Post by thrashertj on Sept 30, 2014 21:34:29 GMT -5
The American Cancer Society is a huge non-profit organization that raises mass funds for not just one specific type of cancer, but all of them. The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 and has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research. It is spread in over 900 offices across the United States and has several events that it sponsors for cancer fundraising. Throughout middle and high school I was the captain of the Relay for Life team and one 24 hour day every year a group from our school would go and represent our cause at the location nearest to us where we would raise money for the cause. I raised over $4,000 for the ACS in my time with Relay for Life and I know that the money went to a great non-profit.
But how does the American Cancer Society do on social media? The answer: Brilliant. The American Cancer Society is spread across every major social media platform from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Pinterest. One of the major themes of the ACS is “celebrating more birthdays”. An interesting way that the ACS incorporated this with social media was that they used Justin Bieber’s celebrity birthday to draw attention to the cause. They used YouTube to spread a video of a remix of a Justin Bieber and Usher collaboration to draw in audiences to their cause. Also, using Facebook, the ACS has teamed up with Times Square to turn the city pink for the first time ever on October 1st to start of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a bang. All dates and times can be found on Facebook.
One social media focus the ACS uses is on Pinterest. On Pinterest, the ACS has several boards with incredible categories. Examples include “Stories of Hope” (which would draw huge audiences for inspiration), “Finish the Fight”, “Become a Volunteer”, “Eat Healthy”, and “Infographics”. All of these are brilliant categories for someone to find a little inspiration or some quick statistics for hope. Each of these different categories can help anyone and everyone find what they are looking for. There are sources of life in every picture, each with a great caption. The stories of hope have real people that those with or without cancer can relate to. No pictures are vulgar or insensitive; they are all beautiful. Pinterest is a fantastic source for non-profits to organize their pictures and also create easy keywords so that anyone searching Pinterest can find, get inspired, and re-pin!
This non-profit is similar to Smile Train in its ability to understand visuals and use them to their advantage. They both possess infographics and inspirational stories that they can use to promote their cause. However, the ACS is still more actively involved on Pinterest than any other non-profit we have studied as well as having incredible amounts of followers on all platforms.
But how does the American Cancer Society do on social media? The answer: Brilliant. The American Cancer Society is spread across every major social media platform from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and Pinterest. One of the major themes of the ACS is “celebrating more birthdays”. An interesting way that the ACS incorporated this with social media was that they used Justin Bieber’s celebrity birthday to draw attention to the cause. They used YouTube to spread a video of a remix of a Justin Bieber and Usher collaboration to draw in audiences to their cause. Also, using Facebook, the ACS has teamed up with Times Square to turn the city pink for the first time ever on October 1st to start of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a bang. All dates and times can be found on Facebook.
One social media focus the ACS uses is on Pinterest. On Pinterest, the ACS has several boards with incredible categories. Examples include “Stories of Hope” (which would draw huge audiences for inspiration), “Finish the Fight”, “Become a Volunteer”, “Eat Healthy”, and “Infographics”. All of these are brilliant categories for someone to find a little inspiration or some quick statistics for hope. Each of these different categories can help anyone and everyone find what they are looking for. There are sources of life in every picture, each with a great caption. The stories of hope have real people that those with or without cancer can relate to. No pictures are vulgar or insensitive; they are all beautiful. Pinterest is a fantastic source for non-profits to organize their pictures and also create easy keywords so that anyone searching Pinterest can find, get inspired, and re-pin!
This non-profit is similar to Smile Train in its ability to understand visuals and use them to their advantage. They both possess infographics and inspirational stories that they can use to promote their cause. However, the ACS is still more actively involved on Pinterest than any other non-profit we have studied as well as having incredible amounts of followers on all platforms.