As you peruse the social space, and begin choking on all the possibilities before your weary time-worn mind, you have to remember that all those tools out there waiting for you to build something are just that - tools. They are not an end unto themselves. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter….all exist to help you build something - and that something is the glue connecting you with your audience. How, and where, you decide to do that is all part of your marketing and promotion plan.
Nowadays you have another new tool you might add to your kit: digital “text to give” campaigns that help artists forge new, meaningful connections with fans. In a “text-to-give” program, artists ask their fans to use their cell phones to donate to charities by sending a text message keyword (”hope”) to a short code number. In turn, fans receive a message asking them to confirm they want to donate. The donation appears on their next phone bill as a tax deductible donation. Voila! Pretty nice way to use a platform everyone has to connect art with world change.
Alicia Keys is one artist using the digital space this way. Keys uses a text-to-give strategy to help generate support for Keep A Child Alive, a non-profit championed by Keys for its’ life-saving work against AIDS in Africa. During concerts, Keys asks fans to text a word to a number on their cell phones, and $5 is added to their phone bill for Keep A Child Alive. The beauty of this campaign is how fully integrated the digital strategy is into the Alive website. See how the music and the visuals interconnect on the site to make a powerful call-to-action to give? The texting can also be embedded in Facebook and other sites to spread your call to action further among your fan base. And they’re spreading the word further by giving you pdf flyers you can share with friends - “start a virus to stop a virus” is just a great word-of-mouth marketing idea.
All this is powered by one of several companies like mGive, who charges a one-time setup fee and monthly service charge to run the backend for you. Naturally, you’d have to have a fairly large audience to justify the cost of setting up the campaign and make a return on your investment. But if you are a large non-profit and partner with a band or touring act that consistently fills venues, it might make sense to look at this as another way to engage and empower your fans to make a positive impact.
Or even simpler, why not link an upcoming concert or performance to one of the charities already set up to accept text donations? Could you host a charity event supporting Keep A Child Alive (or cancer research) and use the event to raise visibility for your band or organization?
The tools are laid out before you. Choose carefully and who knows what you’ll start building.
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