CHALLENGE

The Independence Fund is a nonprofit organization that empowers our nation’s severely wounded veterans and the caregivers who support them to take control of their lives. Through its dedicated mobility and caregiver programs, The Independence Fund’s mission is to provide veterans with the resources necessary to reestablish their independence and move forward, building a strong foundation for lasting emotional and physical healing. It also provides a support network and resources to help spouses and other caregivers. As the organization completed a refresh of its branding, the Fund tapped Largemouth Communications to develop a social media strategy designed to build a follower base and grow engagement across key channels in order to drive awareness of its mission and foster donation opportunities.

Ideas

Largemouth developed a social media plan designed to grow The Independence Fund’s social platforms and engage current followers. After conducting an in-depth audit of the Fund’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, Largemouth defined a brand voice to guide all content on social channels, including persona, tone, language and imagery that would embody the organization and shape its social media presence. The audit exercise served as the catalyst for strategic direction, establishing measurable goals, defining content strategies per channel and allocating resources for promotional activities to reach target audiences and enhance fundraising efforts.

Marrying the Fund’s brand voice with its overarching objectives, Largemouth sought to engage audiences with storytelling content, including spotlight features on veterans or caregivers that have benefitted from the Fund’s programming, as well as content aligned with special holidays and days of veteran recognition, community engagement initiatives, fundraising events and collaborations with key partners and donors.

For example, in conjunction with the Tire Pros Allies for Independence campaign, Largemouth implemented a process to share live videos and photos of mobility device presentations to deserving veterans at professional baseball and soccer events throughout the country. Largemouth also supported the Fund’s inaugural Rock for Heroes Benefit Concert, featuring Three Days Grace, Adelitas Way and Otherwise, providing a behind-the-scenes look at activities to share the experience and document the event for online followers and attendees.

By design, Largemouth intentionally researched and tagged any partners, celebrities or donors in all social posts to increase opportunities for sharing and engagement. Leveraging the support of celebrity singing duo Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line, Largemouth collaborated to coordinate a reveal of their endorsement, perfectly timing a series of social posts, starting with an Instagram reveal on the country music stars’ account.

In addition to organic posts, Largemouth implemented a series of promoted and boosted posts and ads across channels to enhance specific calls to action and campaign initiatives. Each of these efforts helped to keep momentum pressing forward for the Fund’s growing number of followers.