The Dragonfly Effect - Small Acts Create Big Change

American Express knows that small business is the lifeblood of the US economy, and small business health is critical to any economic recovery. With that in mind, American Express has spent the past two holiday seasons promoting Small Business Saturday, possibly the most focused, results-oriented national effort ever to aid Main Street. Their long-term goal: keep the cash registers in towns across america ringing year-round.

Says American Express OPEN President Susan Sobbott, “Two-thirds of every dollar spent at a local business goes back to the community.”

American Express and Facebook: A Partnership to Take to the Bank

When American Express paired up with Facebook for Small Business Saturday, it became a remarkable business partnership – both for its reach and its impact. And impact was clear: local sales proved about 28 percent higher in 2011 compared to the same day of the 2010 shopping season, says Amex Chief Marketing Officer, John Hayes.

According to the Business Insider, for the 2011 holiday shopping season, consumer awareness of the program rose to 65 percent of shoppers, higher than AMEX’s own estimate of 40 percent of the U.S. population. Even President Barack Obama chimed in to support the campaign on the White House blog. That’s a pretty effective and authoritative way to grab attention!

Facebook Provides Engagement for Small Businesses and Consumers

Climbing toward the 3 million fans mark with its message of “Let’s Shop Small All Year Long,” the Small Business Saturday Facebook Page offers engagement options for both consumers and small business owners. That’s one way to get your third dragonfly wing humming.

AMEX invites shoppers to Get Involved by Liking their favorite hometown businesses. Small businesses with the most likes are then featured on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page.

Small business owners get even more perks. American Express provides a bevy of free business tools, including free signage, Twitter adverts (for the first 10,000) and tips on how to promote your business online.

Think Near for the “Hyper Local” Customer

At the American Express Open Forum, a community dedicated exclusively to helping small businesses grow, small businesses can learn how to use Think Near to increase their sales. According to AMEX, the algorithm for this mobile platform takes into account weather, foot traffic, current inventory and allows small businesses to drive traffic during off-peak times.

From POTUS to the hottest new hyperlocal mobile advertising service, there’s good reason that Forbes.com dubs Small Business Saturday “One of Four Holidays that Out-Glitter Christmas.”

Our mission with Small Business Saturday was very simple, Sobbott told Facebook, “It was to get people to shop at a small business.”

Can you distill your next social marketing campaign’s mission into a single succinct sentence? If so, tweet it to us (@DflyEffect) and we’ll retweet your campaign message to our community.

Like the folks at American Express OPEN, we at The Dragonfly Effect want to help keep Main Street USA a diverse, locally-powered bustling place.

May 23, 2012

By: Andy

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Category: Brand, Focus, Grab Attention, Media Buzz, Take Action

woman wearing shirt promoting hopemob reading "do good or shut up"

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?

May 15, 2012

By: Andy

1 Comment

Category: Nonprofit, Social Media, Storytelling