Virtue Goes ViralHow United Way Can Benefit from Social Media

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The Main Idea: United Way NYC can attract young people to their 2010 LIVE UNITED Bridge Walk and Volunteer Festival by creating a badge that people can post to their online social outlet of choice. The badge would be a new spin on old-fashioned Boy Scout badges (because there’s nothing more hipster than slightly ironic nostalgia—as a 25 year-old living in Williamsburg, I have ample evidence to support this).

Ideally, the badges would be an unintrusive yet ubiquitous online presence, and it might add a playful twist on random acts of charity to somehow distribute the logo in person as well—via stickers, postcards, or even sidewalk chalk, all methods of outreach that would provide a positive alternative to the Greenpeacers’ guilt-inducing sidewalk traps. The badge would link out to the United Way website and to GoodSearch, a search engine that donates its income to charities—we could have UW-NYC entered on autofill. This would generate small donations at no cost to United Way or to its tech-savvy young supporters.

Add-Ons: User interest could be further generated by asking people to submit badge designs and then creating a Facebook page where their friends can vote for their favorite one. Who knows? With enough snazzy designs United Way may even be able to have a few T-shirts printed with the winning design, which they could then sell on their website.

- Ashley Newman

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QuickTime™ and a decompressor

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QuickTime™ and a decompressor

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QuickTime™ and a decompressorare needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

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