1) Bell Bajao – How Breakthrough Rang the Bell via the Internet

2) Social Publishing Strategy at Pratham Books – Pratham Books

3) WWF -Getting India to switch off their lights for Earth Hour

4) Dr. Mani Children Heart Foundation – the Heart Kids Tweetathon – and How Twitter Helps Save Lives

As I was going through the case studies from IndiaSocial Case Challenge, I realized that there is no formula for social media strategy. The level of engagement and the apertures are decided by the nature of the product in consideration and the stakeholders. For instance, we received quite a few entries from the not-for-profit organizations and it is intriguing to see how each one of them has a very different approach and strategy despite falling under the same category. They have a very different set of stakeholders each, and the aperture used to engage them differs accordingly. It is imperative and critical to understand the need and the objective first. Here is a quick recap of the case studies submitted in the voices of the brands who shared them.

The first person in the following case studies has been retained.

Not-for-profit organisations:

Bell Bajao – How Breakthrough Rang the Bell via the Internet

The Bell Bajao blog focused on making a platform for user generated content. Bell Bajao is a campaign which centres around enabling women and speaking against domestic violence. The online activities hence carried on by the Bell Bajao team are interactive, responsive and attentive of what others are saying. The campaign does not merely use the online space to showcase its work but sees it as a place to share, connect learn and reach out. There was no such space in the Indian context where people could talk about domestic violence, where people could share and learn and reach out etc. We never used the site as a static information tool. It is a space to share, learn, communicate, collaborate and act.
We realized that the radio and TV ads were for a limited period of time, so we needed a space which could keep the campaign alive, so the interactive online space.

Stakeholders: Youth present on the internet, which are capable of bringing a change in their respective homes and neighborhood. We wanted to appeal to the youth by breaking out of the traditional image of an NGO and use latest cutting edge technology to spread the message.
On the website, we had a downloadable tool kit, which had information on how net users can become virtual rights advocate (an online version of our training program), hosted contests, polls etc.

Apertures used: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Social Publishing Strategy at Pratham Books – Pratham Books

Objective of the campaign is to “Democratize the joy of reading”
The reason to do this is because we cannot put a book in every child’s hand alone – we needed help to locate, distribute and co-create content.
We followed a very unstructured approach to our social media efforts. It really did begin as an internal experiment to document the work we do and highlight work that others do in the same space.

Stakeholders: When we began, stakeholders were all internal. Now that we have a community being built, we are always listening as to how we can improve. We hope, it has been received well and even enthusiastically.

Apertures used:

• Blog: A resource which talks about publishing, reading, literacy, kidlit, learning, non-profits, events and more.
• Twitter: A space where we can engage with the community, share ideas, ask for help, get feedback, listen to complaints, participate and mobilize people to help us with our vision of ‘a book in every child’s hand’.
• Scribd: Uploading our books frequently so that they can be read by more people. Also, for our Creative Commons licensed books to be remixed/repurposed by the community in whatever way they wish to.
• Facebook: Updating information from the blog and information about the events we do and communicating with the community.
• Flickr: Documentation of the work we do and also to upload our Creative Commons licensed illustrations so that they can be remixed/reused.
• YouTube: Documentation of our work and to inform people about some of the initiatives we are participating in. Also to inform people about our books through book trailers.

Initiative included –

• Skype reading sessions
• Inviting people to remix/repurpose our content
• More access to our books
• Audio books for the National Association of Blind
• Passing it on – the book edition

WWF -Getting India to switch off their lights for Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a global awareness programme by WWF to create awareness on climate change and fight global warming. People participating in the Earth Hour voluntarily choose to switch off their lights of their homes and offices for one hour to make their stand against climate change. For the first time in 2009, WWF India took the initiative to bring this campaign to India.

Stakeholders: General public who were online

Apertures used: An interactive and informative Earth Hour India site was created asking people to register themselves. Social media channels on Facebook Cause, Orkut Community, Twitter , YouTube, and Flickr photostream were created and these were used to engage with people and direct them to the site.

Within 18 days, the Earth Hour site got 1,23,704 visitors; 28,484 people registered on the website to participate in the Earth Hour event; the Earth Hour Facebook Cause got 19,059 members; the Orkut Community got 4,547 members; the Flickr photostream received 1,700 views; the Twitter channel got followed by 321 followers. Earth Hour 2009 was a huge success and the programme is on its way to another successful year in India now.

Dr. Mani Children Heart Foundation – the Heart Kids Tweetathon – and How Twitter Helps Save Lives
In an innovative use of social networking site Twitter, Indian heart surgeon Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian does an annual event to raise awareness and funds for children born with congenital heart defects – by staying awake for 24 hours non-stop in a day-and-night Twitter marathon – the Heart Kids Tweet-a-thon.

Stakeholders: A large network of small business owners, entrepreneurs, social workers and generous, caring donors

Apertures used: Heart Kids Blogathon, 47 Hearts Group, You Tube videos, Twitter, Facebook

IndiaSocial Case Challenge – edition 1

Category: Short-term Projects

Winner of Position #2

Title : Dr. Mani Children Heart Foundation- The Heart Kids Tweetathon – And How Twitter Helps Save Lives

Share a little about your organisation

The Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation is a non-profit trust that raises awareness about Congenital Heart Disease in children and funds expensive, yet life-saving heart operations for children born with heart defects.

Executive Summary

In an innovative use of social networking site Twitter, Indian heart surgeon Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian does an annual event to raise awareness and funds for children born with congenital heart defects – by staying awake for 24 hours non-stop in a day-and-night Twitter marathon – the Heart Kids Tweet-a-thon.

The 2008 event raised just under $9,000. And even in the midst of a deep recession, the 2010 event held on February 14th, brought in close to $5,000. As the Foundation’s cost to sponsor a child’s operation is around $1,250 the Tweetathon alone will be responsible for healing more than 10 little hearts!

Background

Starting out as a “Heart Kids Blogathon“, the blogging marathon for CHD awareness has been an annual event since 2003 and a mainstay in efforts that have helped raise over $130,000 for the Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation and already sponsored 63 heart surgeries for Indian children from under-privileged families.

Approach/ Strategy

Please share details about the initiative stating clearly the strategy, objectives, goals, the duration, resources and budgets allocated.

Each year’s event starts out with an ambitious target – and the aim is to both build awareness about the deadly problem posed by heart birth defects, and to get concerned supporters to join a “47 Hearts Group” and make a contribution to help fund a child’s heart operation.

Many donors continue to support the effort and remain as regular contributors, allowing the project to grow and scale steadily, even if slowly, over the years. The non-profit trust has been in existence for 7 years, and is growing in visibility and impact.

As word-of-mouth is the main vehicle of promotion, the costs to run the program are negligible, with over 97% of the funds raised going directly to cover the expenses of a child’s treatment

Stakeholders

Which stakeholders did you engage through this initiative and how? How was/ has this initiative been received by them so far?

A large network of small business owners, entrepreneurs, social workers and generous, caring donors has supported Dr.Mani’s work for ten years, and rallies behind the fundraiser.

About the initiative

Share details about your activities, touch-points that you created/ channels you used to reach the stakeholders.

Conducting the annual blogathon/Tweetathon involves a sequence of activities that rope in ‘influencers’ who have the attention of large audiences, as well as loyal supporters who have been active in helping spread word about the CHD awareness effort.

Early notification of the event is spread to this core group through email messages. Other social media channels are used, like You Tube videos, Twitter itself, Facebook (through a fan page), blogs and networking with a community of bloggers and discussants on message boards.

During the 24 hours of the event, Dr.Mani tweets (posts messages on Twitter) every half hour – and engages in discussions with others on his Twitter list, all the while focusing the chat on the topic of congenital heart defects and what they can do to help.

Impact – Outcome

What was the impact achieved vis-à-vis goals set? How did you measure the impact/ results?

The Heart Kids Tweetathon raised $9,000 in 2008 and $5,000 in 2010 in 24 hours (or shortly within that time frame). Each year’s event reached around 500,000 people through Twitter networks, some of whom became supporters, sponsors and donors.

The impact also continues for much longer than the one-day event, as people who have heard about the effort and remember later on about it, do come back to make a donation or help spread word.

For the Foundation, the bottom-line metric is the amount of funds raised, the number of operations sponsored, and the extent the message of CHD awareness spreads among the community we are trying to reach.

Learnings

What were the key learnings? Positive and things to do better; share any challenges you might have faced.

The most critical lesson learned from these fund raising and awareness building efforts is that their success depends not just on the cause being promoted or the passion and excitement of the person behind it, but also to a large extent upon the relationships developed with key influencers – and that happens well ahead of time. People are more likely to help and support those they know, like and respect – so the focus must be on becoming that person before asking for help!

What Next

Where is the programme/ initiative now? Where will it go from here?

The Heart Kids Tweetathon is just one channel of awareness building that the Foundation is engaged in. Other aspects include getting corporate sponsorships, putting in place “business with purpose” initiatives where business owners commit to sharing a part of their revenues for funding a child’s operation, getting larger organizations like the Rotary and Lion’s Club to sponsor some operations, and growing “47 Hearts Groups”, each of which will be responsible for adopting and raising enough funds to cover the cost of one child’s surgery.

The short term target is to fund 47 heart operations in 2010. The longer term target is to do 47 operations every month!

Reasoning

What in your opinion makes your programme/ initiative/ activity a case-study/ best practice case.

Twitter is far more than a curious fad or a geek tool like it might have been perceived a couple of years back. It is now a mainstream community with fantastic inter-connections between people with enormous reach and impact.

Also, it is easy and inexpensive to use Twitter to make contact and build relationships which can be nurtured, and then leveraged, into life-changing (and even world-changing) actions.

Like anything worthwhile, this too is not ‘instant’ or ‘effortless’ – but Twitter is far better than many other media and channels to get viral word of mouth spread for worthy and worthwhile causes. It is from this angle that I believe a case study of using Twitter to save little hearts has value for others interested in doing the same with their own non-profit efforts (or even business promotions).

Strategy and Execution

Self

Testimonials

• Fast Company magazine: http://www.ezinemarketingcenter.com/DrMani-FC.pdf
• Seth Godin, in “99 Purple Cows”: http://www.b–different.com/purplecow.htm
• Squidoo: http://www.squidoo.com/dr-mani-sivasubramanian-is-a-linchpin
• http://www.niche2.com/testimonials.php

Factsheet

Name of the company: Dr.Mani Children Heart Foundation

Number of Employees:1-10

Category: Not-for-profit institution

Case submitted by: Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian, Chairman

Website: http://www.chdinfo.com