Brands On Facebook Connect With Fans Through Social Good

Brands love to connect with Facebook friends in a variety of ways — through discounts, conversation, applications, and crowdsourcing, among others. But some brands are finding that the social good is also an effective way of building relationships with their fans. Social Reality, which creates apps for several Fortune 500 companies, talked with AllFacebook about how brands have built awareness by working with those who have liked the page for charitable causes. Social Reality has worked with top brands such as HBO, Bank of America, and State Farm to create apps. One of the company's main focus points is integrating philanthropy and charitable giving into these apps. Social Reality has also worked with Zynga to integrate the social good into Facebook games. By offering to do something good for the environment or for another cause, brands have seen great engagement rates through Facebook. Social Reality CEO Christopher Miglino told AllFacebook that his company operates a little differently. It charges for guaranteed engagement, meaning that the company pays based upon how many people interacted with the app. By having some kind of charitable angle, instead of a sales pitch, it appears that people are more likely to share the message with their friends — even if it comes from a major brand. Lingerie company Soma worked with Social Reality for a Facebook app that encouraged users to donate gently used bras for women in need. As of Feb. 13, 40,174 pledges had been made, surpassing the goal of 40,000. Jessica Wells, vice president of social marketing for Chico’s FAS, told AllFacebook that the campaign led to record highs in engagement for Soma, in the form of shares, posts, impressions, and tweets. The initial "Take the Pledge" Facebook post Jan. 11 promoting the app generated 3,701 likes, 351 comments, and 1,007 shares. Wells wrote about how they were really able to make a connection with their fan base through this act: Many women don’t realize that they can actually donate bras, just like any other piece of apparel, and this campaign has helped us spread the word and gain awareness for this very important cause. Over 4 million women need the assistance of a shelter annually, and many come with only the clothes on their backs. Donating a bra may seem like a small thing, but it makes a world of difference to women who have to choose between buying a bra and putting food on the table. Our customer is very charitable, so through this campaign, we could connect with her on a personal level and tap into her desire to help others, as well as provide her the opportunity to spread the word to her friends and family through various social networks. In addition, taking the pledge “unlocked” a monetary donation for NNEDV, so her action also helped to make a financial impact. Miglino also talked happily about one particular campaign — Toyota's 100 Cars for Good. Social Reality worked with Toyota, which was giving away 100 cars to 100 nonprofit organizations, to get 200,000 people to vote through the Facebook app. Social Reality has also worked with HBO for a blood drive (using the show "True Blood" as a vehicle). The company has found that the audience that most regularly interacts with apps for the social good is primarily female (68.5 percent), and 45 percent of users who have engaged with the apps have incomes of more than $150,000 per year. Altogether, there are 185 total monthly users. Through apps created with gaming companies such as 6 Waves and King.com, Social Reality claims that it has the potential to reach 650 million teens, moms, and millennials. Readers: Have you ever participated in a charitable campaign through Facebook? Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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Brands On Facebook Connect With Fans Through Social Good

Justin Lafferty

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Justin Lafferty