Folks often ask us how they can add a splash of creativity to their social media efforts to help them meet their goals. Every business is unique and some may require a little more thought than others, but I am excited to share one way we plan to get creative with our client, Puppy Cake.
Based in Pittsburgh, Puppy Cake offers natural, healthy treats for dogs. Being a huge animal lover, I was instantly attracted to their product and even bought some their Puptato chips for my parents' dog, Bella. Puppy Cake’s goals include building their social media audience and raising awareness for their products. Puppy Cake’s owner, Kelly Costello, is also committed to giving back to charitable organizations and even donates a portion of Puppy Cake profits to pet shelters.
This information led me to consider a way to have the company can partner with a pet-related organization for a shared cause. After talking with Kelly and the #Strella team, we decided to create a campaign for the month of August called, “Puppy Cake Cares.”
To rev up interest in our plan, we first asked the Puppy Cake fans and followers which pet organizations we should consider. We received dozens of suggestions. Then, we held an official poll that allowed fans to cast their votes and determined the winner. At a ratio of nearly 4 to 1, the fans chose Pittsburgh-based organization, Biggies Bullies.
We decided we would create and promote a hashtag (#) around this mission. For those of you who don’t know, hashtags area way to categorize content on Twitter. With hashtags becoming so popular, Facebook has since incorporated hashtags as part of their search. So it seemed like a great time to go this route. For this project, we created the hashtag, #PuppyCakeCares. 
Here’s how it will work: Each time someone uses the hashtag #PuppyCakeCares in a tweet or Facebook post, Puppy Cake will donate 10 cents to Biggies Bullies. We’ll run the campaign for one full month beginning August 1.
We reached out to the folks at Biggies Bullies to let them know our plan so they can help with promotions on their social media platforms, as well.
How does this strategy help to meet Puppy Cake’s goals? First, it will help to build their audience as people will be using the hashtag and telling others about the campaign in an effort to raise money for Biggies Bullies. As this happens, it may encourage others to follow Puppy Cake and use the hashtag, as well. We can also leverage Biggies Bullies audience by asking the organization to participate in sharing our mission. As the Puppy Cake network grows, so does the awareness of the brand. Puppy Cake will be seen as a company that not only offers healthy treats for dogs, but also helps the pets of the community. As a pet lover, I know we can be maniacal about our pets so I am eagerly awaiting the kick-off.
August 1st is only a few days away and I would love for my blog community to join Puppy Cake on their mission! You can ‘like’ Puppy Cake on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. Of course, you can also create content on either channel with the hashtag #PuppyCakeCares. A Facebook share or Twitter re-tweet is also an acceptable form of sharing and will count as a 10-cent donation to the cause.
