Social Media Bullseye

It’s exciting to see how companies are leveraging new channels and new technology to build their brands. Facebook is a platform where marketers are eagerly trying to crack the code on how to leverage the high number of users that visit every day. Currently there are over 200 million active users and Facebook will only increase in importance as a community connection point as their user base grows.

One brand that has been doing a great job leveraging Facebook is Target. They had a great promo interacting with college kids in the Fall called “Dorm Survival Guide” and now they are back on Facebook, this time with a two week giving campaign called “Bullseye Gives”. The premise is that you can vote for your favorite charity amongst a choice of ten groups that Target supports: Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Feeding America, HandsOn Network/Points of Light Institute, Kids In Need, Parent Teacher Association, National Park Foundation, Operation Gratitude, Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. The “prize” is $3 million which will be split amongst the charities based on the percentage of votes they receive.



This wonderful brand and goodwill building campaign is a brilliant use of crowdsourcing with viral marketing upside for both Target and the charities. Because it’s on Facebook, it will drive huge cachet for the brand as a hip way to get involved. You can post your vote on your profile and encourage others to participate getting more people to join Target's fan base. Savvy charities are also posting links on their website homepages and are reaching out to their followers to join Facebook and vote. The competition is starting to heat up - two days into the campaign, there are 34,000 votes and twelve more days of activity to go until it wraps up on May 25.




So Target isn’t just doing good, but through an innovative use of using social media, they are growing and strengthening their online community whilst building their brand.

note: thanks to Mashable and MyTechOnline for research/info