(source: Matt Hamm)

Blue Fountain Media is working with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation, and it has been a rewarding experience to know that we are helping them for an overall greater cause. Gift of Life is one of largest bone marrow registries in the United States. They focus on the Jewish community—finding a matching bone marrow donor is difficult, but since tissue type is genetic, a patient is most likely to find a matching donor of the same ethnic background.

The Madoff debacle affected the Gift of Life in more ways than one, and that’s where we come in. Blue Fountain Media has been doing Social Media Marketing for their bone marrow and donor campaigns.

When we started these campaigns, Gift of Life had some questions:

So how can social media help us?

Social media or just media is the communication between companies or individual, be it a non-profit, blue-chip or fortune 500 firm and its consumer and/or potential consumers. Social media is a great tool to get in touch with the tech-savvy generation Y (which some say is larger than the baby boomer generation). It helps increase visibility.

It is about listening to the conversation. What people are saying about you, your brand, and your industry. There are industry leaders online that can become evangelist of your message.

What are some social media tools to connect with consumers?

For Gift of Life we use Twitter, Facebook campaigns, and blogger outreach, just to name a few. There isn’t a one-size fits all solution to social media, and for every client the strategy will be different.

I have all these accounts. What now?

Engagement, engagement, engagement. We at Blue Fountain Media focus on engagement and transparency with every avenue of communication that Gift of Life has with its potential donors. Gift of Life tailors its campaign strategy with communication on a variety of demographic factors.

How often do I have to Tweet, Facebook, or comment on a blog?

Imagine your family only spoke to you once every couple of years. How would you feel?

There is no exact number of Tweets, Facebook messages, and blog posts. We encourage you to communicate as often as you can with your consumers or donors. Build a level of trust and openness.

Gift of Life is a non-profit of many firsts. In the coming weeks they will also be among the first to utilize social media as a strategy to connect with donors. We are proud to be working with them, and look forward to the future.