Tell a compelling, true story
To drive social change through social media, you must tell powerful story that your audience can identify with. This story must make them want to take on your challenge as their own and drive action on behalf of your cause.
Enter HopeMob. Nobody does storytelling quite like this. This online non-profit community takes real people and organizations in need of significant assistance and puts them into a healthy competition, where each story attracts attention and gains user points.
When a story garners sufficient points, it becomes “Featured” in the most prominent position on the website. That story remains in the top position until the goals associated with it have been achieved.
As the featured story marches toward prominence, the second, third and fourth-most-popular stories get “locked” into place, on-deck for their subsequent trips to the top.
Keep your audience wondering what happens next
Demonstrating unparalleled mastery of the Dragonfly Effect for engagement, HopeMob updates the featured story regularly, as each major goal is achieved. The organization has ever-growing posse of over 370,000 Twitter followers @hope and 128,000 Facebook fans. Many members of this army of “generous strangers” across the country and around the globe stay up-to-date and engaged in the life of the featured protagonist throughout their journey on HopeMob.org.
With nearly half a million people pitching in when they’re needed and able, the humans behind these stories get viral attention and financial help from the crowd that helps them address their deepest needs. From homelessness to sex trafficking to accessibility for the disabled, HopeMob is taking on big issues and making flipping some of the most overlooked among us to make them the most visible.
Take the story of @CareyFuller, a homeless mother who does much for others, but has difficult circumstances of her own. After four days on HopeMob.org, she had one of three “goal” job interviews lined up; an agreement for free childcare, and advocates across the country who persisted until HopeMob would allow them to donate money to her cause. Without the effective use of social media, @AugustaGolfGirl, a Georgia-based social media fan from across the country would never have been able to know of much less support her.
Kickstart from the heart: Social media as a model for social entrepreneurship
Here’s a recipe: take one “King of Hope,” charismatic Shaun King; (leader, strategist and IT guy), combine him with one online fundraising platform called Kickstarter, and you get a “Mob” of people literally spreading “Hope.”
What’s your story? How will you tell it to drive the change you seek?
The Following guest post is written by Vineet Singal, Stanford student and leader of 100KCheeks as we observe 100KCheeks’s first birthday and their significant accomplishments.
