Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

SocialVibe: Widgets That Save the World

Finally, I've signed up with SocialVibe. I was inspired by a recent press release I received last week, even one of those barely personalized ones, which goes to show that good content is often all that matters. [An aside: I tried writing this post before and Flock crashed on me. I have to save drafts more often. Please tell me Firefox 3 will be more stable. Flock's recent funding may be too late.]

Here's an excerpt from the release:

In response to these tragedies [in China and Myanmar], SocialVibe.com, a new way to make a difference for charities online, is establishing a cause called Disaster Relief that will enable SocialVibe to quickly mobilize fundraising efforts when a global or regional disaster strikes. SocialVibe.com's Disaster Relief (http://www.socialvibe.com/charities/22#) launches today on the homepage and as the featured cause of the site. SocialVibe.com "Points " earned by selecting Disaster Relief will be allocated to charities within SocialVibe making a difference for Asia.

The gist with SocialVibe is that you sign up for a cause, pick a brand to sponsor it, share this widget, and earn points for the cause.

I'd be curious to hear some case studies on how well the marketing works, and what the brands are even trying to get at here. Is it just some cause marketing branding play?

I also wonder how much of a rush there is for consumers to put more ads on their profiles, which is basically what these widgets are. Yes, widgets are a form of self expression, and people do have their favorite brands. Interestingly, this is the second social site I've tried lately where I've been asked to list my favorite brands; the other is SocialSpark.

Still, there is the potential for one of those win-win-win-win-win..... types of deals.

One nit: it wouldn't let me update my school. I'd try to click save and it wouldn't do anything.

I also don't mean to get overly critical. There are lots of things I like about it. Very easy signup, smooth design, and the 'points' system (not unlike the Spock Power at Spock.com) gives some sort of motivation to do more. The membership upgrade from Gold to Platinum is very clever, where you have to spend a few minutes filling out more info about your interests to better target brands.

In any case, here's the code for my SocialVibe widget. I chose Perrier as my sponsor for two reasons: 1) I drink it sometimes, namely when I'm visiting the in-laws in Dallas, and 2) I felt like this older-skewing brand might need some extra love.

Modest Needs, Major Impact

When considering philanthropic endeavors, sometimes it's great to go right to the source so you know where and how you're making an impact. In some ways, sites like Kiva (previously mentioned here) go a long way there, though microloan sites like Kiva take investments, not donations - you get the money back which you can then keep reinvesting.

To help out in your own back yard, you might want to check out Modest Needs, a site where you can help people in dire straits pay bills to prevent them from falling deeper into poverty. Here's a description from the site:

Since 2002, by working together in this very 'modest' way, Modest Needs' donors have stopped 5012 low-income individuals and families from entering the vicious cycle of poverty and a lifetime of dependence on the public welfare system for their survival.

And, in the process, with our 'small change,' we've freed up millions of dollars in state and federal funding that would've been used to support these people - our neighbors - had we turned our backs and done nothing to help them in their times of short term crisis.

Modest Needs verifies the information from the applicants to whatever extent possible and transparently discloses that on the application profiles. Here's a sample petition that was recently fulfilled:

Water Bill- Disabled Mother of 4 | Cost to fully fund this application: 327.00 Modest Needs Points

I am permanently disabled and I have custody of my four children. We receive SSI benefits and child support. I am medically not supposed to work, but last January we had an unexpected expense that caused us to fall behind in our household finances.

Last January, our family dog was sick and I had to take him to vet and pay for his care and medicines. I have been catching up slowly on our fixed income. Last month I started working again part-time, at a job that I probably should not be doing due to my health. But, I have to work to keep our family afloat.

I am asking for help to pay our water bill. I have been unable to pay it for the last few months. With my new job I should be able to pay this in the future. Thank you.

And here's the end result - the testimonial after it was granted:

I would like to thank every donor and the Modest needs foundation for helping me and my 4 children out. I did not know what we were going to do if we were not able to get help from modest needs and the donors( our anglels ) I had given up hope because I had been to local township offices and they turned me down. I thank you all so much that words could never express my gratitude and I thank GOD for you all and pray that GOD will bestow a blessing upon you all.

Thanks to Manhattan Users Guide for its write-up that informed me about Modest Needs. It's a great daily newsletter about culture, events, and other insights into New York City.

CES Greenery: Offset Carbon Credits

A number of the exhibitors at CES this year in Vegas are showcasing their environmentally friendly products, and CES is doing the same with its Green Guide online. It also partnered with the Carbon Fund so attendees like myself can figure out how much of a carbon footprint they're making and then make a donation to offset it.

What surprised me is how cheap it is. For my roundtrip from JFK to Vegas, it's about 4,500 miles and .8 tons of carbon dioxide, coming in at under $4.50. If I include "radiative forcing" (please don't ask me to define this stuff; I'm learning with everyone else), it jumps to just over $12.

Three thoughts on this:

1. Even without understanding what exactly I'm doing when I offset my footprint, it feels like a good thing to do, so I went ahead and did it. Maybe I'm a sucker for some left-wing eco-maniacal conspiracy, or maybe I'm just doing my part. Spending a few bucks to plant a tree doesn't sound so crazy though.
2. While the tool's great for calculating your footprint, there's a complete disconnect between the tool and the donation. It's a more laborious process than it needs to be.
3. If airlines offered the option to do this when buying tickets online, I probably would. If I'm paying $300 for a roundtrip flight, why not pay another $5 or $10 to make me feel like a responsible citizen of the world? And as a bonus, it's a tax write-off. This is a great opportunity for an airline to take the lead on this. Who's going to?

Google Checkout - Holiday Donations

Even if Google Checkout hasn't yet become the PayPal killer it was first billed as, it still deserves a shot from consumers, as I've found it generally speeds up the checkout process.

Now it's being put to even better use for non-profits; Google waives transaction fees for these donations so 100% of the payment goes to the participating charities including March of Dimes, Save the Children, Unicef, and others.

Link: Google Checkout - Holiday Donations.

Canstruction: Fighting Hunger with Art (and Thousands of Cans)

This morning I took a detour en route to work to catch Canstruction, an exhibit where architects and others design sculptures out of cans to raise awareness about hunger, raise money, and collect food. The sculptures are dismantled and donated as well, which is slightly bittersweet as some of them are incredible. This is organized by the Society for Design Administration (SDA).

New York's exhibit is located at the New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Ave at 32nd St. The exhibits are dismantled on Thanksgiving, so hurry if you want to take a tour. They're located on most of the floors throughout the building; you can cover most of it in a half hour or linger more. Catch the full list of cities here. Thanks to the print version of Time Out New York for the event post.

Catch the slideshow below, courtesy of FlickrSlidr.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Watch Celebrity Videos at Clinique, Support Big Brothers Big Sisters

Maybe it's because everyone's getting into holiday giving mode, but I'm getting more emails about philanthropic causes to support, and as long as they resonate with me at least in some way, I'm more than happy to share them here.

Below is an email I received from Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, a cause I was marginally involved with (no need to overstate things here), and one I'm happy to support. This also happens to be a great use of online video, one I'd expect to see more of. If you have a minute, click to view one of these short films, even if you just have it running in the background (I'm not sure if you need to watch the full movie for the donation to count, but I'm playing it safe).

Clinique Happy and Glamour Magazine are making watching films and downloading music charitable!
 
You can help support Big Brothers Big Sisters by watching 3 new celebrity-filled short films directed by Rita Wilson, Kirsten Dunst and Kate Hudson from the Glamour Reel Moments Series, sponsored by Clinique. All the films are about 10-20 minutes in length and feature happiness as part of their storyline.
 
Each time the films are viewed online free of charge at www.clinique.com/reelmoments Glamour Magazine will make a $1 donation to Big Brothers Big Sisters – up to $10,000! And, each time Rita Wilson's new song, Lessons Learned - an original ballad she sings from her film - is downloaded free of charge on the clinique website, they will donate another $1 to Big Brothers Big Sisters -- up to $10,000!
 
This exciting new online cause marketing campaign will only be live for about a month. Please check out all the movies and the song at www.clinique.com/reelmoments and forward this e-mail to your family and friends so they can enjoy while helping Clinique and Glamour Magazine support Big Brothers Big Sisters too.

 

Happy Blog Action Day - Bloggers Unite for the Environment

The environment's great. Without it, there would be no bloggers, and no blogs, and no Daily Show, and all of that would be a tragedy. In light of that, I'll spread the word courtesy of TypePad, the blog publishing platform that I've used since this blog's birth nearly two years ago, about Blog Action Day. Remember, if the environment falls apart, your RSS reader will be totally useless.

Here are some bona fide resources that probably take this environmentalist stuff even more seriously than a marketing blog (even more are available at Blog Action Day's official site):

• Eyeka's Blog Action Day Page -  Eyeka contributors have made hundreds of photos and videos freely available for use in Blog Action Day! Visit and download them for free!
• Treehugger - Easily the best environmental blog on the web, Treehugger has a great section called How to Go Green as well as tons of other useful stuff.  It's manned by some 40 writers around the world and contains no less than 14,000 posts!
• Wikipedia's list of environmental issues - With enough links to keep you busy for hours, Wikipedia should easily set you off on your environmental web travels.
• Digg's Popular Environment Stories - lists tons of popular posts and articles on all sorts of subjects. Looking forward to seeing some Blog Action Day posts appearing here and on reddit on October 15th!
• We can live green - A lot of things boil down to practicality and We Can Live Green will help you find actual products and consumables that are environmentally friendly.
• IMDB's Highest Rated Environmental Movies and Documentaries - Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth isn't the only environmental DVD to watch, check out IMDB's list of features ordered by user ratings.
• The Nature Conservancy's Carbon Calculator - This calculator leaves all other carbon calculators in it's wake!
• Zerofootprint - Calculators Galore
• Adopt the Sky - One of the nicer looking environmental sites around!
• MakeMeSustainable - Tools to take action!

As part of this day, bloggers are encouraged to donate their daily ad revenue's to an environmental cause of their choice. This blog doesn't earn any ad revenue (and, thanks to hosting fees, operates at a loss), but it has made a contribution to Clean Ocean Action, 4-star (top-rated) charity as listed on Charity Navigator; you can find all environmental organizations on Charity Navigator here.

In Memoriam: CK's Mom

Via Matt Dickman, the blogging community remembers CK's mom Sandra Kerley.

Book of the Hump Club

I'm constantly blown away by the ways the Web keeps making the world smaller. Here's a new favorite:

Though The Camel Bookmobile (HarperCollins, April 2007) is a novel, the camel-borne library actually exists. It operates in Kenya’s isolated Northeastern Province near the unstable border with Somalia. It brings books to a semi-nomadic people who live with drought, famine and chonic poverty. The books are spread out on grass mats beneath an acacia tree, and the library patrons, often barefoot, sometimes joined by goats or donkeys, gather with great excitement to choose their books until the next visit.

Thanks to to Sylvia Gimenez, my first boss at eMarketer, for the link. You can send books directly or buy them via an Amazon wishlist.

The Giving Tree Goes to Niger

Courtesy of TechCrunch, I just did one of those things online that I never had any intention of doing before but seemed like a good idea in this 'World is Flat' environment: I bought a tree in Niger.

No, I can't plot Niger on a map (I could at least get it on the right continent), and I haven't knowingly met anyone from the country, but my tree's now visible to the world at Tree Nation, a site that aims to try to fight poverty and desertification. The site writes:

"Desertification is potentially the most threatening ecosystem change impacting   livelihoods of the poor" (UNCCD).  It is about land degradation caused by   CLIMATE CHANGE and human-induced factors.

By planting a tree you will make a difference by helping to create a giant heart in Niger, the poorest   country in the world, and one of the most affected by desertification.

   

There are different types of trees at different price points, all priced in Euros (convert currency here, if you need to). The whole experience feels somewhat like Habbo Hotel, the online game/virtual world/social network (the lines keep blurring). Unfortunately, it's a little clunky, and it took me a few minutes to mouse around and click the right link to go and plant a tree; a simpler option without the fancy Flash interface could help drive some more sales by those who want to get in and out of the site really quickly.

All in all though, it's a great, engaging experience for a cause that I, for one, didn't even know was that much of an issue, and I surely didn't know any easy way to help it in that region. I'm adding this to my ever-growing list of reasons I love the Web.