#makebetterhappen

In 2013, we worked with allen & gerritson on a campaign called #makebetterhappen. At the time, Twitter was THE channel where our prospective corps members spent their time, and so it was the primary focus for the campaign. Rooted in the nature, language, and graphic feel of Twitter, this campaign used a multi-media platform to deliver controlled, branded messages, but was also about creating the space for real conversations between past, current, and future City Year corps members.

The first year, we featured corps members who were active on Twitter with agency-written messages focused on the dual benefit of our work: for both the young people who serve and the students they mentor. It also acknowledged how challenging a year of service is; authenticity was critial in recognizing the sacrifice of giving a year to make a difference in schools across the country. The first year we used a&g for production and the following six years, my team did it fully in-house.

#makebetterhappen became a huge success for us both externally and internally. We sent out weekly emails to the full organization highlighting tweets from corps members to serve as a point of connection and inspiration. In the end, we had over 300 million impressions, 250k+ mentions and engaged over 100k users on Twitter. We doubled our awareness among college students from 25% to 51% in just two years.