Off To A Great Start, What's Next?

Off To A Great Start- What's Next?

If you have followed @abolishcancer for the past week or so you are aware of the "perfect storm" outlined in a previous post that showed how an influential name, a worthy cause, and a college junior combined to make a difference in raising funds to fight pediatric cancer. (click on link above to see details)

So now what's next? If you are new to this site, the premise is fairly simple, someone agrees to sponsor @abolishcancer for one day, and for every new follower that @abolishcancer gets for that day, the sponsor agrees to pay $1 to a cancer fighting charity of their choice. For the month of February, we have chosen @THON as the recipient.

Why would someone want to sponsor our site when they could simply give the money, with the certainty of knowing how much it was, to their charity of choice anyway? One reason-PR. You see if someone agrees to simply pay, as an example, @THON $250, then the only real people who know about it are the donor and @THON. Sure, the act of giving isn't meant to always be broadcast to the world, you should give for the sake of the charity and the cause. But, why not make it a little fun? Why not agree to sponsor our site and still be able to give to the charity the money? You will get a chance to see the encouragement and promotion of your sponsorship to thousands of tweeters across the globe in the process.

The best thing about the use of social media tools is that something can go viral very quickly. As was the case when Khloe Kardashian decided to tweet about us a week ago. But the beauty of things going viral is the fact that @abolishcancer has over 2500 people who will see your interest in sponsoring, and many of them will retweet your sponsorship. You are essentially getting people to have positive conversations, through Twitter, about you or your business. What newspaper ad can take the place of that?

So our site is established and growing. People from all over the globe want to see that we fulfill the dream to @abolishcancer. Who doesn't right? Our struggle is to get sponsors to see the value of not only helping out a great cause but to also get some great PR along the way and agree to sponsor our site. We don't receive a penny from this work, in fact the sponsor is on their honor to send all the money directly to the charity. We are simply creating the platform to try and make this commitment grow.

How do we get the sponsors? Obviously, the bigger presence the person or business has on Twitter, the more the word will spread, along with the amount they will have to pay. I see a sponsorship of this kind as a great way for an influential person or celebrity, who is looking to get back in the limelight, to show everyone the good they are providing. Why, even a simple tweet brings great awareness to the cause even if they don't decide to sponsor.

Many people have gone on their own campaign to hit up a celebrity of influential person to follow or sponsor @abolishcancer. (we really appreciate this type of effort) This is a great tactic but needs a concerted effort from many people for the influential person to listen. More tweets about a celebrity, the more likely they are to listen. Who should start the push to get a certain celebrity to tweet or sponsor us? Probably best to be an authentic push from one of our followers to be its own grassroots effort.

What about businesses? Well, local mom and pop groups may not have the funds to donate and also may not benefit as much from the publicity since our audience is more global. A larger business, however, would see an increase in their "Twitter presence" through this effort.

So here we are, looking for the next sponsor for a day to help raise awareness and $$$ for @THON. I'm quite certain that whoever decides to make that commitment will see another viral infection, the good kind, of their efforts along with a big push and commitment from the great people at @THON as well.

I'm always looking for ideas to make this connection and welcome any of your thoughts. It's you, the people, that make this work. And just think, all it requires for us to make this happen is a simple tweet and a simple click of the button to "follow".

Thanks, as always, for the support.
-Darah Bonham, creator

"Using the Power of the People, through Twitter, to @abolishcancer"