Guest post by Arlene McCrehan
‘Social’ is huge for Goodwill® – we’ve been offering social services – job skills training and placement – for 100+ years, and many lives have been improved as a result of the social innovation begun by Goodwill’s founder Edgar Helms. He saw that by networking in Boston’s more elite communities, selling the items he collected door-to-door (rather than giving them away), Goodwill could create jobs, and give people in need the employment, dignity and confidence to sustain themselves through difficult times and get them back on the path to financial independence.
Beginning our social media efforts at Goodwill, we definitely wanted to
channel our founder’s innovative ideals. We began by addressing a fundamental challenge: most people know about Goodwill donation centers and retail stores, but few know that we help people get skills to enter or re-enter the workforce. (Our retail stores are social enterprises, providing funding for our programs and services and helping to provide these services to nearly 2 million people a year.)
A guiding question for us is how can we help people know that by donating and shopping, they are also doing good, and thereby create even more ardent and committed brand ambassadors? Using social media tools to tell our story and integrating our online assets was key.
Through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, we tapped into the great resource of people who know us and love us for our stores and our ‘reuse’ philosophy; we listened to them, gave them some good online customer service when needed, and at the same time, helped them get to know us a little better. We knew that this group presented the potential to extend awareness of our mission and engaging this audience on a personal level was crucial in helping a broader public connect with and support Goodwill’s mission. Social media fans and followers are the primary sources of online conversations about Goodwill. In late December, a ‘liker’ on Facebook responded to a news story we posted:
“I realize how important donations are, and that you make great use of the funds. Meanwhile, your programs, services, and overall efforts are an extraordinary part of altruism in America. Please continue with your incredible dedication going into next year.”
Goodwill is an innovative social enterprise made up of 165 local and individual Goodwill headquarters, each of which tailors its career services to meet the needs of its local communities as well as manages its own social media channels, including Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube. The Goodwills use their social media channels to share content about sales, special events and promotions, and most importantly, the stories of the people we serve.
More than a year ago, Goodwill Industries International launched a ‘MyStory’ blog and podcast, a weekly chronicle of lives changed by Goodwill, which richly served our mission awareness objective. The many individuals who have contributed to the MyStory blog have benefited from Goodwill programs supporting people with disabilities, people with criminal backgrounds, veterans, immigrants, seniors and youth – just to name a few.
Blog contributors have also highlighted the geographic reach of Goodwill programs and services, representing Goodwill agencies across more than 30 states. With the launch of our Spanish web site in October 2010, Goodwill was able to feature its first success story offered in both English and Spanish. From the comments Goodwill has received via the MyStory blog posts, it is clear that this increased focus on promoting mission services has been successful in educating site visitors about how their Goodwill donations impact their local communities.
Another source of content that drove this effort deeper was donate.goodwill.org, a site focused on a new ‘Donate’ Movement that Goodwill launched in June 2010 to demonstrate how a donation can have an influence on both people and the environment. In social media, we drove folks to a feature on this site, the Donation Impact Calculator, which makes it possible to demonstrate what impact you’re making when you donate a computer, a bike, a coat and more.
We monitored and built relationships with bloggers who resonated with Goodwill’s mission and business and promote and feature their content on our web sites. And our president and CEO, Jim Gibbons, blogs regularly on Huffington Post, telling the inspiring stories of the people we serve, reaching more than 22 million readers.
We’re still building momentum, have had several other goals and strategies during this time, and are proud of our progress. We began with 200 fans on Facebook in 2009, and at year-end 2010, we had 22,000+ likers. On Twitter in the same time period, we earned 4,200+ followers. And on YouTube, we’ve had more than 14,000 total upload views.
Image credits: Goodwill Industries of Greater New York and Northern New Jersey (middle photo) and Goodwill Industries International (top and bottom photos)
Arlene McCrehan, Senior Director of Online Media, Goodwill Industries International, leads the team responsible for Goodwill’s public web sites, including the SNCR award-winning My Story blog on www.goodwill.org; the new ‘Donate’ site and online Donation Impact Calculator (patent pending) at donate.goodwill.org; and the organization’s mobile and social media initiatives, which won a 2010 Silver Inkwell award. She is a graduate of University of Houston, and a member of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).
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