Project Description:

In the fall of 2009, CCIC created a small project with big results in the CCIC Healthy Kids Thank-A-Thon. This online promotion strategy encouraged parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents to submit statements online of why they were thankful for their healthy kid. One of the positive message points for 2009 was that vaccines keep kids healthy. Most vaccine promotion talks about preventing disease and keeping kids from getting deathly ill. For CCIC it was important to remind parents that we vaccinate to keep them healthy, so they don’t get sick. This project was the brain child of our fall intern, Kelsey Gryniewicz, who came up with the idea, created the strategy, implemented the plan and completed a follow-up analysis. This is also a great example of hiring the right people to do a great job is always a win!

OBJECTIVE: CCIC wanted to: • Engage current and new social media followers • Promote the importance of healthy children and immunizations • Identify and explore a new communications strategy • Demonstrate how social media can be used as a free method for promoting a cause, especially for an independent nonprofit BUDGET: • $0 • Other “costs” • Time • Constant Contact fees (already budgeted)

STRATEGY CCIC Website • Main Hub: The CCIC website www.childrensimmunization/thanks served as the go-to spot for information, rules and submission forms. We hoped to increase website traffic by linking the site through social media (including in tweets, on Fan Page updates, in blogs) • Outline Social Media: The HKTAT page provided visitors with links and instructions for how to utilize social media. Provided multiple links provided visitors with various social media options, potentially increasing their use of social media • Regular Updates: We continually posted new submissions to the page, and promoted the new submissions through social media Constant Contact • Target Different Audience: We advertised the campaign through constant contact emails. These emails are sent to CCIC board members, health and member organizations. This is separate from the audience we target through social media • Timing: We sent 3 emails through Constant Contact 2 weeks in advance to submission deadline to encourage participation. Sent 1 final email on Nov. 25 (day before Thanksgiving) with the results • Tracking: Constant Contact allows for tracking of email opens, opt-outs, and clicks Facebook • Inform Fans: Separate from blogs, tweets, and emails, our Facebook Fan Page allowed us to provide information about the HKTAT to CCIC fans • HKTAT Event: We wanted to experiment with creating a Facebook event out of a social media campaign. • Timing: Bi-weekly updates sent out about HKTAT Twitter • Twitter Followers: CCIC has 1,227 followers and is included in 33 lists. This provides for a large audience with which to share our event • Monitor/Schedule: Twitter allows for easy monitoring of “results.” We used Hootsuite to track click-through and schedule daily tweets • Hashtag: Developing an event-specific hashtag allows for personalization, as well as easy tracking. We used hashtag #HealthyKids on every tweet. Later, we could search #HealthyKids in Twitter to track tweets and retweets (RTs) • Timeline: • Nov 11 to Nov 29 tweeted about HKTAT (2.5 weeks) • On weekdays of Nov 11 to Nov 26 tweeted every 2 hours, totaling 6 HKTAT tweets a day of our average 20 tweets a day (30% of total) • On weekends of Nov 11 to Nov 26 tweeted 3-4 times a day • From Nov 26 (Thanksgiving) to Nov 29 tweets were devoted to HKTAT submissions in which we turned every submission into a tweet (about 10 tweets a day) Blogging • The World Wide Web: Blogging is a great way to spread a message and try to target new followers. The more blogs you are featured in, and the more diverse, the more likely it is that your event will turn up in a Google search and reach new people • Blog Types: From Nov 11-Nov 25 we reached out to several blogs focused on: health, mom/parent, immunization, and social media for blog posts, guest blogs, and to ask for original post submissions • Why Blog?: We offered blogging as a type of submission for HKTAT participants. The event occurred during the peak of the 2009 H1N1 flu season and Thanksgiving season, making it a relevant topic for others to blog about YouTube • Visual: Videos are a great way to add a new dynamic to any event. Most of our time spent on the web and with social media involves reading (blogs, Facebook, Twitter). Videos are a nice variation and are easy for people to share with each other • Combine Mediums: We combined all mediums of submissions (photo, written, and video) into our video and set it to music • Big Finale: The YouTube video served as the “final” wrap-up of the HKTAT and was something to look forward to at the end of the event • YouTube Channel Traffic: CCIC has its own YouTube Channel filled with personal, related or interesting videos. Posting our HKTAT video compilation on our YouTube channel not only brings traffic to the HKTAT video, but also to other videos within our channel Traditional Media • Social Media vs. Traditional Media: Can social media events attract the traditional media? • Because traditional media focuses on “tangible” and “film-able” events, we wondered if a social media event like ours could attract newspapers and news stations • Press Releases: We believed that our event could attract traditional media and so we emailed our press release to 10 local newspapers and 2 news stations hoping to land at least one story Visit http://www.slideshare.net/KGryniewicz/social-media-case-report-healthy-kids-thankathon-2936301 for a great PPT with lots and lots detail!

Project Goal:

• Successfully engage audience: at least 25 people participate

• Develop YouTube video

• Engage bloggers to write about why they are grateful for healthy kids and link to CCIC Healthy Kids Thank-A-Thon site

• Receive at least one media story

What Tools Did You Use:

Blogs, Facebook, RSS, Twitter, Other

What Happened?:

FINAL COSTS • Money: Other than fees we already pay to use Constant Contact, the cost of the HKTAT was $0 TIME (Important to budget people's time as part of your project costs): • Nov 1-Nov 29: total of 20 hours for Communications Director ~$360 • From Oct 30-Nov 29: total of 40 hours for communications intern ~$166 RESULTS • Successfully engage audience: at least 25 people participate: We had a total of 34 submissions which exceeded our expectations. • Develop submissions into YouTube video: We did create a YouTube video which turned out great. In the future, we could get more creative with our videos and try to come up with a unique spin on the original idea. • Engage bloggers to write about why they are grateful for healthy kids and link to CCIC Healthy Kids Thank-A-Thon Event: We engaged 13 different websites through guest blogs, original posts, and free forum blogs. Definitely a success. • Receive at least one story in media coverage: We received 2 media coverage stories: Greeley Tribune and 9NEWS which exceeded our expectations. Especially important was the 9NEWS feature because it is rare for an independent nonprofit to receive feature news stories. • Greeley Tribune: article on HKTAT • 9NEWS: feature story and on-line article on HKTAT

Lessons Learned:

Incentive: Although it’s unfortunate to think that people will not participate in a free and easy feel-good event without an incentive, it might be true. It would be interesting to do another campaign, but provide a prize for submissions. Example: Create and post an “example” video or submission to website for others to refer to when they are creating their own. A preview example is beneficial in getting creative juices flowing and therefore, possibly more submissions. Website: Due to the fact that the HKTAT did increase website traffic, but mostly to the HKTAT page, future campaign planning should include strategizing about how to route traffic to other pages within our website. Plan, plan, plan: We fortunately had our event pretty well thought-out which is time-consuming at first, but saves a lot of headaches and hours during the actual event. Design a project proposal which includes: Website Contents, Facebook blurb, Tweets, blog for potential guest blogs, press release, email write-ups, and any other relevant info.

URLs:

http://www.childrensimmunization.org/thanks - a wrap-up of the blogs, photos and videos from the project

http://www.slideshare.net/KGryniewicz/social-media-case-report-healthy-kids-thankathon-2936301 - A great PPT with lots and lots detail