our social media strategy: bright pink

Our Social Media Strategy: Bright Pink An Interv i ew with Carl i F e inste in , Market ing & Communicat ions Manager

B y M e l a n i e S to n e crain

A. Bright Pink is a na/onal non-‐profit that educates, equips and empowers young women to be proac/ve with their breast and ovarian health. We are focused on the preven/on and early detec/on of breast and ovarian cancer in young women, while suppor/ng high-‐risk individuals.

As the Marke/ng and Communica/ons Manager, I manage the look, feel and voice of our brand and develop strategic cause-‐marke/ng engagements that help us raise funds, generate awareness and inspire women to take ac/on. On a daily basis, my responsibili/es include managing our social networks (primarily TwiHer, Facebook and Instagram), digital presence on BrightPink.org, design needs for printed and digital assets, and collabora/ng with our corporate partners to ensure we are op/mizing these engagements to deliver the most impacLul resources to young women throughout the na/on.

Q. Tell us about Bright Pink, the non-‐profit organiza8on dedicated to breast cancer educa8on and awareness. As the manager of marke8ng and communica8ons, what are your daily and long-‐term responsibili8es?

Crain’s Social Media Group | CrainsSocial.com

A. Our programs are targeted to young women between the ages of 18 and 45. We also rely on the support of stakeholders of all ages -‐-‐ medical professionals, corporate partners, donors, etc. that help to fuel our mission to ensure we can one day reach the more than 52 million women between the ages of 18 and 45 in the US with our programs.

Our interac/ons on social reach all of these individuals. First and foremost, we use social as a vehicle to be in constant communica/on with the young women we currently serve or hope to empower in the near future. We post relevant news updates related to breast/ovarian health, share informa/on on our life-‐saving programs and tools, and post about upcoming events and ways for young women to get involved. Addi/onally, we recognize key stakeholders helping to bring our mission to life by sharing details on our corporate partners and cause marke/ng campaigns (tagging and men/oning both the corporate personnel and the sales associates on the floor delivering our programs to consumers), thanking medical professionals and advisory board members for collabora/ng with us on special projects, sharing excitement for the support of event sponsors, and celebra/ng key fundraisers and donors successes.

Q. What are your target audiences? How do your social profiles interest several audiences at once, such as donors, physicians and clients?


A. Bright Pink’s online voice reinforces our organiza/ons tone principles of sincere warmth, playful elegance, and visionary courage. Our voice is consistent across social channels but the way content is presented will vary. We include more links and photos on Facebook as they have proven to have more trac/on in this environment, and use quick calls to ac/on, /ps and facts on TwiHer. On Facebook, we have the flexibility to include more copy but push ourselves to s/ll limit to 3 sentences max per post and include visuals as o[en as possible.

Q. How would you describe Bright Pink’s online voice, and how do you keep it consistent across plaForms? How do you re-‐purpose content for different plaForms? (i.e. pos8ng to Facebook and TwiJer)


A. We currently do not put a significant amount of money towards social media. It is important to us to ensure the money raised is funneled directly into programs. However, we do see the vitality of connec/ng young women to these lifesaving programs and resources via social, so we have started to explore the power of promoted posts that include a clear call to ac/on to allow for measurable impact. In our first implementa/on we saw incredible results that led to hundreds of comple/ons of our Assess Your Risk Tool. In this instance it was evident that a liHle extra spend went a long way to arm hundreds of women with a personal risk assessment to aid in the crea/on of a preven/on and early detec/on plan with their doctor so we are excited to expand these types of ini/a/ves.

Q. How do you stretch your budget as far as possible for social media marke8ng? Do you take advantage of Facebook’s resources for non-‐profits?


A. To tell the truth, most of it is incredibly natural! The young women in our network are so eager to share their stories and connect others with the suppor/ve Bright Pink resources on which they personally have relied. Advocates emerge very organically when we post something that resonates with them.

Q. Supporters of Bright Pink are very ac8ve online. How do you maintain this constant engagement and encourage people to tell their stories?


A. I work hand in hand with our Na/onal Community Manager, Jenn Zwillenberg, to ensure we maintain a strong geographical balance of communica/on. She constantly shares details on events and successes from ambassadors and volunteers throughout the country so I can share with our na/onal network. Addi/onally, I rely on geo-‐targeted posts on a regular basis to encourage localized par/cipa/on in events, fundraisers, volunteer opportuni/es, etc. This is an incredible feature we are so thankful to have! Many of our larger communi/es do have their own Facebook pages where they can feature more localized updates on a regular basis as well. We link back and forth with those pages to maximize engagement. On TwiHer and Instagram we just have one na/onal account but are in constant communica/on with our ambassadors na/onwide by tagging them in posts and using city-‐based hashtags such as #BrightPinkAtlanta or #BrightPinkLA.

Q. Bright Pink has mul8ple chapters across the country. How do you manage the chapters using one main Facebook and TwiJer page?


A. Facebook definitely sees the most ac/vity, with recent posts receiving hundreds of likes and shares. Our fans just love those visuals! It’s incredible to see the effect a designed post has on our audience -‐-‐ for example, we kicked off September, Na/onal Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, with two designed posts filled with educa/onal content. This one had 255 shares -‐-‐ the most we have seen to date!

Q. Which social media plaForm sees the most ac8vity from supporters and fans of Bright Pink? The least?


A. Social media is really a tool for the masses; it has allowed for a democra/za/on of marke/ng tac/cs that is incredibly welcoming for non-‐profit and for-‐profit companies alike. More of a division in terms of access emerged with the introducing of promoted posts -‐-‐ a for-‐profit company likely has budget to put against social ac/va/on, where a non-‐profit more o[en feels the responsibility to stretch every dollar and funnel funds directly into life-‐saving programs.

Q. What are the main differences between social media for non-‐profits and for-‐profits?


A. Not necessarily that new, but s/ll very hot -‐-‐ visuals and video. By far, these are s/ll proven to be the most engaging posts.

Addi/onally, it doesn’t look like the never-‐ending stream of hashtags on Instagram will die down any /me soon… #HashtagEverything #SoManyHashtags #HashtagsReplacingSentences #HashtagMyHashtag

Q. What’s the hoJest thing happening in social media right now?


To reach Carl i F e inste in , ema i l her at carli@bebrightpink .com .

Have someone we should interv i ew next ? Reach us at @MelanieAlissa and

@TracySamantha .

our social media strategy: bright pink

Health & Medicine