I will be attending Kronos' user conference next week in Orlando - and when I got the customary what to do email from the vendor - I stumbled over a section mentioning some interesting marketing approach combining twitter buzz with charity.
In the email Kronos basically stated, that it would donate one US$ to a charity for every tweet containing the hashtag #KW2013 - up to a limit of 10k US$. That seemed to be a pretty innovative way to combine what every vendor wants - publicity on social media, in this case twitter, and attention by supporting a charity.
I asked the Twittersphere this morning if anyone has seen something similar - and till now no one has come back - so kudos goes to Kronos for championing an innovative way to get attention on Twitter and equally making people feel good about tweeting as every tweet containing the hashtag will increase the amount of the donation.
Some more thoughts on the topic
- There is always a trade-off between paying for social media attention and not over commercializing. The charity aspect takes away that conflict.
- I am not a social media marketing expert - but I am guessing the never old chase of attractive return on marketing $s spent - is pretty good on these 10k US$. Advertise the hashtag and promote Kronos on Twitter may work, too - but my gut feel is, that it may have a worse return of marketing dollar spent.
- Kronos could increase the attention of this (or maybe should) - by updating regularly on how much was already donated at point x of the conference. And then - assuming success - increase the total donation limit.
- Lastly a vendor could get the twittersphere even more involved by asking to help find out which of e.g. three charities should receive the donation. So move from tweet to donate to tweet to where to donate - more involvement - more attention more social media buzz - that's what you want for a conference.
