It’s easy to look back now and call TwitChange a big success. But that’s not what it looked like at the beginning. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Shaun King, the Atlanta pastor behind the effort said 45 of the 50 friends he initially pitched the idea to thought it wouldn’t work.
But King understood something they didn’t.
Everyone on Twitter really wants someone famous to follow them, to shout them out, to mention them. It’s something that people want, but never say.
King was right and TwitChange raised over $531,000 for aHomeInHaiti.org.
The typical celebrity Twitter package for sale on eBay looked something like this:
Ryan Seacrest will follow you on Twitter for a minimum of 90 days, will retweet one of your tweets and will send out a tweet including your @twitterhandle.
Paster King’s success has rewards for all of us, because TwitChange is a Twitter fundraiser that smart causes in major cities across the country could successfully replicate.
No, you’re probably not going to involve the likes of Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber, unless they hail from your city. But what about local celebrities, sports stars, newscasters and perhaps the ever present celebrity-politician?
You also won’t make the half-million TwitChange did, but you could raise five figures and generate some great press for your cause.
I know here in Boston we have local celebs like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Areosmith frontman Steven Tyler and everyone’s favorite office manager Steve Carell. Sports stars like Tom Brady, Big Papi and Shaq. The list goes on and on. (I’m not event sure if all of these people are on Twitter, but I think you get my point.)
A wicked smart cause would market this program to local corporate sponsors and raise even more money.
There’s also an alternative to raising the money online with eBay. Auction off the Twitter packages off at your next big gala or dinner.
Think about it: TwitChange could change celebrity asks forever. Signed footballs, pictures and jerseys? Keep them, Tom Brady. We just wants your tweets.
Joe, More great insight from you. Thanks for leading the way in Cause Marketing and for bringing us all along for the ride. You're killing it!
I think the real benefit will be how causes are able to leverage this beginning of a relationship with the celebrity into more. Will they keep following you after the 90 days? Will they RT more than just what they are contractually obligated to do?
You got it, Joe! Causemedia Group was lucky enough to have two of our divisions working on the TwitChange campaign:
Shaun brought the campaign idea to Joey Leslie (@jleslie on teh twitterz), the President of StudioGood, our digital agency, and Joey helped give the idea life alongside our auction agency, Kompolt. I see it not only as a groundbreaking marketing and fundraising campaign, but as a method than can be automated with technology and reused at the regional and local level. Not only is it an easier "ask" to a celebrity – they don't need to show up at some random press event or meet-and-greet – but it's a way for brands who've paid for celebrity endorsements to spread their influence and get more engagement without using up valuable time or appearances.
The notion of the Virtual Celeb vs the Real Celeb is getting a lot of play in marketing right now, and campaigns like Twitchange help extend brand and celeb reach without straining resources. We'd like to see these extend down to the local level, and of course, we;d love to put the technology in the hands of local nonprofits so they can do it themselves. Thanks again as always Joe, for the thoughtful consideration!
An excellent use of social media for social good. But….how does a charity get involved? Where is their contact info? Their website landing page doesn't provide any useful information at all. Is the only way to contact the people in charge Twitter? http://twitchange.com/
In this case the charity was "A Home In Haiti" – a nonprofit run by Shaun King, a pastor in Atlanta, GA. Shaun recruited Eva Longoria and others to the cause, and it snowballed from there. So far, there are no tools to automate a charity running a campaign like this. But any charity with a local celebrity or two and an eBay account can mirror most of the features of Twitchange. All we really did was auction off Tweets and follows – you don't need to talk to the Twitter management to do that.