Showcase: Tyson Foods Hunger Relief Blog Makes a Difference

Blogging has its critics. I recently sat in a meeting with a couple of print magazine editors who were of the opinion that the only purpose of blogging was to gossip and grab attention to make money. I’m happy to highlight a blog today that does the exact opposite – Tyson Food’s Hunger Relief site is an excellent example, not only of how to pull off a massive humanitarian effort using social media, but also for some best blogging practices as well.

About the Tyson Foods Hunger Relief Blog

The blog is authored by multiple people and managed by some pretty smart people people at the home office of Tyson in Springdale, Arkansas. It’s design and functionality was handled by Rockfish Interactive, an awarding-winning firm also based in Arkansas.

What Tyson Gets Right

In addition to a simple, well-branded design (which shares some aesthetic elements with the Tyson corporate site), the blog boasts some extremely important features that have enabled them to aggressively pursue the goal of feeding America…

Featuring the Community

Tyson goes farther than simply reaching out to their community in terms of conversation, they’ve actually allowed one of the blog’s main features to be an area of the site where community members can nominate people who support the cause as Hunger Relief All-Stars. This is extremely motivating!

In fact, everything about their site is community-driven. There are very few references to Tyson’s corporate site or business-oriented interests. And I love the quote in the header…

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead

Reaching Beyond the Blog

Tyson’s team has put together a good strategy for covering the major social networks with content including Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube.

With their Youtube presence, they’ve done a good job of highlighting their connection with traditional media outlets as well.

Supporting a Cause Bigger Than a Blog

Don’t misunderstand. Tyson Hunger Relief isn’t a blog – it’s a large-scale effort to eradicate hunger that intertwines itself with other organizations and utilizes every available means to accomplish some very noble goals. The blog is just the central hub for collecting and publishing information about what’s happening offline, in the real lives of people.

This may be the biggest lesson for bloggers to be learned from Tyson. Your blog doesn’t define you, or at least it shouldn’t. A blog should merely be the public face of someone or something much bigger.

This is the thrust of their content – the real, offline stories that are simply told online, such as this interview with a food pantry director or a story about athletes (local celebrities) giving their time to the cause.

No matter what you learn about community-building or marketing from the Tyson Hunger Relief blog, learn this: don’t just blog – do something worthwhile.