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.
*Other factors and work experience contributed to ultimately getting hired, but the tweet got me noticed.
Guest Post by Jenny Weigle
When you find a job opportunity you’re truly excited about, it’s almost like the butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling on a first date. You’re hoping to impress somebody and that they’ll want to see you again, or in this case, hire you. That’s how I felt in October 2010. I was looking for a job in social media marketing or communications. At the time, I was lucky to find a number of these openings and had even lined up some interviews. A friend of mine emailed me a link to the listing for social media manager at CareerBuilder, and the butterflies grew as I read each bullet point in the description. “I can do all of this!” I said aloud in my apartment (alone).
Immediately, I started to work on my cover letter, which was my least favorite part of being a job seeker. My cover letters had never been my strong suit. I knew I needed an intro that would truly stand out. I decided to hold off on writing the intro and focus on the rest of the letter, discussing why I was qualified for the position and what I could bring to the table. In a few short hours, after many revisions, the letter was complete, minus the intro.
Since I wanted to work in social media, I considered that perhaps posting about my excitement on social media would work to my advantage. Or would that be considered tacky? Is it even appropriate to tweet about a job you’re applying for? Would the hiring manager even see it? And if so, would he/she be impressed or annoyed? I decided to go for it anyway. I posted the tweet below:
Then, I suddenly had a brilliant idea for the intro to my cover letter:
Dear Hiring Manager,
When my friend emailed me a link to the job description for Social Media Manager, I was so excited to read over it that I immediately tweeted “I have found the PERFECT job opportunity! Oh @CareerBuilder, I hope you like my resume and cover letter! #HopingtoImpressHiringManager.” As someone with a great passion for all-things-digital, I believe I would be an excellent candidate for this opportunity and could execute a brilliant social media strategy for CareerBuilder across multiple platforms and audiences.
I reviewed the cover letter and resume one last time and then submitted it to CareerBuilder. Less than two hours later, I received a tweet from the hiring manager:
The next morning, I had an email from the hiring manager, asking to set up a phone interview. After two more in-person interviews, I was offered my dream job! The most interesting aspect of all of this is that I didn’t even think to tweet about any of the other social media jobs I was interviewing for. (I guess none of them excited me in the way this one did.)
Lessons learned from this experience:
Don’t be afraid to connect with an employer’s public social media accounts (or send them a tweet)! Facebook and LinkedIn may be a bit too personal to connect on, but Twitter and Google+ would be fine.
Find a way to make your cover letter stand out from others.
Don’t rely on social media alone. I still had to make a good impression – in person – at every interview that followed.
Social media rocks.
Jenny Weigle is the social media manager for CareerBuilder. She shares her job seeker tips and social media marketing advice on Twitter and Google+.
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?
