SiteVisibility’s ‘Community Digital Marketing Fund’ given to extratime
We are delighted to announce our £25k ‘Community Digital Marketing Fund’ has been awarded to Brighton-based child care charity, extratime. The fund, which was available to all charities and not-for-profit organisations across Sussex, will enable extratime to improve its online reputation and profile, increase online donations and help the charity’s promotional efforts become more effective and self-sustaining into the future. We also hope to create employment opportunities for the young people who extratime work with.
It’s been a busy year for us here at SiteVisibility in terms of CSR and Sustainability as you may have noticed through various blog posts and email newsletters. As a company, it’s always been something that’s important and this year we decided we wanted to really focus on how we can help and what we should be doing so we appointed a sustainability officer to create and manage our 3 year CSR strategy.
Our overall goal is to support the communities in which we live and work by investing time and more importantly our skills as a company to help to develop sustainable opportunities for skills, jobs and wealth creation in Sussex. We are involved in working with the community in a number of different ways, from supporting local charities to getting involved with local education at schools and Universities.
Everyone in the company is given one day per annum to participate in the company’s CSR programme and this year we have seen a 170% increase in the number of team members who have chosen to get involved with some of the projects we’ve been working on.
As part of our SiteVisibility Corporate Responsibility Policy, we are involved in working with the community in a number of different ways, from support local charities to getting involved with local education at schools and Universities. Last month I went to Sussex Downs College in Lewes to run a Marketing Workshop with the Six Form students focusing on blogging as a marketing practice. The workshop was one of four run as part of the colleges Global Enterprise Week.
As a social media community manager I couldn’t help but be completely pulled into the amazing/horrendous situation that is unfolding around Waitrose and their partnership with Shell as part of a Guerrilla campaign launched by Greenpeace.
Greenpeace are known for their often controversial tactics and today was no exception as they launched a social media based attract on the usually well respected Waitrose who have recently announced they will soon be having Waitrose outlets in Shell garages.
Greenpeace responded by creating a Waitrose branded micro site featuring a satirical video piggybacking on Waitrose’s supposedly ethical Christmas Video which features Delia and Heston.They dubbed over their voices now stating
“But Waitrose don’t ask you about everything. Like our partnership with Shell, who are drilling for oil in the Arctic. We know our customers care about the environment, so we’ve kept it hush-hush that we’ve buddied up with these Arctic drillers. But let’s face it, the Arctic’s for life, not just Christmas.”
They then urged customers to act now to get them to drop the partnership by voicing their opinions using the hashtag #DumpShell.
They pushed this out across Twitter, urging customers to tweet at Waitrose using the hashtag #DumpShell
As a company, SiteVisibility’s philosophy is to actively support the communities in which we live and work by investing time and resources to support our local community. As part of our three year CSR strategy we have set ourselves tough objectives and goals that are designed to ensure we are able to really have a positive impact in the local community.
This year we have reduced our energy usage and increased our recycling by over 40% and have also committed to raising £1600 for the NSPCC.
Today we are excited to launch our initiative for 2013, the SiteVisibility “Community Digital Marketing Fund” whereby we will be donating £25,000 worth of digital marketing support to be made available to local NFP organizations to help them with projects that may currently be out of scope or budget.
During the recession, many charities have been unable to achieve their goals due to funding restrictions and lower donations. Additionally, many charities are only just starting to explore the opportunities available through social media and few of the smaller charities have a strategy in place or the resources to deliver this. We feel as a company, we have the internal expertise to really help make a difference which is why next year we want to dedicate our resources and skills to help make a measurable difference.
Sussex based Not for Profits are open to apply for all of or a share of the fund from today until the 31st December. To submit an application simply fill in the form on our Facebook page telling us about your charity, the work you do in the local community and what you could achieve with our help.
Yesterday I led a training session on how social media can support charities in increasing awareness and fundraising efforts. This was part of an event created by Russell New in support of Trustees week.
In a recession, when donations are harder to come by, it is more important than ever for charities to stand out for the crowd and differentiation is becoming crucial if charities want to reach out and encourage people to take action. Social media provides an excellent opportunity for charities to tell their story, reach a wider audience and show the end result of their campaigning to maximise the impact.
For the majority of the bigger charities, social media is a central part of their marketing and communications mix and most are creating some measurable marketing and engagement successes using social media.
There’s more complexity in social media today than there was 12 months ago, more platforms and more devices to consider and for the smaller charities who don’t have the same resources or budget available they are struggling to keep up.
My presentation below was designed to give these smaller local charities and introduction into why social media is so important, how to go about creating a strategy and what to do once you’ve got yourself set up.
I used to do a lot of running. I ran the London marathon in 2004 and have done a lot of half marathons and other running events. Kelvin (strategic director here at SiteVis) and I used to run to work together when our offices were in Shoreham. Then we both had children and funnily enough running went out the window for both of us. Being woken up several times a night, every night, for over 2 years kind of killed my enthusiasm for getting up at 6am for a training session. But then I decided enough was enough and it was time to get back into it. So I re-joined British Military Fitness and at least twice a week you’ll find me on Hove lawns at 6:45am being shouted at by a couple of soldiers.
A couple of months ago I sent an email round the office asking if anyone wanted to take part in the 10k Major series, an off road 10-12k race with obstacles and mud and water. Assuming (hoping) I’d have lots of takers I booked myself a place on it. I got one reply….and it was a ‘no way’. So I was on my own.
CSR has always been very important for us here at SiteVisibility. This year we have committed to raising £1600 for the NSPCC to support and help them with their fantastic work.To help us reach our fundraising total for the children’s charity, we have been involved in several projects and events, such as our Inter-Agency Football Tournament and our Brighton Digital Pub Quiz.
During September and October, the SiteVisibility ladies took part in a hugely creative and innovative charity project, Uniform@Work. For one month, the SiteVisibility girls decided to ditch their normal attire to wear a little black dress in the name of charity.
Inspired by the 2009 ‘Uniform Project’ established by Sheena Matheiken, the Uniform@Work project highlights the importance and benefits of sustainable fashion. We believe that you don’t need to spend much on what you wear to look good, and took on the exciting challenge to ‘get creative’ with fashion in a sustainable way.
We received lots of support from local businesses donating accessories and old clothing items which we used to spice up our outfits. Photos and experiences were shared on a daily basis on our very own Project Blog uniformatwork.tumbr.com. Check out the blog to see what we looked like every day.
We would really just like to thank everyone who has supported us, either by donating cash on our Just Giving page or clothing items and accessories.
The project raised a total of over £500, getting us much closer to reaching our fundraising total!
For the finale of the Uniform at Work project, this week we are hosting a Brighton Seagulls merchandise bidding auction for charity. We have 2 team scarves to give away to the 2 highest bid offers via Twitter. For a chance to win, please tweet @sitevisibility with the hashtag #uniformatwork, along with you bid offer or if you’re feeling shy you can DM us with your bid. A lucky 3rd place will also win some Brighton and Hove Albion badges…! Closing date and time for bids are this Friday 12th October at 3pm. Winners will not be sent their items until they have then made their contribution via the SiteVisibility Justgiving page. Don’t forget to be generous with your bids, it’s for charity!
At SiteVisibility, we are always very excited to get involved in charitable, community and environmental projects and initiatives. This year, our commitment to raise £1600 for children’s charity NSPCC has come with several great projects, such as our Uniform at Work Project, a Digital Pub Quiz and an Inter-Agency Football Tournament.
Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to support our client Bishop’s Move, one of the UK’s largest removal companies, in a new and exciting partnership with disability charity Scope. In January 2012, Bishop’s Move teamed up with Scope to deliver a brand new de-cluttering service. We decided to join in the partnership and support and promote the campaign online.
The initiative has been extremely successful, with a total number of 1,519 bags donated to Scope so far, a total amount of £30,380.00 worth of donations since the campaign launched.
A couple of months ago I sent an email round the office asking if anyone wanted to take part in the 10k Major series, an off road 10-12k race with obstacles and mud and water. Assuming (hoping) I’d have lots of takers I booked myself a place on it. I got one reply….and it was a ‘no way’. So I was on my own.
