The polls have closed, the votes have been tallied, the tails have wagged, the ears have been scratched, the chew toys have been chewed to mere scraps. We’re proud to finally announce that the winner of PetElect 2012, your choice for our cutest pet is Marcel, our CTO Ketan Sampat’s pet. Ketan will direct the donation to the Humane Society team that is focused on Hurricane Sandy Pet Relief.
It was a close and bitter election – egos were shattered, fur flew – but it was also an important learning experience, an enjoyable way to grow our community on Facebook, and – most of all – a chance to give back to Hurricane Sandy pet victims. When we first conceptualized PetElect 2012, our intentions were twofold: - Test our Voting App in a live setting
- Engage our Facebook audience Our primary goal was to see for ourselves how our voting app performed: what already worked well, and what could be better. Then, two days before our launch date, Sandy hit the East Coast, leaving thousands without power and destroying property and countless lives in its wake. While we can’t presume that a cute pet contest could help alleviate any of the hurricane’s horror, we couldn’t in good faith ignore it. So we decided to use the contest to raise money for animals displaced by Sandy. Throughout the two-week voting campaign, we learned even more than we had hoped about the value of our voting app and its online fundraising power.
The Value of Metrics One of the voting app’s most robust features is its analytics. When we used it for the PetElect 2012 campaign, we noticed several spikes in engagement. The biggest spike occurred when we sent our first email announcing the contest. Every time we promoted the contest via social media, we saw another, smaller spike. These observations of people’s behavior are key to figuring out what methods, timing, and messaging reach the most people, and by extension do the most social good. They showed us that publicizing the campaign produced a meaningful increase in engaged users every time we did it, proving the value of social media publicity and giving us insight into how we could make the most of our cause-related marketing momentum. The Value of Engagement Like any social media campaign, PetElect 2012 would have been a waste of time if not for engaged users. The people who voted and who liked and shared the campaign on Facebook provided us with feedback and data. Even more important, they furthered our cause marketing goals. Like our clients who run social media campaigns using CafeGive Social apps, our benefit was double: We raised money for animals affected by Hurricane Sandy, and increased the number of people liking us and following us on Facebook. Added benefit: Because people shared the event with their social networks, now even more people are familiar with our company and our mission. The Value of Fun PetElect 2012 wouldn’t mean anything if it weren’t fun. We designed the campaign with our customers and followers in mind: What would they most like to vote for, and how could we provide them with the most value per vote? For us, a company filled with animal lovers, the answer was cute pets. But those puppies and kitties could easily have been replaced with other beneficiaries of the causes that matter to your audience. Our socially innovative Voting App helps you find out what your community wants. When you’re trying to create and engage a Facebook community, it’s all about getting into news feeds. What we offer is a set of tools that increase awareness of your cause initiative and keep your brand and mission at the top of those news feeds. The secret is giving: Whether your fans are voting for a cat or sharing a video, every time someone engages, a good cause or nonprofit partnership gets more support. By pulling in fans and followers, you can increase your giving. No matter what your cause, our apps let you decide where the money goes. Causes are the easiest and most meaningful content you can provide your online community. You’re providing a way for your customers to give money to a cause they care about, and a reason to come back to your page.
