When you hear the phrase social media optimization, what do you think of? Link Baiting? Viral Marketing? MySpace? Blogging? Digg?
What about Christmas?
In what appears to be a unique spin on ‘social’ media optimization, the website directory Seekzap is currently running a program where they will be donating 50% of all website submission fees collected through December 15th to the Toys for Tots Foundation to help deliver toys to needy children this holiday.
Looking at the program’s announcement of this program on the Seekzap Directory Blog, it appears that the motivation for this program is pretty clear:
“Before you know it, the yuletide season will be here, providing many of us with a much needed opportunity for parties, celebration, and the chance to bask in the love and generosity of our friends and family.
Unfortunately, for some people, the Christmas season means something completely different. Hard times, rent, hospital bills, and other expenses leave precious little funds for celebrating the holiday and threaten to rob the season of some of its magic and excitement. All too often, this means that the area under the tree is bare, if there is a tree at all. It is children who suffer most when this happens.”
All in all, this seems like both a generous offer as well as a unique approach to marketing in a niche that many consider to be dead, or at least certainly on life support. I spoke with Jason, the editor-in-chief of the Seekzap Directory and he had this to say about the program:
“We had been thinking about offering a program like this for some time. As our thoughts evolved, it became more and more obvious to us that what was most important was to think beyond ourselves and do something that would benefit not only our users, but also people who had never heard of Seekzap.”
One thing I found particularly interesting was Jason’s thoughts on whether or not he anticipated any sort of negative backlash to a program like this:
“From the moment we put this program together, the opportunity to help some needy kids was first in our minds and any marketing/sales benefits were a distant, distant second.
Still, it would be ridiculous to assume that a program like this would be universally well-received. I think that it is only human nature that some people would look upon this kind of program with cynicism or disdain, or think that it was some sort of scam. That was one of the reasons why we chose to donate 50% of our submission fees to Toys for Tots - to convince people that we were serious.
Ultimately, what it came down to, for us, was a choice between doing something and risking a negative backlash, or doing nothing. We chose to do something, and I’d like to think we would every time. Even if people choose never to submit to Seekzap, for whatever reason, I hope this kind of program would help build awareness and hopefully inspire some people to donate to a cause that is important to them.”
Click here to learn more about this program from Seekzap Directory
Click here to learn more about the Toys for Tots Foundation.
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