Power of Social Network Media Links in Korea

Does posting articles on a blog really change the world? Does it matter that people click video clips or track back to make an impact? Currently, we live in a digital age, and the Internet has become an integral part of people’s daily routines. Therefore, many organizations use the Internet as a primary tool to achieve their goals worldwide.

“One of the biggest Korean nonprofit organizations, Good Neighbors, could be a good example of how to effectively use Internet media to achieve goals,” said Juny Lee, the director of Edelman Korea. Juny Lee works in digital PR, specializing in developing diverse new media communications.

Established in 1991, Good Neighbors Korea was the first South Korean nonprofit organization to have general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Good Neighbors has committed to transform the world into a place where no one suffers from starvation. It seeks to build a harmonious global community by respecting the dignity of human beings suffering from poverty, disaster, and pressure, and assist them in leading independent lives.

Good Neighbors manages diverse online communication channels, including a website, an e-newsletter, UCC video clip channels, and a blog. When people visit Good Neighbors’s official website, they are easily able to find a variety of resources related to Good Neighbors’s campaign, including a donation website, a photo gallery, and cyworld (the Korean version of Facebook). The most distinguished aspects of Good Neighbors’s online promotion are these diverse online communication channels that are directly connected to each other.

Good Neighbors has an official blog named “Good bus’s travel diary”; this resource is an interactive, user-centered tool to share information. Through “Good bus’s travel diary”, readers have shared stories about people in diverse countries who need aid, and good neighbors who help unfortunate people. On June 1^st, 2009, Good Neighbors launched a new online campaign to raise funds for a 10-year-old girl named Young-Ju who takes care of seven families. Good Neighbors produced a video clip about Young-Ju’s daily life and sent it to readers via “Fly Hope”, the organization’s e-newsletter. On June 9^th, 2009, bloggers on “Good bus’s travel diary” posted Young-Ju’s video clip on the blog to share it with more people.

“We realized that there are limitations in using photos or  articles to communicate the situation of children who need  aid. Therefore, we internally produce and edit video clips so  we can show people the situation, and we provide links the  video clips through our e-newsletter, ‘Fly Hope’,” said  Kyungsook Lim, a manager for online promotion at Good  Neighbors.

Good Neighbors announced that their new online strategy  produced great results. The video clip ranked as the best clip  on the “Daum TV Pot”, the second-largest portal in Korea.  53,163 people have viewed the clip as of October 10, 2009.  113,937 bloggers visited “Good bus’s travel diary” over the  course of June 9-10. 3,575 people visited the “Donation Start”  website, which is linked with the blog post. The video clip exploded on the main page of popular Korean portal websites such as T Story and Daum View. Good Neighbors succeeded in raising 1.3 million won to support Young-Ju.

“The Young-Ju campaign’s success reflects the impact of a huge network, which is linked with the blogosphere,” said Juny Lee. ‘Blogosphere’ is a term to describe the way in which blogs act as community or social network. Since numerous blogs are closely connected with each other, bloggers can read other bloggers’ posts, link and reply to their blogs, and referring others to certain posts or blogs.

“The campaign showed the power of the link, because the blog post did not remain just a post. Rather, that post was shared with additional content networks and drew the interest of other bloggers who sympathized with the post,” said Juny Lee.

Juny Lee insists that Good Neighbors successfully built a new communication approach to appeal to a target audience through the sharing of stories. Good Neighbors delivered the Young-Ju story not only via the e-newsletter, but also the blog, a tool that allows interactive communication and linking. In addition, Good Neighbors did not simply write up a story about a child in need of aid, they produced a video clip filming the daily life of such a child. This technique caused people to realize that children needed their help.

Juny Lee states that content and the conversation of brands or services has created social media space as the primary communication paradigm for target audiences. Every organization should follow the example of Good Neighbors and create new communication strategies using new social media.

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