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Connecting, Giving and Caring – Inside our MyTweetWish Campaign

We recently wrapped up our 2010 Holiday Project, MyTweetWish. As we gathered to brainstorm ideas for 2010, the typical “send a card” and “let’s print something” came up. It would have been familiar and easy to create, but predictable. It did not take long to realize that we wanted to do something different; something more substantial and meaningful. StoneArch Creative has a long history of supporting charitable causes through donations and pro-bono work, so capitalizing on this and applying the same thinking to our holiday project was not a stretch for us. Many ideas were brought to the table and we quickly keyed into one common theme: harness the power of the people.

DECISION TIME
After sorting through the many ideas – that included things like site decoration, Minnesohtan-izing phrases and auctioning our staff off to charities – we landed on MyTweetWish, a user-driven charity donation campaign based solely on tweets and completely generated through Twitter. We were able to allocate our entire 2010 holiday budget – which in years past has gone to printing, packaging and shipping costs – to make 5 sizable donations to 5 different charities. 5 grand. 5 days. 5 causes.

SIMPLICITY
The ground rules were simple. The cause with the most tweets on each day would win the $1,000 donation for that day. Too often organizations think social strategies – especially those that involve money – need to be endlessly rule based and heavy with legalese and fine print. The success of MyTweetWish proves they do not. This is not to say the campaign was without its bumps. We did learn which rules need to be in place, but in the end all went off without a hitch.

BUILDING BLOCKS
Ancillary to our goal of giving money to five deserving causes was to energize our staff, and the staff members of various participating organizations, about Twitter and social campaigning.

Internally, over half of our staff was unfamiliar with Twitter – most had never tweeted, let alone signed up. We held both sign-up and training sessions leading up to MyTweetWish. Through the course of the tweet-week, some of the loudest luddites were the people tweeting the most and rallying troops for their particular cause.

Externally, understanding the ins and outs of both tweeting and organizing people from all over the country, and world, is the backbone to any successful social strategy. We wanted to illustrate to organizations that they can reach people through Twitter when it is used as a communication vehicle. Additionally, helping them understand (through doing) what Clay Shirky states in his book Here Comes Everybody was very important to us. “We now have communication tools that are flexible enough to match our social capabilities, and we are witnessing the rise of new ways of coordinating action that take advantage of that change.” Our goal of using MyTweetWish to coordinate action and create buzz around different causes was left up to the people, and they responded.

The success of these specific goals was proven when several organizations not previously active on Twitter signed up to participate in MyTweetWish. They subsequently gained numerous followers and exponentially furthered their own voice.

GALVANIZATION
Wednesday’s winner, Homeward Bound Dog Rescue, is one of the organizations that can now be found on Twitter. Undoubtedly, it was the potential of winning $1,000 for their organization that motivated them, but they now have endless possibilities at their disposal. Announcing new arrivals, generating buzz around pets that have been with them for some time, upcoming adoption fairs and special events are just a handful of the possibilities. We look forward to following them and seeing how they engage with their new followers.

Homeward Bound Dog Rescue inaugural tweet: “Homeward Bound Dog Rescue is officially on Twitter! Help up out….#mytweetwish for Homeward Bound Dog Rescue! mytweetwish.com” Follow Homeward Bound Dog Rescue

Another interesting story is from Monday’s winner, Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance. MOCA received word of MyTweetWish in the week it went live prior to the tweet-week. They grabbed onto the news and truly used it to rally their troops. MOCA created an informational email about MyTweetWish and distributed it to their regular mailing list. The response to their email was strong and MOCA handily won the first day. Follow MOCA

WORD SPREADS
As the word spread, so did the location of tweets and organizations that received TweetWishes. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation had support on day 4 of MyTweetWish. With a global staff of nearly 1,300, and locations around the world, they battled for rights to claim one of the prizes. Tweets from around the world came in, but they did not ultimately win.

Medical Relief Africa is another group that was battling on day 4. As a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of families living in sub-saharan Africa, with a host of worldwide partners, they too flexed social muscle to bring the tweets out.

The winner of the day 4 MyTweetWish was Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center.

NUMBERS
Perhaps most surprising to us was the fact that so many organizations were represented through MyTweetWish. Well over 100 organizations had supporters on both a local, national and international level.

As with all trending Twitter topics, there were bound to be some “unwanted” TweetWishes made. But from the wacky to the very serious, over 7,000 individual TweetWishes were made through the course of the week.

CONNECTIONS
We were truly astonished at the outpouring of support and participation for both MyTweetWish and the many organizations that received tweets. It set the tone for our holiday season and made us all remember just how important giving back is to us.

Lastly, it has also been our pleasure to invite representatives from the winning organizations to the StoneArch offices to receive their checks. We have had several dogs visit (which fits in with our culture, as dogs are welcome at work) had captivating conversations with Ann Bancroft herself, talked about environmental education, and learned about how our donation will help cancer prevention in the Twin Cities. While it was not anticipated at the beginning of this venture, we have created lasting relationships with these organizations and we cannot wait to see how the MyTweetWish donation helps them continue on their journey of changing the world.

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LINKS

MyTweetWish

Minnesota Ovarian Cancer Alliance
@MNOvarianCancer

Ann Bancroft Foundation

Homeward Bound Dog Rescue
@HB_Rescue_MN

Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center

Secondhand Hounds
@SHHAnimalRescue

StoneArch Creative Lets People Tweet for Charity – Twin Cities Business Journal

StoneArch Creative asks Twitter users how it should give away $5,000 – The Line Media