Using Social Media for Social Good

July 14th, 2008 | by Scott

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I’ve commented here before about the fact that I’m one of “those people”, yep, a bleedin’ heart liberal.

I can’t help myself, I feel blessed in my life (after many years of not feeling so) and am compelled to try spreading the bliss where possible.

If you think about it, that’s partially the same motivations that were behind me starting this blog 2 years ago. I had helped some friends and family members start making money online (some as supplemental income and some have gone on to earn full-time incomes from it), and liked being able to help them to “get ahead” and started towards achieving their goals. This blog was just my idea for a path to doing that on a larger scale with others.

I’ve posted all of this here before, but I thought it was a good time to revisit the topic and maybe remind some fellow marketers (established or aspiring) that the methods we use to drive traffic and conversions to our sites and sales offerings work just as perfectly for sending traffic (and funding) to our favorite causes and charities–and everybody has a few seconds here or there to submit a social bookmark, submit an RSS feed or even spend a few minutes to make a blog posting for some organization or issue they feel passionately about.

Now, I could explain how from a business perspective this is 100% well-spent time with a potentially huge ROI; and give examples like how Roberta’s constant blog mentions and support for www.breastcancer.org has directly resulted in increased loyal customers of the women’s clothing site she makes those postings on… but I’d much rather that you take the initiative to use some of the tools, methods and techniques I talk about here to occasionally do some good for the causes you care about on your own.

But, just in-case you do need some incentive, let me remind you that online marketing isn’t about “hitting customers over the head with your message” any longer, it’s about having conversations and making connections.

Your online reputation is your company brand.

If people like and respect you they will want to interact and do business with you–and people tend to like and respect people who are truly compassionate, caring and giving. How’s that for incentive to do a little social networking for social good now and then? (even though I know you didn’t need any personal incentives)

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