How does a nonprofit with a staff of lower than 20 get Hollywood’s greatest celebrities to tweet for it?

(purple) Chief Digital Officer Chrysi Philalithes succinctly sums up her group’s digital mantra in a hundred and forty characters: “Participation no longer merchandising. dialogue now not monologue. major now not following. Empowering not aside from. Inspiring now not forcing.”

in keeping with Philalithes, (purple)’s model companions have a combined 185 million likes – a social attain that has helped (red) develop into the primary nonprofit to win over 1,000,000 followers on both fb and Twitter.

Having U2 frontman Bono as your founder additionally helps. He and Bobby Shriver started (pink) in 2006 to lend a hand battle the unfold of AIDS. for the reason that its inception, the nonprofit has leveraged key partnerships with neatly-identified brands to construct awareness and lift more than $300 million for its result in.

“We’re a small, entrepreneurial staff. There are simply 17 of us,” says Philalithes, “It’s through the tools and skills of our companions that we’ve been in a position to succeed in their audiences which are in the thousands and thousands.”

(pink)’s digital leader was once type enough to answer our 5 most pressing questions on top the social technique for one of the vital world’s most known nonprofit manufacturers.

5 Questions with (purple) Chief Digital Officer

Chrysi Philalithes

Chief Digital Officer @ (crimson)

Amy Gesenhues: Please provide me an overview of your organization and your function inside (crimson).

Chrysi Philalithes: (purple) was once founded in 2006 with the aid of Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage iconic manufacturers in the struggle in opposition to AIDS. We accomplice with a make a choice staff of brands – including Apple, Starbucks and Coca-Cola – which make a contribution to the AIDS battle every time you buy a (crimson) product or take a (red) action.

to this point we’ve raised $300 million with a hundred% going to AIDS packages – we take no overhead. All (pink) monies go to the worldwide Fund to combat AIDS. global Fund promises that (pink) helps have impacted more than fifty five million people with HIV prevention, treatment, counseling, HIV trying out and care products and services.

Our center of attention is on ending the transmission of HIV from moms to their infants. daily, 650 babies are born with HIV. They don’t want to be. With get entry to to drugs that prices forty cents a day we are able to get that number close to zero. after we do, we can deliver the primary AIDS FREE generation in over 30 years.

I’m lucky sufficient to be (red)’s first Chief Digital Officer and i’ve been with (pink) considering that 2009.

Amy Gesenhues: tell me extra about (pink)’s social media strategy and the place you see the most important engagement with your brand.

Chrysi Philalithes: the usage of social media for social excellent is a corner-stone to our digital technique. We’re the first nonprofit to have reached over a million on both facebook and Twitter, and these days we have a digital army of 5 million throughout a wide collection of channels.

Our largest channels are facebook with virtually three million, and Twitter with over a million. in reality Apps for (red) drove 1,000,000 new fb likes for us in the first two days!

Instagram can be an important and growing platform for us – we’re a visible model and the creativity of Instagram is ideal for us to indicate and inform the fb story.

As is YouTube who we have a very sturdy partnership with – for the last 4 years we’ve labored with them to live-stream our World AIDS Day moments.

We’re always having a look to succeed in individuals in modern and new ways and we’re fast to examine if a channel is true for us. final year, we launched on Snapchat. We were early adopters on Vine, and set the first Vine world file.

We’re additionally throughout LinkedIn and Tumblr, which is our house for things that inspire our target audience – we call it INSPI(red).

We’ll also soon be launching on tremendous, which we’re huge fanatics of. It’s so much enjoyable.

Amy Gesenhues: what number of brand partners do you’ve got and how do you manage those relationships?

Chrysi Philalithes: we have round 25 (PRODUCT)crimson brand companions, and two key kinds of partners. Proud companions who, in alphabetical order, are Apple, financial institution of the united states, Beats by using Dr. Dre, Belvedere, Coca-Cola, Claro, Galaxy Chocolate, live Nation entertainment, SAP and Starbucks.

Our unique edition companions embody Jack Dorsey’s firm square, Mophie, child robotic and girl Skateboard.

It’s necessary to have an open communicate and a circulation-lined course of. It’s about collaboration, so we work closely with our partners on social campaigns and messaging.

Amy Gesenhues: What about relationships with celebrities?

Chrysi Philalithes: Bono and Bobby Shriver are (red)’s founders, and we are very fortunate to have the give a boost to of artists and influencers who use their voice to lend a hand inform the (red) story.

Christy Turlington Burns and Scarlett Johansson have visited Africa to look (crimson) monies put to work on the bottom. one of the greatest names in track have contributed their time and talent for (purple) including U2, The Killers, Kanye West, Coldplay, Tiesto and One Republic to call only some.

many of the world’s greatest cooks like Mario Batali, April Bloomfield, and so many culinary figures became their eating places and meals trucks (pink) in June 2014 for eat (red) DRINK (pink) keep LIVES.

Kim Kardashian and Ellen DeGeneres’ apps have been a part of Apps for (crimson) in beef up of World AIDS Day.

Be fab and support (red) within the combat in opposition to AIDS. #AppsforRED http://t.co/4nfzOT7NNm percenttwitter.com/cw0kd1Cpn1

— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 5, 2014

Amy Gesenhues: How do your partnerships impression your overall digital advertising efforts?

Chrysi Philalithes: When our founders set up (pink) they asked probably the most inventive folks in the world to join (pink) and work for the arena’s poorest.

We work with some of most inventive marketers, and together have created some digital first campaigns comparable to Apps for (red) with Apple, turning Twitter (pink) – literally! – with Nike, and at setting the document for the most amount of cash raised thru Foursquare test-ins with Starbucks.

we have now campaigns we originate with partners, and then there are campaigns we originate that all companions participate in.

And, of course, digital and social is 365 24/7 so there’s a lot of content material we create for everyone to share – in particular, stories from people living with HIV/AIDS and the affect your (pink) actions have on riding actual outcomes.

Going mobile in sub-Saharan Africa to save lots of lives – and alter the long run: http://t.co/pu7FvDfJuZ percenttwitter.com/Xyso8lcUoe — (purple) (@purple) February 12, 2015

photo by means of Chrysi Philalithes’ LinkedIn profile.

concerning the author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is third Door Media’s common challenge Reporter, protecting the most recent information and updates for advertising and marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-successful syndicated columnist for a number of day-to-day newspapers from new york to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing administration expertise, she has contributed to various traditional and on-line publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and sales and marketing administration magazine. learn more of Amy’s articles.

(Some pictures used below license from Shutterstock.com.)