The United Way of Greater Milwaukee recently partnered with Serve Marketing to launch on online social media campaign that uses Facebook videos to help address issues associated with teen pregnancy, statutory rape, and building healthy relationships.
The United Way of Greater Milwaukee recently partnered with Serve Marketing to launch an online social media campaign that uses Facebook videos to help address issues associated with teen pregnancy, statutory rape, and building healthy relationships.
“This campaign goes against all traditional wisdom,” said Heather Aldrich, executive director of Serve Marketing, Milwaukee. “The African American population of the inner city is often underestimated when it comes to the power of their social media efforts. We have found that that isn’t the case.”
According to Aldrich, Serve Marketing has found that while much of the inner city population in Milwaukee does not have in home internet connections they still have very robust Facebook pages and do find a way to connect with their peers online.
“We suspected that was the case,” Aldrich said. “To actually see it and validate some of those predictions has been pretty amazing. We are targeting that audience with this campaign and really getting to share some of the wisdom these men have, and it’s peer to peer, which is more powerful. It’s a message that comes from someone they know, someone they’ve talked to and someone they can relate to which is so much more powerful.”
The campaign kicked off at the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative Summit where more than 200 men recorded their ‘Get at You’ videos to share on Facebook.
The organization has a goal of reaching more than 100,000 peer with the videos and the messages.
The videos will address a variety of different issues and cover topics including, why it’s bad for older men to be with younger girls, the link between statutory rape and teen pregnancy, the fears of being a young father, how to respect women, and the most important things men want their kids to know about building healthy relationships.
“The messages are pretty amazing,” Aldrich said. “It’s in their voice and you can tell that these men really have a message they want to share, it’s really amazing.”
Serve Marketing developed this grassroots strategy for United Way of Greater Milwaukee’s teen pregnancy prevention initiative. The campaign also includes a contest for the best video based on votes online. The winner will receive and Apple iPad.
Online video contest submissions are due by Oct. 31, at www.getatyou.org. Judges will pick five finalists and viewers can vote for their favorites Nov. 4 through Nov.10. The winner will receive an Apple iPad and the runners up will each win an Apple iTouch.
