5 Reasons to Participate in Social Media Giving Day

Monday marks the inaugural Social Media Giving Day, a day to rally the social media community in order to set a world record for the most donations given in one day through social media. Here are five reasons why you should care (and why you should participate):

1. Social Responsibility should be a major component of your organization's strategic vision. Companies who have a strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, such as Toyota, enjoy greater innovation, have stronger brand differentiation, better customer engagement, and higher levels of employee engagement. This is another opportunity to show what you/your organization cares about in a public, global movement.
2. You Can Get Your Followers to Participate and increase engagement levels. Perhaps you could get suggested charitable causes or have followers vote on favorite organizations? People will care more about your brand when they see you giving to causes they are passionate about.
3. Strengthen Partnerships with spokespeople or endorsers by having them participate as well. This could provide an opportunity to strengthen ties with community organizations that you sponsor, while giving some great publicity for your brand. You can also reach out to some high profile candidates or thought leaders and work with them to gather ideas as well.
4. It's Tax deductible. It pays to give, so why not give more?
5. This is an Opportunity to Learn Real-Time Marketing. Some of the most notable social media successes over the past year have been companies who've been able to adjust marketing messages in real time (such as the buzz over Oreo's tweet). Just-in-time inventory has been an industry standard for a few decades...but now customers want real-time response.

Here's how you can participate:

• Find a social media tool to participate in Social Media Giving Day. I recommend Givver, since they started the movement and don't take any fees for participation. Fundly is a good option too.
• Find a cause that you're passionate about and encourage your followers to be a part of the movement.
• Use #Give on Twitter to promote the campaign.
• Schedule tweets using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to get messaging about the campaign to post throughout the day to raise the most money but keep alerts on to respond to questions, RT's, MT's, and other interactions.
• Keep an active search on #Give to participate in the conversations.

Whether you are participating on your own or behalf of a brand, it can just be a fun, engaging way to do some good for the world. And who wouldn't want to say they were a part of breaking a world record for giving?!