The Lemon Grove’s Jacob Harver made a nice appeal via Kickstarter (click the pic to see his video).

By Emmalee Torisk

Lacking the money for any other kind of marketing, Jacob Harver invested in building a strong social media following for his business, the Lemon Grove Cafe, after its August 2009 opening.

Recently, this following helped Harver raise more than $11,000 through Kickstarter, an online pledge system, for part of the cost of the cafe’s move to the much larger Rosetta Stone space nearby.

“What’s great about social media is it allows us to directly engage with people,” Harver said, “and it doesn’t cost anything.”

The Lemon Grove’s Kickstarter success is the latest in a string of local events that demonstrate the power of social media to mobilize people to get things done. The largest was the Valley’s $1 million victory in the Walmart Fighting Hunger Together Challenge. Additionally, a group of Youngstown State University students — led by their professor — recently used Kickstarter to raise money for a block-long mural downtown.

“Social media has become much more than a novelty for catching up with friends,” said Jim Houck, senior consultant at Pecchia Communications. “It’s a powerful communications tool that can help smart users reach goals — even challenging goals.”

Fighting hunger on Facebook

In just a few weeks, community members accumulated 98,690 votes on Walmart’s Facebook page to take the top prize in the retailer’s online contest, beating the second-place winner by more than 32,000 votes.

But the strong showing didn’t surprise Mike Iberis, executive director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley. The area’s “very giving, caring people” got involved with the contest because they believe in and support the mission of feeding hungry people, he said.

Fundraising with a kick

The majority of the Lemon Grove’s 174 Kickstarter contributors (including Pecchia Communications) were brought to the project through Facebook, Harver said. The Kickstarter platform made it easy for people to actually express support, he said.

Harver said Kickstarter makes the entire fundraising process more easily manageable. For instance, the website tracks contributors’ email addresses and donations. It also provides a blogging space for project updates.

“You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said.

Organizing online for cash

The students’ Kickstarter video gave a glimpse of what the mural will look like (click the pic to see the video).

A group of Youngstown State students recently used a Kickstarter campaign to raise $7,350 for a metamorphosis mural planned for the windows of the Youngstown Business Incubator on the west end of downtown.

“Everybody wants to see us reach the goal,” said Charmaine Banach, the assistant professor  who led the effort. “There’s no one out there who’s like, ‘I hope these stupid students don’t get their mural,’ you know?” Banach said. “Because you don’t get the funds unless the entire goal is reached, I think it makes it feel a lot more urgent to people versus me just contacting people every day saying, ‘Please give us money. Please give us money.’”

Two days before the campaign’s official conclusion, it reached — and exceeded — the goal, thanks to pledges from more than 100 backers (including Pecchia Comm).

When using Kickstarter, the risk is relatively low and, when it’s time to deliver the product or service, an audience already exists, said Tyler Clark, the incubator’s chief imagination officer. It could be embarrassing if the project doesn’t go through, but “at least you haven’t lost anything other than a bit of face,” he said.

In the Mahoning Valley, residents are “wired somehow to organize well for cash,” Clark said, adding that they “see an opportunity” and “go after it.”

“When people see that money’s on the line and lives are going to be affected, they stand up,” Clark said.

What makes social media work?

What makes a social media campaign effective isn’t all that different from what makes traditional forms of marketing communications work, Houck of Pecchia Comm points out. It’s just a different and more personal way of delivering the message. Its effectiveness often relies on these elements:

•  Timeliness – Timing is important in that all elements of the campaign have to align, and in a manner that enables enough time to act. For instance, don’t link to a site ahead of the start of voting or after the voting window has closed, or don’t direct traffic to a webpage that’s not yet been activated.
• A compelling offer – Like traditional marketing, there’s got to be a “what’s in it for me” type of payoff. For both the Hunger Challenge and Lemon Grove promotions, there’s a clear benefit for the user to take the time to cast his vote and affect positive change in his community.
• The right audience – Among the keys of successful viral marketing is reaching the right influencers. In both the Walmart and Kickstarter programs, it’s evident the campaigns reached the individuals and media outlets with large followings and who carried the necessary clout to effectively spread the word.
• Third-party endorsement – Finally, the reason social media campaigns ultimately work is due to the real or implied endorsement given among friends and followers. Herein also lies the beauty for the sponsoring organization as it watches with a twinkle in its eyes as its marketing message is spread exponentially throughout social channels.

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Emmalee Torisk is a Youngstown State University graduate student interning at Pecchia Communications this summer.