Spreading the word about Burma and setting a World Record along the way
650hours appointed Social Media Specialist Partner for Ben Hammond’s quite nutty quest to dance for over 135 hours
Ben Hammond of Learn Burma approached 650hours to help increase the social media presence of his World Record attempt to raise awareness of the Learn Burma charity and the situation in Burma by dancing for over 135 hours between the 11 and 16 October 2011.
Being Ben and being very busy arranging 1,001 things for the event, he didn’t get round to speaking to us until less than 2 months before the event. The timescale was tight, the cause was just: of course, we were only too happy to help!
Learn Burma is a non-partisan education charity (no 1139662) seeking to open the eyes of a new generation to the situation in Burma, by building diverse teams to lead global educational innovation, create ground-breaking learning experiences and inspire young and old alike to investigate, question and take action on Burma. For more information, please visit http://www.learnburma.org/ and give this cause your support.
650hours agreed to take on the mantle of Social Media Specialist Partner for the Free To Dance event – with responsibility for managing the event Facebook page and creating custom Facebook apps to encourage user participation and viral growth.
The Free To Dance event was scheduled to be held at The Scoop, More London on London’s South Bank. Running in parallel with Ben’s World Record dance were to be a series of "Silent Discos" – where everyone dancing is listening to the same music, but using headphones - each disco lasting 4 hours and the entire series of discos running 24-hours a day.
650hours also agreed to provide social media support for any Silent Disco Partner that required it, integrating the Free To Dance presence with the partner's activities to the best effect for the event.
Since we only had 7 weeks before the event launch, we had to move quickly...
Our first task was to create a custom Facebook landing tab to explain the event to new visitors to the page and integrate this into the existing web site, which was completed and live within 1 week.
Next, we mapped out a custom "Playlist" application, which would allow participants in each Silent Disco to vote for their top 5 tunes that they would like to hear when dancing, which could then be shared on the participants' wall to encourage awareness amongst their friends.
Building this app involved liaison with each Silent Disco partner to acquire a seed-list of 20 tunes, and to ensure that they were fully aware of the app and would publicise it through their own activities.
The work was completed on-time, 4 weeks before the launch of the event, with the majority of the Silent Disco partners listed, and contributed significantly to the social awareness of Free To Dance.
Photo taken from the Free to Dance Facebook page
Ben was delighted with the work we carried out:
Stewart and the team at 650hours were fabulous from the start. They came on board with energy, ideas and the ability to transform them into tangible results - all to deadline and with clear professionalism. They understood our vision, cause and needs, and through their designing of the Free to Dance app they helped to build interest, momentum and excitement around the event and keep participants coming back for more.
We are very pleased to confirm that we will be working with Ben and Learn Burma again in the future:
With the huge success of the campaign in its first year (30,000 participants, 10,000 young people engaged, £50,000 raised), for year two Free to Dance is expanding nationwide to bring dance and Burma to Britain, with the first ever dance from John o'Groats to Land's End. We're delighted to be looking to 650hours to provide and improve our online presence.
Stewart Boutcher, CEO of 650hours said:
It was great to work with Ben on such a fantastic cause and one which individual members of the 650hours team are highly committed to, personally. Given the short notice, 650hours were not involved with the Free To Dance web site or the promotion of the Facebook page or Twitter account, but we feel that we added real value where we could.
The entire 650hours team look forward to working again with Ben in 2012, where we will be more actively engaged with the social promotion, helping increase the number of participants engaged with the page across the UK.
About 650hours:
650hours are specialists in developing software applications for social platforms — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn — smartphones and tablets.
650hours has been around since April 2011. In that time, we have built up an impressive list of clients in a variety of markets including service providers in the recruitment industry, student accommodation, media, automotive and health/fitness sectors, working both directly with clients and also through partners such as PR, marketing and design agencies.
Our clients contract us to put their software vision into practice, using the most suitable tools, methods and resources to provide the best quality solution delivered inside the agreed time frame. We bring vision, cunning, an urge to deliver the best solution and even a little magic — transforming existing technologies to our clients' requirements.