Charity: Water Social Media – Action Assembly Theory
Christopher Avery
Charity: Water has reinvented the way that charities interact with the masses. Their mission is to tackle and idealistically end the water crisis that is currently occurring around the world. They attempt to do this, by spreading their information through multiple social media platforms. Created in 2006, this non-profit organization was the first of its kind to have 1 million followers on Twitter. They have gathered over 270,000 likes on Facebook and were one of the first three brands to access Instagram as a means of marketing and advertising.
Here is a link that presents Charity: Water’s marketing ideas and how they accomplish their mission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX99-Z7ycrk
Charity: Water uses the Public Relations tactic of utilizing social media in order to create a positive image of their organization. By gathering followers of their cause, they are not only showing that people support what they are trying to do, but also building a larger network of possible donors. Charity: Water utilizes the concepts of the actions assembly theory through their use of social media. The actions assembly theory is made up of three unique indicators.
The first indicator, cognitive structure, is seen through Charity: Waters use of specific social media platforms. They understand the mental processing structure that their target market innately uses to gather information and news from. This includes their likeliness of preferring first hand resources that are quick and accessible to them. Twitter and Instagram are examples of tools that Charity: Water utilizes to spread information in a personal and timely manor.
The second indicator of the actions assembly theory is content. Charity: Water is known to highlight success stories through their social media outlets. For example, they provide first hand accounts of how the donated money affects those in need. They give a brief background to who the person is, where they come from, and how their lives have been improved by the organizations’ various water projects. The content of these stories adds to the organizations’ prosperity by enticing donors. Charity Water also tracks every single dollar that is donated and provides updates and progress reports to each donor. Like the success stories, this content is engaging for prospective donors and boosts the Charity: Water’s overall success rates.
Example of one of the numerous success stories. This particular boy is Jean Bosco who is a 15 year old boy from Africa who, thanks to the donations from Charity: Water, now has clean accessible water.
The final indicator of the actions assembly theory is cognitive process. The multi-media pieces that Charity: Water produces, such as inspiring YouTube videos and personal success stories, grab the attention of followers and supporters. Viewers cognitively process these videos as the ability to play a part in peoples’ lives.
Charity: Water has no problem accumulating followers and supporters for their cause. How they gather donations from both new and old audiences through their use of social media platforms is what is truly innovative. Understanding the three indicators of the action assembly theory and how their audiences are thinking, provides the organization the ability to reach out to the masses to potentially succeed in their mission to end the water crisis around the world.
Sources:
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-charity-water-reinvented-world-nonprofit-fundraising
http://social-media-for-development.org/how-charity-water-use-social-media/
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