candiDate App – Coming 11-3-14
Posted by: In: social good 17 Oct 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: , , ,

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The Problem

Rock the Vote wants to get more young people to vote. Even though incentivizing voter registration is illegal, the organization is able to leverage other tactics to make it easy to vote, including high-powered celebrity supporters and a newly revamped, super simple voter registration form on their mobile-friendly website. Technology isn’t the main problem.

Rock the Vote has a perception problem. Over 50% of 18-29 year olds aren’t registered to vote because it isn’t cool, they don’t know the candidates or they don’t care. What’s cool to them? BuzzFeed quizzes and games, digital doodads and stupid simple social apps like Yo, Snapchat and Instagram.

The Solution

Our answer to getting more young people to register to vote is an app that pumps fun into the registration process in a sly and subversive way. We call it…

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It’s a dating app targeted to conscientious singles who want to find likeminded civic-focused people with interests and concerns that are bigger than themselves. They know you vote with your values but you date your passion and that, sometimes, political opposites don’t attract. You may think they’re trying to find love in a hopeless place, but since politics are personal, they want to take a stand with who they choose as their match.

With candiDate you can browse politicians running for office with our Tinder-like UI. Swipe left to Nay and swipe right to Yay if those politicians share your interests. Like that they support abortion rights? Yay them. Hate that they voted against the Dream Act? Nay them. Like that they support abortion rights but voted against the Dream Act? Hmm… Oh, the politician also likes Beyoncé? Yay them after all.

Smokey Bear’s Campfire Stories — There’s An App for That
Posted by: In: Smokey Bear, social good 30 Sep 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , ,

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As the community managers for Smokey Bear for over 4 years, we’ve helped grow his social media following to over 300,000 Facebook friends and helped him expand his footprint to multiple social networks. In that time we’ve also seen that his fans are always looking for new ways to spread his wildfire prevention message.

HelpGood is proud to announce the release of Smokey’s first-ever digital book, “Smokey Bear and the Campfire Kids.” We developed the app as our first foray into social good products that entertain while doing good. A portion of all proceeds goes back into the Smokey Bear education campaign.

As content marketers, we know that storytelling is a valuable tool in creating awareness. We designed this book to help move Smokey’s wildfire prevention message forward and to deepen his relationship with his biggest fans.

Smokey Bear and the Campfire Kids is being released on the heels of Smokey’s 70th Birthday, his induction into the Advertising Week Walk of Fame and in support of Fire Prevention Week (Oct. 5-11). It is the first in a planned four-book series of Smokey Bear Apps featuring Smokey and his enduring “Only You Can Prevent Wildfires” prevention message. The book features illustrations and animation by the Emmy-winning Animax and continues in the tradition of Little Golden Books’ Smokey stories his fans fondly remember.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 Reasons Why Becoming a Teacher is Awesome
Posted by: In: Video 08 Sep 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

As another school year begins, we want to wish all the new and returning teachers a wonderful year. Working on the TEACH campaign, we’ve developed a great appreciation for teachers and learned that recruiting new quality teachers is an urgent need. As 1.7 million teachers will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years, the U.S. has a big opportunity to recruit the nation’s best and brightest as the next fleet of educators.

Above is a listeo (a video list) we produced for the TEACH campaign that lists just why becoming a teacher is so awesome! If you know someone that would make a great teacher, send them to the TEACH.org to start their teaching journey.

Take 5 Steps Now to Ensure the Best SXSW Ever
Posted by: In: Conference, Social Media 14 Jul 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: , ,

Now is the time to start thinking about your organization’s presence at the must-go conference of the year. That’s right, SXSW. HelpGood has been rocking the Austin scene since 2009 and we want to make sure the social good presence continues to grow.

Follow these 5 steps below to hit all the important deadlines and make sure you aren’t staying 15 miles from the conference center.

1) Figure out who is going to represent your organization (send as many people as you can from all different levels of management).

2) Submit a panel by Friday, July 25, 2014 here. Don’t be discouraged or intimidated by this process, SXSW likes to chose panels to represent the full spectrum of organization size and topics. Pick something exciting and new that your organization is doing to share or a relatable challenge that your organization has managed to overcome.

3) Registration opens on August 1st. Last year, it opened on August 1st at exactly 11am EST. Be ready at this time with the strongest wifi you have to buy your badge and book your downtown hotel immediately. Last year, hotels sold out in 4 hours.

You can sign-up for the SXSW newsletter to be notified. However, we recommend creating an event in your calendar right now. As far as which hotel to choose, we recommend the Sheraton. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the downtown hotel map beforehand so you can easily slide from 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices based on availability.

4) Brag to all your friends that you secured a SXSW downtown hotel.

5) Promote your panel for voting on all your social channels. Ask all your friends and partners to vote especially on deadline day (as people are more likely to do things if you tell them “last day ya’ll!”) Voting ends September 5th.

Hope to see you there!

April Fools Social Good Round-Up
Posted by: In: Real Time, Smokey Bear 02 Apr 2014 Comments: 0 Tags:

Yesterday was pure fun for marketers in every industry. There were loads of tech companies and for-profit brands releasing elaborate videos and fake products. Here’s an April Fools round-up from the world of social good.

KARS4KIDS MADE KID DONATION EASY

Kars4Kids called for parents to donate their children to get attention for a real campaign they launched encouraging parents to spend quality time with their children. They cited research from the Boston Medical Center that 73 percent of parents are distracted by their devices during mealtime with their children, a time traditionally reserved for family bonding.

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TOMS and UBER ANNOUNCE NEW FOOTWORK

Footwork is a cardboard car that people operate Flinstones style.TOMS partnered with Uber to deliver the car to you. All this to combat the carbon footprint.

 

BREAK and DOSOMETHING.ORG #PRANKITFWD

YouTube pranksters, Break, encouraged its 1+ million subscribers to put a positive spin on April Fools by pranking people with something great. Every use of #PrankItFWD generates a $1 donation to DoSomething.org. Check out this video of a waitress getting buku tips which include a vacation, dream job and new car.

 

SMOKEY BEAR INTRODUCES SMOKEY MANTIS
(Full Disclosure:  HelpGood Client)

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KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL BREAK THE NEWS THAT ALIENS RECYCLE
(HelpGood Client)

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Did you see other great April Fools pranks from cause marketers? Please share with us below!

Merry Everything from Us
Posted by: In: Uncategorized 24 Dec 2013 Comments: 0

Check Out a Special Holiday Message from HelpGood

This year we were fortunate to help a lot of great causes. In honor of big data and listicles, the buzzwords of 2013, here are 5 HelpGood clients with results you won’t believe:

  1. Smokey Bear reaches over 170,000 likes.
  2. The REAL Awards, created by Save the Children, doubled the amount of deserving health worker nominees.
  3. Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council have a new Tumblr with over 7,000 followers in 3 months.
  4. AT&T’s It Can Wait anti-texting and driving campaign received 500,000 pledges in one day.
  5. New York Collaborates for Autism celebrates 10 years of helping people with autism.

 

Why Facebook Ads?
Posted by: In: Social Media 17 Jun 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , ,

By: Amanda Lehner

Facebook Ads

When I first started using Facebook for nonprofits in 2007, I had a big selling point. “It’s practically free,” I would declare, standing in front of my big projected slide entitled “Why Facebook?” “And you can get an intern to manage it, as they are young and understand social media.”

Oh how things have changed. Yet some nonprofits still subscribe to this theory (mostly out of necessity), we’re learning fast that if you want to truly use the power of social to achieve big goals, the days of the scrimpy social media budgets are behind us.

I attribute this shift to the need for an ad buy and skilled content production. Facebook has taken many of the old tactics off the table — giveaways, tagging partners to show up on their page — to name a few. Facebook is designed to sell ads.

It’s also designed to favor good content. The most liked/shared content is flagged by the Facebook algorithm which then gives it better placement in the newsfeed. But if you want to build a base in months, instead of a glacial rise in likes over several years, you have no choice but to buy ads – a lot of them.

Some say likes aren’t everything and that the relationship building lies in the engagement. Firstly, if you’re one of those people, please call HelpGood because we want to work with you. Secondly, because the likes are the number that everyone can see, this has many implications:

  • This is the number an outcome-focused organization will include in their KPIs.

  • This number signals a relevance to the consumer. One is more likely to join the party that is in full swing.

  • The more likes, the larger the reach, the higher the engagement. Period.

  • There is a like tipping point (around 10,000) that once you reach, the rate of growth moves along faster. Those first 1,000 likes are the hardest to get, and you will have to work for them.

Now that it’s 2013, everyone’s on Facebook and “Why Facebook?” is no longer a slide in my road show. It’s been replaced by “Why Facebook Ads?” and an old adage that I’m not happy to reinforce — you get nothing in this world for free.

I Must Have Internetz!
Posted by: In: Work 27 Mar 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , , ,

We wrote an article for the Ad Council’s AdLibbing blog talking about how to use social media to connect with folks who aren’t already using social media as it relates to our work on the EveryoneOn digital literacy campaign.  Seems impossible but HelpGood is doing it right now with the help of some cats.

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SXSW Interactive 2013 – Good Times
Posted by: In: Uncategorized 18 Mar 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , ,

We’re happy to report that SXSW Interactive and social good are still best buds. In fact, Corporate Social Responsibility (updated to buzzwords like “shared value” and “triple bottom line”) was a big theme.

The CEO of Whole Foods flung about catch phrases like “conscious capitalism.” Bob Garfield talked about how it’s now required for brands to partake in cause marketing to build relationships with consumers (as part of his new book “Can’t Buy Me Like”). Even funny man keynote, Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal, discussed his wildly successful crowdfunding initiatives for the National Wildlife Federation and to build a Tesla museum.

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As for visible nonprofit campaigns, you couldn’t miss the 10-foot tall mural of the United States made of trash collected at SXSW by local collage artist Jason Mecier. The collage, sponsored by Keep America Beautiful and Glad, was strategically placed in the highly-trafficked SouthBites food truck plaza. KAB also used the event to launch their new social hub to organize volunteers (www.kabcleanup.org) around their Great American Cleanup. The site encourages you to use #keepamericabeautiful when bragtweeting about how you’re cleaning up your town.

 

Yet the biggest highlight for HelpGood was not the TexMex, DeadMau5, Elon Musk or even Al Gore — it was meeting with digitally savvy librarians at the Librarian Meet-Up. We made new friends and planned ahead to ensure the success of our digital marketing efforts for EveryoneOn (Ad Council’s digital literacy campaign).

Proving the popular refrain— SXSW Interactive is all about interacting with people offline.

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Earnies Grand Prix Finalist!
Posted by: In: Uncategorized 06 Feb 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Great news! The Ad Council’s and USAID’s FWD Campaign was just selected as a Earnies Grand Prix Finalist! HelpGood developed and executed the social media strategy to raise awareness nationally about the famine, war and drought crisis in the Horn of Africa in 2011.

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Voting is now open to the public. Please vote here.

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The Earnies recognize the best campaigns from across today’s earned media landscape, that utilized listening, targeting and monitoring to maximize its impact.

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