‘Tis the season for holiday cheer, Hallmark flicks, and corporate giving. This December, your business has an opportunity to inspire and influence your customer base more now than ever. Not only can your corporate giving motivate your audience, but it can also engage your employees as they partner with you in the giving.
When it comes to company culture, Scrooge is out and Buddy the Elf is in. Generosity and creativity are celebrated in small and large businesses alike. Customers and employees are drawn to companies with a heart.
The stats don’t lie:
-85% of customers agree that companies who give to charity have a shinier public image
-90% of consumers want to know that the companies they are supporting give to good causes
-93% of employees who engage in company-sponsored volunteering are happy with their company
-9 out of 10 Gen Z employees believe that companies should support social and environmental issues
Spreading goodwill is good for team morale and customer connection. When your business is anchored with a purpose, you get to shine a light on the needs of your community while partnering with those who work for and support your business. It’s a Christmas win all the way around.
Whether you plan a canned food drive for your local food bank or give employees time off to deliver gifts to a family shelter, don’t keep the goodness to yourself.
Take the opportunity to share it with your online community.
Your Facebook posts, cheer-filled tweets, and TikTok’s can play a pivotal role in your corporate giving this holiday. Sharing the goodness that is going on in your company can strengthen the bond with your online community. Who doesn’t love a feel-good video or an inspirational crowdfunding moment? (Only the Grinch.)
The question is how can get your message of giving and goodness out amidst the holiday bustle? In the busy year-end landscape, social media can help you break through the noise.
Just take a note from the Christmas experts, Balsam Hill.
The Giving Tree
Balsam Hill is the maker of beautifully realistic high-end Christmas trees. Founder, Mac Harmon, was inspired to create the artisan trees when a relative of his was unable to have a live tree due to allergies. Coming up empty-handed in his search for a realistic tree, he took the task on himself. Balsam Hill was born.
Creating wonder and joy is built into the DNA of Balsam Hill. Not just for Mac’s relatives, but for the charities that this Christmas company supports year-round. In the last seven years, Balsam Hill has raised over $275,000 for Operation Smile, funding over a thousand cleft palate surgeries for children in need. From funding typhoon relief to local food bank drives, Balsam has used its online platform to connect its customers with its yuletide mission.
In December of 2020, mid-pandemic, Balsam Hill invited their customers to share the Christmas joy–literally.
With every like, love, wow, comment, or share on their Facebook holiday posts, Balsam Hill would donate .25-$1 to one of their three chosen charities: The American Cancer Society, Reba’s Ranch House, or Monroe Carell Jr.’s Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
Check out their community invite:
From December 2-30, followers can like, react, comment, and share our charity campaign posts. On Facebook, each like, love, and wow is worth $0.25, while a comment and share are worth $0.50 each. Comments on the blog post will be worth $1.00, and comments indicating one of the three charities on the final Facebook post will be worth $1.00. At the end of the campaign, Balsam Hill will tally all engagements to determine the total amount raised for each charity, then match each reaction with a corresponding donation.
Balsam Hill’s matching invitation shows the power of their social media partnership. An engaged community drives up the company giving. Each click revealed the passion of the customer. Every like further connected that customer to Balsam Hill’s caring and generous brand.
You can follow Blossom Hill’s example and boost the power of your brand as well as the impact of your corporate giving.
These 3 holiday hacks can multiply the power of your company’s giving. Get ready to share the joy!
3 Holiday Social Media Hacks to Boost Your Corporate Giving
1. Share Your Heart
Balsam Hill’s charities reveal the beating heart of the company. While some companies may choose to support the arts or agricultural non-profits, Balsam Hill supports the helpers. From cancer patients to caregivers, Balsam Hill likes to help folks who support those in crisis. It funds humanity’s most basic needs of food, shelter, and health care with its Christmas in July fundraisers and December Facebook campaigns.
Highlighting your charity’s mission also shines a light on the critical work that they are doing.
Find a cause that you are passionate about, one that makes your heart melt, one that is in keeping with your company brand. Then share the love through a Facebook campaign, a TikTok challenge, or a series of heartfelt tweets. This love and support will shine through in every picture and post that your company shares.
The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. Buddy the Elf, Elf
2. Invite Everyone to the Party
One of the great benefits of social media is that its reach is exponential. Your giving doesn’t have to be confined to your team or your customer base. Everyone is invited. If you are supporting a local no-kill shelter and your employee’s wife’s great-aunt Velma is a die-hard dog-lover, she can get in on the action.
Encourage your team and customers to share your posts and tag their friends. Invite the charity to share your posts on their pages and accounts.
You never know what connection could take place. The ripple effect of Christmas love not only ties your mission with your chosen charity but builds a network of future givers.
3. Get Generous with the Likes
Don’t be tight-fisted when it comes to Christmas giving. Make it a goal to shoot for the stars with your giving goal. 49% of Americans believe it is more important for a company to make the world a better place than to get top earnings for their shareholders. Your team and customers will be inspired by your generosity.
If you follow Balsam Hill’s emoji giving plan, every like or comment from a customer means a gift from you to your charity. Just as you invest in clicks with a social media marketing plan, view this as a different kind of investment – an investment in goodness. ROI in this investment has a feel-good ripple effect. That goodness will be felt throughout your entire company.
Celebrate every fundraising goal that you hit with your online community. The excitement will build throughout the holiday season.
Don’t let the giving stop there. Carry your corporate giving into the New Year.
What Can I Give?
Let Balsam Hill’s giving campaign motivate you this Christmas season. If you think it’s too late to jump on the Christmas giving train, think again.
Balsam Hill celebrates Christmas in July every summer. They don’t limit their corporate giving to Giving Tuesday. Their online campaigns are inclusive and encouraging and require interaction with the online community all year long to reach their full potential. Everyone gets to get in on the fun.
If you have a big-hearted company but aren’t sure where to start with a social media giving campaign, CCB would love to help. Our creative team loves brainstorming impactful, fun ways to spread Christmas joy on social media. Our company regularly partners in helping charities both here and abroad. There is nothing we would love more than helping you reach your corporate giving goals this year.
God bless us, everyone! -Tiny Tim, A Christmas Carol