Can You Tinder Match With New Supporters?
It’s undeniable that social media has revolutionised the charity sector. In the last year NGOs have really embraced Twitter and Facebook - and had some hugely successful campaigns through them. But can charities infiltrate all the most popular social media sites? Instgram’s a bit tricky, Snapchat even more so.
What about a mobile dating app? Tinder has taken the mobile world by storm in 2014, but can it really be used by a charity? Well two NGOs have tried and succeeded!
What is Tinder?
A mobile dating app that links up with your Facebook account displaying basic information and photos taken from your Facebook profile.
The app displays the profiles of single people in your area. You view their name, age and a profile photo. If you’re not interested you swipe the picture to the left and move onto the next profile. If a person strikes your fancy you swipe right to indicate that you’re interested. If the same person likes your profile you’ll be automatically matched and be able to communicate via Tinder chat.
If you like someone’s profile but they don’t reciprocate, they’ll never even know you liked them.
How Can Charities Use it?
Tinder have taken the embarrassment out of reaching out to a person you’re interested in, allowing users to be more unashamedly selective. This struck a chord with Amnesty International Australia, who continuously campaign for the rights of women and girls who are forced into arranged marriages.
Amnesty wanted an interactive tool to target a younger audience and raise awareness of their campaigns in Mexico, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. They teamed up with creative agency Circul8 and Tinder Australia to create their Tinder Campaign.
Similarly NYC animal Shelter Social Tees saw a link between Tinder users looking for love, and their animals in need of new homes Over 7.6 million animals are abandoned every year in the US and Social Tees’ aim was to increase their adoption rates and find new homes for their abandoned dogs.
What Did They Do?
Amnesty’s Tinder account linked to their Make The Choice website, providing information about young girls sold into marriages. On this site users were given the opportunity to become an Amnesty International supporter.
Social Tees embraced Tinder by creating profiles for ten of their dogs looking to be re-homed. The profiles detail each dog’s age, size and demeanor in the hopes of attracting potential new owners. Should you swipe left on a Social Tees’ pup you’ll receive a Tinder message asking if you’d like to adopt your chosen dog, or even just stop by the shelter and take them for a walk.
What's So Great About It?
1. It’s inventive, it’s quirky and it will get noticed. Tinder is increasingly popular with singles aged 18-35, so done correctly your inventive social media campaign could reach an untapped audience. Amnesty stated that the campaign yielded ‘thousands more click-throughs to their website and members signed up in their hundreds’
2. It’s relevant: Similar to Tinder users, Social Tees’ abandoned dogs are looking for someone to spend their lives with, their tagline for the campaign reads ‘Everyone is looking for love on Tinder, but no one will love you more than a dog’.
For Amnesty, comparing a first world young adult’s love-life to the trauma of a Pakistani girl’s forced marriage is quite striking. The two situations mirror each other and make Tinder users think about the reality of forced marriages.
Both Campaigns are unique, attention-grabbing and innovative, but most importantly both achieve the primary aim of all charity campaigns - To make an audience stop, think and really engage with your cause.