A New Paradigm for Communicating for Action: H2H

The Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman “Bucket List” flick inspired me: I recently crossed #1 off my own life fulfillment list: Running the Boston Marathon –my first marathon.

Getting to the starting line wasn’t easy. I trained for five months in the brutal Boston winter – and committed to raise more than $5,000 to run the race in honor of cancer victims and patients.

I’ve never really fundraised before. Timing wasn’t great, with the economy making it much harder for everyone to part with money, even for a good cause. I wasn’t sure how to get started, but I knew I needed to reach more people than I could with phone calls and e-mails.

So, I took what I learned from using social media for clients. I kept a blog. I created a Facebook Group. I Tweeted about my training. I set up a personal Web site – updating it frequently, to boost my SEO rankings. I did e-mail blasts.

And like sales reps adding the “human touch,” I helped each donor understand how their support mattered.  I updated them on the latest breakthroughs at Dana-Farber, my training and eventually the 26.2 mile journey from Hopkinton and Boston.

It worked. The world of social media mashups got me donations from friends I hadn’t seen in years, some who live hours away - and from people I have never even met.

Bottom line: Social media is expanding. It’s just not for B2B, or B2C companies. The new model is H2H: Human to human. Whether running a marathon or launching a new product, social media is no longer an option….it’s required for success.

$5,500 dollars – and 4 hours, 2 minutes later, I reached my goals.  And I’m already looking forward to next year.

- Posted by Michael McDonough