Goodwill Seattle and “Twit-Tube-In”

Goodwill Seattle is a non-profit organization dedicated to provide free job training and education to people in the community who are in need. In order to fund this Goodwill asks for donations, both of financial and item donations that are then sold in their stores. Before I started researching more into this organization I hadn’t had seen very much of whatever marketing strategies they employed to promote their cause. While not very active on their Linkedin, I was surprised to see that Goodwill is very active in social media outlets such as YouTube but especially in their use of Twitter.

Because they are a charitable non-profit organization I thought that most of their online content would be geared more towards promoting their cause while still highlighting their need for donations and sales in their stores. However what I found was what I think is a good execution of the 80/20 rule. A great example of this would be on Goodwill’s YouTube page. It is quite clear that the majority of the videos uploaded are designed to help their consumers. Videos such as tips on back-to-school fashion or promotion of local artists definitely show that Goodwill is very willing to have a relationship with their customers more than just as a merchant/customer.

I thought that Goodwill’s use of twitter was especially impressive. They have a very active twitter page, posting things everyday. This is another great example of their use of the 80/20 strategy. Most of their tweets are in support or in response of their customers. It is very evident that Goodwill wants to have a relationship with people and that comes out in the time they take to individually thank people who tweet about them or decided to follow them.

Overall I was very impressed with Goodwill’s use of social media. I get the feeling that they are really concerned with creating good relationships with their donors and customers. If the brand image they want to promote is of an organization that cares not just for those in the community that are in need but for the whole community then I believe they successfully convey that through their use of social media.

https://twitter.com/#!/SeattleGoodwill

http://www.youtube.com/user/SeattleGoodwill?feature=watch

http://www.linkedin.com/company/45153?trk=tyah