#whatifwed

image used under cc by mela sogono

You may have noticed a common thread lately about shifting models and approaches as cause marketing continues to evolve. I wrote a related piece last week “Shift: Business Good to Good Business" then noticed my cause colleague Scott Henderson and friends had launched a likeminded blog called CauseShift. So with that kindred spirit I had the pleasure to guest post with a piece on applying a new cause related marketing approach to the devastating situation in Haiti.

“What if we could bridle the millennial passion for service and match with the burdensome need in Haiti? What if colleges, students, companies, and Haitian relief organizations partnered for a special “Haitian Helping Hand” service opportunity this summer?

Read the post at CauseShift.

How many times have you read an article, sat in a meeting, had a conversation, or watched a program and said, “Wow, what if...?" It’s the shift from passively receiving information and actively engaging with potential implications and applications. It’s adding value. And in that vein I’ve started hashtag #whatifwed and this and every Wednesday invite you to join me on twitter in ideating on the fly. Who knows, what if we generate a big idea that shifts everything?

Done right, doing what's right always turns out right

My AdAge cause marketing article and twitterati that helped promote it.

I recently had the honor of writing an article for the advertising and marketing industries' leading publication, AdAge. In A Pause to Reflect on Cause Marketing I discuss the state of this relatively new marketing discipline and offer my opinions on some of its accomplishments and struggles as it continues to evolve. To be clear, I'm a huge advocate for cause marketing and am passionate about raising the awareness level of it as a tool plus increasing the sophistication level when it's applied.

If you haven't already, you can read the article on the AdAge website here.

What I'm particularly proud of is how the cause marketing twitterverse rallied together to help spread the word through re-tweets, blogs, and posting comments – from Joe Waters (@joewaters), Lee Fox (@koodooz), Gennefer Snowfield (@gennefer), Joey Leslie (@jleslie), Steve Drake (@causeaholic), Michael Hoffman (@michael_hoffman) , Holt Murray (@holtmurray), Sarah Kerkian (@sarahkerkian), Angie Eikenberry (@aeikenberry) David Hessekiel (@davecause), Paul Jones (@PaulRJones) and many more. Thanks guys for helping promote the power of cause among fellow marketers and others who may be unaware or skeptical of its strategic merits. And if you're someone interested or involved in any field of cause related marketing, non-profit marketing, social entrepreneurism or philanthropy you should be following them.

The article received the most comments ever (22 as of this posting) for the AdAge GoodWorks section, and from a range of marketers including those from non-profits, traditional agencies, cause-specific agencies, digital agencies, and for-profit brands including Bob Thacker, CMO OfficeMax, and Chris Mann from New Balance.

Best of all, we demonstrated that there's an engaged readership for cause marketing and I've been invited back to write another article. So with this platform available, if you have a specific topic or area to suggest I'd love to hear from you. And thanks again to all.

Where have I been?

As some have noticed, I haven't blogged much over the last 6 weeks. Instead I've been more active on twitter, the "microblogging" social media platform that limits posts or "tweets" to 140 characters. With my involvement in Livestrong, I first heard about it when Lance Armstrong started using it and quickly became a top 10 tweeter. While similar to a Facebook update, the difference for many is that rather than posting rather mundane items about the awesome burger you ate for lunch or that you're watching American Idol – twitter helps aggregate people with similar interests and passions to find or "follow" each other. So I've been using this great tool to further learn and share about cause marketing. And meet some enlightening and inspiring people and the Good Concepts they are spearheading. Like all social media tools, it provides an easy way to share links to stories, meet people thru other people, and express yourself.

Seems like twitter is talked about everywhere in mainstream media these days, and everyone uses it differently, but for a quick overview see this New York Times story. Or this one from Wall Street Journal.

You can register in 45 seconds and follow me (see what I say and follow conversations) here:

http://twitter.com/goodconcepts

You don't have to cannonball into the water at first. Register, dip your toe-in, and just follow a few people that interest you. Tops in twitter based on followers range from celebs to news to (so called) social media experts. Here's a list. But many of your favorite brands and organizations are on their too. Simply search by their name once registered. Also wefollow categorizes users by topic (I'm registered under marketing, causemarketing, socialentrepreneurship). And twibes lets you create specific groups. I just started a cause marketing twibe.

Finally, twitter has been a great way to road-test some ideas and story items. So I'll be back soon to the Good Concepts blog – am working on a post after a recent family vacation to Disney World called "Disney World Magical But Could Be More Meaningful." Stay tuned.