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An amplifier, not a mouthpiece
This document discusses how charities can leverage social media to promote their causes. It provides an example of how Mind, a UK mental health charity, used Twitter to generate publicity and donations in response to offensive Halloween costumes. Through sharing personal stories, celebrity endorsements, and coordinating media volunteers, Mind was able to turn negative social media attention into over 1,600 articles of positive coverage and a £25,000 donation from the retailer involved. The document advocates that charities amplify supporter voices rather than act as a mouthpiece, in order to build collective strength and support for their mission.
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An amplifier, not a mouthpiece
- 1. An amplifier, nota mouthpiece How charities can unlock the power of the crowd Chris Cox Digital Communications manager Mind mind.org.uk
- 2. We won't giveup until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets support and respect
- 4. Managing risk • Source:Sky News online
- 9. • • • • • • Approx. 20k negativetweets about Asda #mentalpatient used 7k times in period £25k donation from Asda Mind got 1,629 pieces of coverage 9 media volunteers shared their stories Celebrity supporters!
- 10. The spread… • Allthose tweets http://bit.ly/asdatweets • The first one http://bit.ly/firstmptweet
- 11. The next day… •we can help educate your audience (email Rethink received from a digital agency) • …charity took to Twitter to encourage users to post pictures (HuffPo) • …charities have taken their own action against the costumes - on Twitter (Mirror) • …giving a voice (Various)
- 16. The power of story •Blogs as a way of helping someone accept a life event
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- 21. The choir • Notgiving a voice - making them all bigger and bolder • Collective strength • Support, respect and nurture
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Editor's Notes
- #7 The outcomes…
- #10 Strangely, the Asda #mentalpatient events were very quickly followed by another similar issueWhen someone pointed out that Thorpe Park had an attractionCalled the AsylumStill running Rethink’s social media at the time,I wanted to take a quick poll of whether people thoughtThorpe Park were out of line so used these hashtags#AsylumOK and #AsylumNO…
- #11 And this hashtag ended up being used by a campaigner called KatieIn a case of metaphorically ‘taking over the Asylum’And getting 6,000 people to sign a petitionAnd some media coverage.I cannot take credit for inspiring this As I had not the slightest intent of sparking something like this off!Here’s another more recent example of brands who underestimate their audiences…