On last Wednesday’s live broadcast of “Get More Business” Jason Sanders discussed his charitable initiative “Measured Impact”.
The idea in principle would be to help promote charities to those on Twitter with high follower numbers (in the Twitter Top 100) and in turn get a direct conversion to help the selected charity.
Now, this idea did spark a reaction from me (and it wasn’t a good one!)
Firstly, the concept of targeting the Twitter Top 100 isn’t going to work. Each of these “Twitter celebrities” hasn’t got a shared interest in gaining social equity, their only concern (the majority of the time) is to get more famous.
Another thing to consider about these famous Twitter users is that the majority of their following consists of spam-bots. I’d say about 75% of any given user on Twitter is followed by spammers, so where is the true benefit in targeting a user with 1m+ followers when a large number won’t even see the update!
It’s not to discount those like Brandon Mendelson who are using their fame on Twitter for the right reasons. But, honestly how many of the Twitter 100 do you believe cares about making a difference on the platform?
Do they even know it can do such a thing? Perhaps, through Jason’s efforts it could promote a greater level of change in how celebrities perceive Twitter’s ability to deliver amazing results?
I’d like to be in support of Measured Impact, but in it’s current form I don’t really see it taking off.
Here’s some ways I think Jason can promote the charities on Measured Impact more effectively
1) Talk to Top 100 charity bloggers
The key difference between using Twitter Top 100 and charity bloggers is that it’s more niche and selective.
I think that blogs provide a far more dynamic way to build a long term relationship between the charity and the potential donator. Here’s why:
- Built in comments - This enables a charity to launch an initiative and get instantaneous reaction and feedback from others about their work
- Sharing tools to other social networks (besides Twitter) - By using blogs they are not limiting their message to a place their audience may not be. Twitter doesn’t always equal success if your audience doesn’t care or use the social network!
- Multimedia functionality - A charity can boost their online persona on a blog more effectively as they can include powerful imagery and attached videos to push their message forward. You can’t do that via Twitter (on the same page!)
- Active links back to the charities homepage - If the charity has promoted it’s initiative with the above tools, and then includes an active link it speaks far louder then a 140 character message can (even if it’s sent by Ryan Seacrest!)
2) Go local, but think big
Isn’t there surely a great opportunity for Jason to utilise his existing network on “The Value Pages Group” to promote his work at Measured Impact.
I’d like to see how he could work towards creating an offline network of like-minded peers who could help work and promote Measured Impact and a selected charity to people they know. Never doubt the power of real, honest offline communication between peers!
3) Provide online interactive tools for charities
If Jason could expand his offerings at “The Value Pages Group” to create a fee-based video and audio solution for charities (to promote via Measured Impact), aren’t more people going to be more in tune with the message because there’s a physical and personable respresentative from the charity talking about their initiative?
I’d like to see more charities consider why they aren’t using a blog, considering how minimal the setup is and how easy websites such as the “The Value Pages Group” can make things for them.
I think, I’ve rambled on enough here. I’d love to hear all your thoughts on the matter.
Thanks!
