There's room for a little blue in the big pink sea

There is a little blue version of breast cancer and its name is John W. Nick. Ever heard of him? Me neither until I came across Genesis Davies' blog “Breast Cancer Awareness: Spare a Little Media for Men.”

Seems Nick had a daughter who made him a promise "the world would know that men get breast cancer too.” She established a foundation in his name, the John W. Nick Foundation. Ever heard of it?

Perhaps there are only a handful of people who know of the foundation simply because the disease affects only about 1 percent of the population. There are less than 2,000 new cases a year; and deaths are relatively low, about 400 annually in the United States.

But the size of an organization doesn’t have to mean that it remains non-existent – especially with social media. The John W. Nick Foundation has a website, Twitter account and a Facebook page, the latter of which seems to be fulfilling the true sense of social media – media for social interactions. Look at this post from May 19:

Angela Hill Weber My husband, a breast cancer survivor of 10 years, has recently been found to have metastasis. I am trying to find a doctor who is knowledgeable about male BC - anywhere in the U.S. I realize there are probably no male BC "specialists" - but I'd like to find somebody who has seen more than just one or two male breast cancer patients.

Can anyone on this page suggest a doctor for us?

That was 9:27 a.m., and by 9:32 a.m. She had an answer:

Erica Bowers-Bess Call MD Anderson Caner Center in Houston TX...713-792-2360. Dr. Sharon Giordano specializes in male breast cancer.

Angela Hill Weber Thank you, Erica! I have actually seen her name in conjunction with the (very few!) published articles on breast cancer, and your recommendation just sealed it. We're calling her! THANK YOU!

The foundation’s Facebook page has only 150 “Likes,” but it has started a conversation. Nick is not yet a household name, and it might never be. Not like Komen or Livestrong. But the foundation can have a strong presence, at a low cost, that will be meaningful to men battling breast cancer. And that’s the beauty of social media.

If you build it, they will come ... or will they?

Getting fans, friends and followers to join your cause will take more than just building the infrastructure.

For example: Three nonprofit organizations that are leading the fight against breast cancer awareness — Susan G. Komen for the Cure, AVON Walk for Breast Cancer and National Breast Cancer Foundation — all post very different numbers for "Likes" on their Facebook pages:

Susan G. Komen for the Cure: 473,562
AVON Walk for Breast Cancer: 23,624
National Breast Cancer Foundation 20,129

But just having “Likes” on your page doesn’t necessarily translate into advocates, supporters or volunteers – all of which are key stakeholders for nonprofits. Facebook is one tool that can be used to engage one, or all, of these groups, if you know how to use it. A recent post by Social Media Marketing for Non-Profits, suggests five ways to attract volunteers through Facebook.

1. Encourage "Likes" on your Facebook posts so that your page will appear more often in news feeds.
2. Post photos, videos and notes of events as they happen and encourage people to tag themselves and to leave comments. Use this as an opportunity to recognize their efforts, and in turn, perhaps they will repost your photos on their own Facebook pages, which might motivate others to become involved.
3. Maintain an active image gallery. Here is where you invite participants to contribute their photos of events they host or participate in for your organization.
4. Embrace comments – positive and negative about your organization and/or event. Approach negative comments as opportunities to look at things from a different perspective and determine if you need to make any changes.
5. Use Facebook sparingly to make appeals for donations. Remember it’s about building your community.

While all of the points made are all valid, take special note of the last one. Donations are necessary to stay in business, but recognize the value that volunteers bring to your organization. Don't neglect to invest in them.

"Where will social media be in five years?"

Brian Solis recently posted the first of a three-part series on his blog “Syndicating Brian Solis” to answer questions from early registrants to the Pivot Conference coming this fall. Solis' answer to the question, “Where will social media be in five years?” was a “bigger and better” type of response.

“… the main players in social media are going to continue to grow in size, shape and reach. They will also connect the dots between online and mobile and real-world and virtual to the point where they are one and the same.”

And to that he added that “gamification” will lure consumers into “engagements on all fronts.”

His comments echo those made a couple of weeks ago by James Hodgins, director of social media for The Price Group, a local agency, and Lisa Low, associate director of emerging media and digital communications for Texas Tech University. They were guest panelists in our PR and Social Media class. Hodgins unequivocally pronounced that mobile was the wave of the future while  Low said she believes there will be more location-based applications, similar to Foursquare.

I think it will be interesting to see how nonprofits such as the Susan G. Komen for the Cure utilize these tools as part of their strategies. The organization is very active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, in addition to hosting several different websites for its various brands. Interestingly, it has yet to develop a mobile app for the iPhone or Android, although it did launch a mobile version of its website last fall.

Before getting too caught up in what’s to come let's take a look at what's already here. Many of the nonprofits, Komen for the Cure included, that host awareness walks could do much to enrich the experience using current technology. Through Foursquare and the Facebook app organizers could implement check-in sites at fundraising walks such as the 60-mile Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, or the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer, which spans 39 miles over two days. Incentives to check-in could include promotional items or special titles awarded.

The future, however, holds some interesting possibilities. What about offering a “virtual race” where walkers could chose the course from their favorite city. Or they could join a friend or relative in a virtual world, where they could complete the event together. This type of technology is already here.

There could be one drawback to these virtual events, especially for an organization such as Komen for the Cure, which enjoys an enormous amount of earned media surrounding the fund-raising walks. Not only do these events raise millions of dollars for the fight against cancer, the media spotlight provides invaluable opportunities to educate the public about cancer risk and prevention that might not translate in a virtual world.

Take the right step: include social media when seeking public support for charitable giving

AVON Walk for Breast Cancer has a tip sheet posted on its website that guides participants on how they can “partner” with its public relation professionals in publicizing the annual event. Fortunately, it includes social media.

Here’s why:
Laurie Brosius, a Dallas business woman raised $6,000 for a breast cancer walk by directing traffic to her donation site via Twitter --half of the money she collected came from people online that she had never met.

Pete Cashmore, CEO and founder of the social media blog Mashable, raised $10,000 in about a day by tweeting that he wanted donations made to a nonprofit providing clean drinking water to those in third world countries instead of birthday presents for himself.

These two examples highlighted by Health.com, an affiliate of Health magazine, are among the hundreds out there. In the article “Can Twitter and Facebook Help Fight Breast Cancer?,” Brosius makes a great case for her decision to use Twitter: People who are already on the organization’s website (where most donors contribute) is a little bit like preaching to the choir; they are there because they are already interested.

But among the almost 200 million Twitter users, Brosius found a harvest ripe for the picking.

Peg Mulligan, a content developer who tweets and blogs to raise awareness about breast cancer, also makes an interesting observation in the Health.com article. Some people may not seek out traditional breast cancer donation channels, but Twitter “indirectly grabs users’ attention in a stream of other topics.”

I’m pleased to see AVON looking at the bigger picture and including social media as a part of its strategy to ensure the fundraising campaign experience is a positive one for the participants and successful for the organization as well. However, I would like to see AVON shift the focus and move social media from last in the seven-step plan, to say step 2 so that it’s positioned as a medium that shouldn’t be missed. Currently, it seems too much like an afterthought.

Women are powerful cause supporters

A news release by PR Newswire highlights a report released in May by Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication that should be reassuring to those who have included social media as part of their strategy to engage women for a particular cause.

Here are a few highlights from the report:

•  Women look to social media as a source for cause information
• Women are more likely to recognize the role of Facebook in facilitating cause involvement
• Women are more likely to participate in activities related to support of a cause such as joining groups on Facebook and contributing to a blog
• Women are more likely to believe that having a social networking presence, having someone famous support their cause, and having a special month can attract interest for a cause

Much of this may come at no surprise to PR professionals; it didn’t to me, and I’m new to the PR world. These types of campaigns generally have an emotional tie, which in general appeals more strongly to females.

However, the report concludes with a very poignant statement: “Practitioners should be wary of these indicators and ensure strategic uses of these digital tools in order to avoid unintentionally contributing to cause fatigue.”

Women, in particular, said that cause e-mails can begin to feel like spam as do the “Likes” on a Facebook entry. I tend to agree with both statements, but more strongly with the first. Uninvited email about a cause campaign can sometimes feel like the age-old telemarketing call. Both of these are interesting points to keep in mind if you do choose them as strategic tactics.

This brings to mind a question that I hope those more seasoned in the profession will weigh in on. Has the year-round emphasis on breast cancer and the color pink put it at risk of causing fatigue?

The value of celebrity endorsements

On Monday (June 13), Katherine Hobson's post "What Daughters of Women with Breast Cancer Should Know" to the Wall Street Journal Health Blog was brought to my attention via a Wall Street Journal tweet.

Hobson opens with a reference to another one of the newspaper's blogs, Speakeasy, which two days earlier published an essay by Jennette McCurdy, teen star on Nickelodeon’s “iCarly.” In it, McCurdy talks about growing up as her mother battled stage IV breast cancer.

There are a couple of observations here. First, the connection to McCurdy's celebrity status. Hobson does her readers a service by relating the teen star's story with factual information about the familial risks of breast cancer. Communicating McCurdy's story provides readers with a relevant way that women – moms, grandmothers, aunts, etc. – can approach a conversation about breast cancer with the young girls in their lives, a subject that even McCurdy says can be touchy. “… Sometimes, parents can have a difficult time judging just how much information you may or may not want to know.” Plus, including the teen star's story increases the blog’s search engine optimization. Adding McCurdy’s name to a Google search with terms "breast cancer" and "daughters," moves Hobson’s blog to the top of the search results.

Second, Hobson chooses to deliver additional, in-depth information on the risks of breast cancer via the social media tool called Scirbd. The pop-up feature allows the reader to go deeper into the subject matter and provides the convenience of printing or saving the information right from the screen.

Hobson could have easily used a simple link to the expertise offered by Dr. Marisa Weiss, as she did with several other resources; However, the Scirbd tool was a good way to bring added value to her blog and accomplish the medium’s mission of bringing news to people how and where they want it.

Promoting patient advocacy through social media strategies

Friday’s lecture came to life as I read the entry on Tony Faustino’s "Social Media ReInvention Blog" about an integrated public relations study. His inspiration was a Wall Street Journal article about Terry Kalley’s strategic campaign to keep a breast cancer drug on the FDA's approved list.

Later this month the FDA will hold a hearing about the drug, where it reportedly will consider only scientific data. Kalley, however, has sided with the Avastin’s manufacturer in wanting the patient's voice to be heard as well. Understandably so, Kalley’s wife has breast cancer, and the drug in question is prescribed to slow the progression of the disease.

Working with AQABA Technologies, Kalley orchestrates a campaign to align support of key legislators and policy makers while building public awareness. Faustino’s breakdown of the tactics and how they are used was a useful explanation of a concept that was unfamiliar to me.

Their first move was to establish a web page as home base for Kalley’s nonprofit organization, Freedom of Access to Medicines. Next they added Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts to direct traffic back to the web page. Tweets from real-time meetings with legislators are coupled with lengthier posts on Facebook, while YouTube videos present scenarios describing, in lay terms, the process of drug access and reimbursement.

Interestingly, Faustino notes that Kalley had, until just recently, left out a key tactic: a blog. He makes an interesting case for this addition by noting how blogs increase search engine optimization thereby moving an entry higher in search results ranking. He also mentions that blogs provide "important long-tail search keywords and phrases.” 

In this particular situation, that niche market approach could bring another level of success to Kalley’s campaign. While the general population easily associates with the topic of breast cancer, there will be a small contingency that are extremely passionate about this particular drug and/or about freedom of choice issues.

I think Kalley is also under utilizing some of his arsenal. Knowing there is a chance the FDA won’t allow patients to testify at the hearing, why not tell their stories on YouTube and then engage the power of Twitter and Facebook to promote them. The Kalleys could begin with a short video telling about their battle with the disease, and then via Twitter, Facebook and the blog, encourage other women to share their story.  He does this in a two-dimensional format on the website and blog, but the video could be another avenue.

It will be interesting to see if his social media strategies pay off.

Pink for a cause

Pepsi got its pink on. So did Yoplait, the MLB and Kroger. Even Mike’s Hard Lemonade went pink, although breast cancer advocates found that one a little hard to swallow.

Why? Cause marketing … it’s in vogue, says Martin Smith in an article for Technorati. For-profits working hand-in-hand with non-profits means everyone’s a winner, right?

Not always. The charity from Mike’s Hard Lemonade was shunned by the breast cancer community even though the company has given $500,000 to the Breast Cancer Foundation during the past two years from sales of its pink drink.
 
On the other hand, Yoplait has given $30 million for breast cancer during the past 13 years and is enjoying a successful and profitable partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Kroger, in partnership with Campbell’s and several other manufacturers have raised about $3 million annually to support breast cancer research, education, prevention and awareness. And the MLB Charities has committed $50,000 to Komen for the Cure through the "Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer" program. That's in addition to the proceeds raised from auctioning pink equipment players used during games on Mother’s Day weekend.

Smith purposes several reasons for-profit companies would want on the pink bandwagon. Tax breaks didn’t make the list. Increased profits did, but it came in last place of purposed concepts that included ideas such as increased relevance, greater trust, rallying employees and empowering brand advocates. The latter caught my attention with Smith’s parenthetical explanation of “something to tweet, link, blog.”

Case in point: Huge, an interactive ad agency, created an entire digital initiative for Pepsi’s Refresh Everything project that has paid off hugely for the soda conglomerate. Breast cancer is among the many initiatives vying for millions in support Pepsi is giving away. To date, the project has gained 3 billion earned media impressions, the number of Facebook fans increased tenfold to more than 3 million, and Pepsi jumped to the No. 5 spot among the country's most reputable brands.

So have we all, as opponents purpose, been “pinkwashed?”

Maybe so. Yes, the companies are profiting, but so is the cause.

Is there an obligation to continue the conversation?

I was introduced recently via Alltop to Lillie Shockney’s Breast Cancer Chronicles. Shockney is a nurse and administrative director of Johns Hopkins Avon Foundation Breast Center. She also is a breast cancer survivor. Her blog is published on Yahoo! Health.

Supporting a blog is not only a good way for Johns Hopkins to promote health care, but it can also serve as an avenue to further establish the institution as an industry leader. Shockney’s blog discloses upfront her relationship with the breast center as well as her own experiences with the disease — establishing her not only as an expert in the field but also one that brings to the table an element of empathy.

She combines those attributes nicely in a May 19 entry titled, “Taking Tamoxifen to Prevent Breast Cancer Really Pays Off!”  Shockney presents straightforward information — the good, bad and ugly — about tamoxifen, a drug prescribed for the prevention of breast cancer to women who are at a high risk for the disease.

Her blog resonates nicely for the Johns Hopkins brand. It provides reputable information in an easy to understand format and gives a sense that Shockney truly relates to the battle with breast cancer on a personal level and as a health care provider. In a way, the blog provides a human touch to the concept of being treated in a hospital, which can sometimes feel cold and clinical.

Here is a woman who knows her stuff and can truly relate to what she writes about.

But given the comments Shockney leaves readers with regarding the “nasty side effects of tamoxifen,” I think she has an obligation to continue the conversation. The news coming out of the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology provides the opportunity.  Discussed were aromatase inhibitors, which like tamoxifen, can prevent breast cancer, according to reports from ABC news.

Could these be a viable option for the "next steps" Shockney writes about at the end of the blog post? Surely patients at the Avon Breast Center will ask her about them. Why not continue the conversation here as well?