One of the things that draws us to social media is the concept of transparency. We feel that social media has held companies more accountable and makes them more customer-focused. A few years ago, a company could run a marketing campaign, claiming to be the best at this or that. They could also claim to be solely focused on their customers needs – even if they weren’t – and it was difficult for customers to prove them wrong (at least at a global level).
Social media gives customers a huge voice to set the record straight – and companies are aware of this. Again, we feel this encourages businesses to, plain and simply, be better businesses (which is a good thing, right?)
So, enough with the soapbox rant!
In the spirit of companies doing good, I saw a commercial the other night from Disney that encouraged their customers to get involved in volunteering and community service. Their “Give a day. Get a day” campaign allows customers to give of their time in exchange for a free ticket to one of their theme parks. You can find out all about it at their site. But in a nutshell, here is the offer (as taken from their site):
“We want to inspire one million people to volunteer a day of service to a participating organization in their communities. So we’re celebrating these volunteers’ good works by giving each of them a 1-day, 1-theme park ticket to the Disneyland® Resort or Walt Disney World® Resort, free. There’s no better time to make a dream come true for others and let us make a few come true for you.”
A big fat kudos to Disney for using their influence to try to make the world a better place – even if the motive behind it is to create more business for themselves. We’re all in business to make money, so I’m not going to fault them for that. Wouldn’t it be great if all businesses tried to make money by encouraging customers to do good?
Let me know what you think of the Disney-Do-Gooders. Do you feel this is a good thing or a company trying to make a buck by hiding under the blanket of charitable acts?
