UPDATE Thursday 4/22 @ 6:16PM: In case you have not seen this, USA Today is running an additional ad re: the #AmericaWants campaign - this one features all of the orgs in the top 100 listed previously. Click here to see the ad.UPDATE Thursday 4/22 @ 9:46AM: See this analysis and post on grading the #AmericaWants participants "on a curve."
UPDATE Wednesday, 4/21 @ 2:46PM: The list of the top 100 charities (in terms of the number of #AmericaWants tweets) has been released by USA Today after some prodding!
UPDATE Tuesday 8:23PM: To Write Love On Her Arms, aka @TWLOHA, has won the full-page advertisement in USA Today - congratulations to TWLOHA and all that participated in the #AmericaWants campaign. To all the organizations that did not win the ad - I have to think this was beneficial in terms of awareness if nothing else. I hope USA Today considers my suggestion (or others) for how to build upon this...
From Jamie Tworkowski, founder of TWOLHA, as told to USA Today:
We are super excited about it! So much of our mission is communicating. We often say that TWLOHA is an attempt to invite people into an honest conversation. We're talking about issues that millions live with but few talk about, and we're trying to do that in ways that move people, ways that point people to hope and help and let them know they're not alone. With these ideas in mind, we're thrilled to be given this incredible platform.Second place: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (@PETA)
Third place: Teens MAD 4 Rwanda (@teensMAD4Rwanda)
Other quotes from USA Today:
From the folks at PETA:
Huge thanks to everyone who tweeted in support of PETA's campaign to end the Canadian seal slaughter. You are in good company. With everyone from Barack Obama to His Holiness The Dalai Lama having condemned the largest slaughter of marine mammals on Earth, this campaign just has to succeed eventually. If you'd like the Canadian government to pay attention, please visit CanadasShame.com to send a message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Remember, club soda, but never club seals. All of us here at PETA would like to thank everyone—including Pink, Pam Anderson, Channing & Jenna Dewan Tatum, Perez Hilton, and Stephanie Pratt—who tweeted to end the bludgeoning of baby seals.
From Tara Gipson on behalf of her students behind teensMAD4Rwanda:
Sadly, USA Today ended their article by saying "that the final wrap-up." - I hope not!!![Ours] is a story of a teacher and her kids trying to make a difference, trying to prove kids matter, that hate must be stopped, that Rwanda and genocide must not be forgotten. We feel blessed by your project as we feel that it allowed those easily silenced by major organizations to be given a chance to sing above an amazing group of worthy charities. We feel that kindness is what we are all about. I believe that win, lose or draw, the lesson I hoped to teach these incredible teens has been taught, the seed of the power of one has been planted in each of them and someday, if not through this contest, those seeds will bloom and change the world.
P.S. @usatoday... I still really want you to consider the snapshot idea below!
UPDATE Sunday 8:42PM: The final tally on total tweets for charities in the #AmericaWants campaign: 60,342. That equals a little less than 629 tweets/hour throughout the entire campaign of 96 hours. I actually find that number to be a little bit disappointing... but it sets the table for future success.
If I were USA Today, I would be doing something like this on a more regular basis. I'm sure giving away $189K of free advertising isn't easy on the newspaper, but the goodwill they received from this has to have some value as well. Maybe a 1/4 page ad giveaway? Even better... I think it is safe to say the majority of USA Today's readers take a look at the "USA Today Snapshots" - the colorful graphics in the lower-left corner of each section. Why not give a monthly winner that real-estate? Humane Society could run statistics relative to a current campaign, American Cancer Society on people impacted by the disease, TWLOHA on depression/suicide, etc. ... it would be a win-win at a much lower cost for USA Today. It could have a tag that... Okay, that's enough brainstorming-while-blogging. Here's what I stepped away and came up with as an example:
What are your thoughts? Of course... once you win, you would have to be out of the running for X period of time - insert legalize here. UPDATE Saturday 8:09AM: A static trendistic chart of the #AmericaWants trending this week... Interesting experiment into Twitter, philanthropy and social interactions.
UPDATE Saturday 7:52AM: USA Today says it will tally results this weekend (which will take some work to figure out all the different ways NPOs names could have been represented). A winner will be announced "early next week."
charity:water created an ad for USA Today which they used to promote their efforts, whether or not they win. I think it was genius to do this... but I thought the ad could have included a reference to how important their campaign is and that this fact is illustrated by having won the #AmericaWants campaign.
The hashtag #AmericaWants trended on Twitter three times. (see above - I don't know which is more impressive... that #AmericaWants made it in there or that Justin Bieber isn't in there!)USA Today made note of some of the prominent charities showing up in the campaign and list the following: Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Convey of Hope, United Way, Human Rights Campaign, A Home in Haiti, Boy Scouts of America and The Humane Society. Granted, USA Today has inside access to the results, but I'm surprised they did not include some of the other seemingly more common charities like PETA, International Justice Mission, the Moyer Foundation, To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA) and Alex's Lemonade Stand.
This raises another question - will USA Today give us full results or just tell us who the winner is? I hope it's the former!
One of the most common mentions of the hashtag now is that @thatdrew thought the campaign is "just dope."
Apparently a UCLA professor is going to feature the campaign in her social media course this week - I'll try to get an interview with her later this week.
UPDATE Saturday 12:02AM: Congrats to all for the effort put forth the good, creative and passionate efforts in the #AmericaWants campaign. During the final five minutes there were 1,003 tweets with the #AmericaWants hashtag... not bad. More analysis, interviews and thoughts on this campaign to come...
Per @usatoday - "The #AmericaWants campaign has ended. Congratulations to all for your hard work. We'll announce recipent next week."
UPDATE Friday 11:51PM: 8 minutes left - good luck to all the participating organizations! Even those that don't win the advertisement certainly have received some great free publicity via the #AmericaWants campaign. Kudos USA Today.
UPDATE Friday 11:09PM: A couple things of note as we are inside the last hour (tweets must be in by 11:59PM Eastern to count):
1) USA Today reports over 50,000 tweets for the campaign as of 6:37pm Friday.
2) As a teaser for the post-#AmericaWants campaign world... I have some feelers out already for related interviews on how this impacted organizations, whether or not they won.
3) USA Today also notes some celebrities who have gotten involved that I had not noted (and some I had). I've added the charities-of-choice below:
@FarmAid
Willie Nelson
@AmericanCancer
Joe Trippi
@PETA
Alyssa Milano
Pamela Anderson
Perez Hilton
Pink
Channing Tatum
Taylor Lautner
@teenstweet4rwanda
MC Hammer
@THON
Khloe Kardashian
Operation Homefront
Heidi Montag
Spencer Pratt
ahomeinhaiti.org
Eva Longoria
@FeedingAmerica
Josh Groban
UPDATE Friday 10:14PM: A lot of pick up in the #AmericaWants tweets as the homestretch is upon us... I do still see the same names showing up most regularly. Here are some trend graphs on the most common NPOs showing up. These are dynamic and have relative scales - make sure to make note of what's on the Y-axis for the sake of comparison.
@AlexsLemonade:
@HRCBackStory:
@IJMHQ:
@moyerfoundation:
@PETA:
@TWLOHA:
UPDATE Friday 7:22PM: Not much time left - just over 4.5 hours... Who will win? Likely between @PETA, @moyerfoundation, @AlexsLemonade, @IMJHQ, @TWLOHA... United Way and Susan G. Komen seem to have lost steam since Tuesday. Remember the abuse I mentioned? Here you go:
ArsenalZone @shaldane apparently this place is offering a free iPad :URL REMOVED #americawantsUGH. Anyway - USE COMMENTS and give us your thoughts and ideas and best practices!
UPDATE Friday 2:20PM: A creative giveaway from @PETA associated with the campaign... those that tweeted their support for @PETA in the #AmericaWants campaign had a chance to win a gift:
@PETA tweets:
Shortly thereafter, Alex's Lemondade Stand Foundatin did something similar:I'm going 2 pick my 1st seal plush winner in 5 mins! #AmericaWants @PETA 2 get a full-page ad in USA TODAY 2 stop Canadian seal slaughter!
1st/3 winners is @AngieSanfiel! :) Keep RT'ing tweeps. #AmericaWants @PETA 2 get a full-page ad in USA TODAY 2 stop Canadian seal slaughter!
10 min til we announce 1st tshirt winner! RT for your chance 2 win: #AmericaWants @AlexsLemonade 2 get a full-page ad in USA TODAY.Good incorporation of something fun into the campaign. I'm trying to do some trending for both to see if there were spikes in their tweet trends during these giveaways.
Congrats @tishhearne! 1 of 2 ALSF tshirt winners! RT 4 ur chance! #AmericaWants @AlexsLemonade to get a full-page ad in USA TODAY. Plz RT!
Others showing up in the trends:
@FWMORG - Free Wheelchair Mission - Provides wheelchairs at no cost to some of the world's most forgotten.
@rotary - Rotary International - An organization of more than 1.2 million business, professional, & community leaders.
And Josh Groban (@joshgroban) has gotten into the celebrity swing of things with support for @Feeding America, while Kristie Alley has joined the @PETA crusade!
One last note... when do you know your efforts have made it? When someone tries to use it to take advantage of others, of course! I've seen a handful of phishing / spam messages on Twitter using#AmericaWants as a hashtag just seduce people to follow a bad link. Beware!
UPDATE Friday 12.13PM: Some of the momentum of the overall #AmericaWants campaign slowed down overnight... no surprise. The real question? Can the campaign pick up steam again today during the homestretch?
A lot of the same names showing up - @moyerfoundation, @IMJHQ, @TWLOHA, and @AlexsLemonade. Thanks to USA Today for noting the updates here on their @USATMediaLounge feed and @IMJHQ for including us in their press release @ PR Web.
Some of the new names appearing more often include:
@charitywater - charity:water - a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
@campfireusa2010 - Campfire USA 2010 - Celebrating 100 years of Camp Fire in 2010! Past, present and future Camp Fire boys, girls, teens, staff, partners, volunteers, supporters, alumni welcome.
@HumaneSociety - Humane Society of the United States - Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty... all day, every day!
UPDATE 10:22 Eastern: So PETA is still doing well (in part thanks to the celebs), but others are starting to show up... and I mean both the charities and the celebs. Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) has posted support for @Global_Network, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. @EvaLongoria posted her support for http://ahomeinhaiti.org/. And @KhloeKardashian was kind enough to (again) show her support for @THON, Penn State's Dance Marathon.
I'm kind of surprised that someone like Lance Armstrong hasn't posted anything re: his foundation... and nothing from those like Paris Hilton who seem to latch on to such opportunities to be a celebrity for no reason at all ;)
Otherwise, keep an eye on the widget to your right - appropriately titled "More Donors Keeps An Eye on: #America Wants" to see some of these causes and the latest-and-greatest to be tweeted.
@NOH8Campaign - The NOH8 Campaign - the fight to end hate.
@teensmad4rwanda - Teens Mad 4 Rwanda - Goal: 1 Million Tweets in 100 Days for the forgotten Rwandan victims of genocide, 1 Million Comments of remembrance left on our online memorial, and 1 Hope to build the first American Rwandan Memorial & Education Center Against Hate
UPDATE 3:41PM Eastern: Whoaaa..... PETA! You can take a look at the live search feed for #AmericaWants in the right column and see if it is still true, but PETA has been showing up consistently lately. The combination of 562,500 Facebook fans, 62,578 followers on Twitter and the urgency of their current campaign to stop the seal slaughter seems to equal a good chance PETA wins this competition. They have also been using the phrase "What if one tweet could save one seal?" and have the celebrity support of Pink (@Pink), Pamela Anderson (@PamelaDAnderson) and Perez Hilton (@PerezHilton) There are still 32+ hours left int he competition, so we'll see if the PETA momentum continues. See the PETA blog posting re: #AmericaWants and the potential bludgeoning of 388,200 seals in Canada here.
Others seeing some love?
@OfficialLove146 - Love 146 - The vision of Love 146 is the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation. Nothing less.
@Op_Homefront - Operation Homefront - Supporting our troops, helping the families they leave behind and wounded warriors when they return home.
UPDATE 1:10PM Eastern: Mostly the same names floating by in the #AmericaWants threads, so I thought I would highlight some of the less-mentioned names for the sake of spreading the love. That, after all, is one of the best things that can come from the #Americawants campaign.
MDANews - Muscular Dystrophy Association - Obviously the MDA is not a small NPO, but it hasn't been mentioned as much on #AmericaWants. If you're not familiar with them, MDA is a health org fighting neuromuscular diseases including ALS.
Cookies4kids / GladtoGive - Cookies for Kids' Cancer - ...was founded by a mom inspired by her son's fight against cancer. Cookies for Kids' Cancer is committed to raising funds to support research for new and improved therapies for pediatric cancer. Through the concept of local bake sales, Cookies for Kids' Cancer will provide the inspiration and support for people like you to help children win their fight against cancer.
IJMHQ - International Justice Mission - ...is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.
UPDATE 11:37AM Eastern: As you can see from the trend graph, #AmericaWants is picking up steam, but still not trending as significantly as I would have expected (the current top ten trends: #nowplaying, #welcometoNigeria, #OhJustLikeMe, #youbigdummy, #TheresNothingLike, Glee, Justin Bieber, #ihatequotes, Dear Iceland, and Tax Day)
The new names showing up in the #AmericaWants campaign with more regularity:
@moyerfoundation - The Moyer Foundation - Creates and funds programs helping children in physical, emotional or financial distress including Camp Erin, grief camps for children.
@AlexsLemonade - Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation -Fighting Childhood Cancer, One Cup at a Time.Follow ALSF for news about childhood cancer and some stories about the over 100,000 people helping in the battle. (FYI - this is a great organization and they do very well with online & social-media efforts!)
Original Post: The campaign continues and more charities are getting the re-tweets rolling... most by begging for them from followers. Have you seen any more creative ways to promote the campaign? Recent charities showing up regularly in the #AmericaWants thread are:
@TWLOHA - To Write Love on Her Arms - a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.
@peta - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
TWLOHA also has an interesting blog post titled "What Would You Say to Four Million People?" as a way to discuss and promote their #AmericaWants efforts. Continue following the trend chart below for #AmericaWants.
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