Over a quarter of social media influencers “regularly support charities on their channels”, says Buzzoole poll
Howard Lake | 20 December 2016 | News
Influencer marketing platform Buzzoole reports that 28% of UK social media influencers regularly support charities on their channels by sharing their messages or messages about them.
Naples-based Buzzoole has 200,000 influencers on its platform. Its influencers have between 50,000 and 100,000 followers.
Three quarters (74%) of its influencers who responded to the survey said that raising awareness of the causes they care about was a key priority for them, as well as sharing their own personal experiences (87%) and helping people (61%).
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What kind of support?
According to the company:
- 45% of respondents say that they have written posts about charities
- 32% have shared information about charities on Facebook
- 42% have participated in a viral photo story, such as a #nomakeupselfie or activities like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
Children’s and cancer charities were the most popular charities shared via the influencers, at 19% and 21% respectively.
Amongst them there is clearly a combination of direct experience of charities and an interest in sharing information than can help people.
The survey was sent to 3,000 subscribers to the company’s UK newsletter, of whom 60 responded. The company found that:
- 92% of respondents have volunteered time to work for a charity, with 28% doing so every month
- 61% said that helping people was a key reason they became an influencer
- 28% volunteered time to work for a charity each month
It is hard to compare these statistics with the charitable actions of other, non-influencer social media users. We do know that 17% of Britons said that they had taken part in the Ice Bucket Challenge, according to Charities Aid Foundation. The same survey reported that “a quarter (25%) of Britons say that they have taken part in at least one charity fundraising campaign driven by social media”. So sharing charities’ messages on social media and taking part in the campaigns and giving in response is not, of course, that unusual.
Victoria Luck, Managing Director, Buzzoole UK, said:
“We interact with influencers for a whole range of different reasons. But ultimately, we identify with them because of the real-life, personal stories they tell. The authenticity that influencer marketing hinges on presents an excellent opportunity for the charity sector. And as this survey shows, influencers already have charitable causes close to their heart. Millennials, who make up the bulk of social media influencers, are often considered not to support charities, this research blows that stereotype out of the water. These are passionate, giving people, devoted to ‘their’ charities.”
Steve Ramsey and Make A Wish Foundation
Steve Ramsey is a YouTube woodworking star with almost 700,000 subscribers. He’s not a Buzzoole influencer but he shows what is possible. He helped the Make A Wish foundation reach new audiences by donating money for every toy aeroplane his followers videoed themselves crafting.
[Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=bvFVkbLIE9M no longer available].
According to the FT the idea went viral and around 600 planes were made, with Ramsey’s sponsor also matching his donations.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.