2011.
PLEASE read all the other blogs on this list. They are all incredible and bring unique and special perspectives to the overall discussion on marketing communications.
You see, the early adopter phase for “social marketing” has come and gone. We’ve identified what influencers are. And now we have mass adoption of the platforms.
This new era of social networking will be the culmination of everything that came before it. We’ve spent a lot of time online because it’s new/fun/cool.
But that won’t cut it anymore.
Which brings me to the #1 Social Media Word of 2012: VALUE.
Yes, value.
Platforms like Facebook and Twitter, along with brands and their digital presence, must provide value to users in new and interesting ways.
There are literally millions of alternatives for users to be connecting with at any given time. More theater venues. More cleaning products. More celebrities.
The days of just following to follow are all but over – there needs to be a REASON for a page or network to claim your time investment.
Value can be provided in many forms, including:
1) Financial Benefit: Offering free or discounted products through your social presence will always be a terrific way to entice traffic.
2) Exclusive Content: Place photos, videos, links that your network would find valuable on your social platform. Make the content free, but make sure people know where to find it first.
3) Customer Service: Let’s face it, it’s much easier to find a company’s Facebook page or Twitter feed than to dig up a customer service hotline. Make sure your community managers understand the brand inside and out and respond in a timely fashion. You may WANT people to call a phone number, but social media has put the consumer in the driver’s seat of communication.
4) Three-Way Community: People want to connect with a brand and feel like the brand is ALSO connecting with them – while they are also connecting with other people. Fostering a platform that connects users to brand and users to users will give people several reasons to keep coming back to the brand.
Do you see any other key buzz words defining social media in 2012?
