American Heart Association Heart Walk: Social Media Zone

The American Heart Association hosts more than 300 Heart Walk events annually in cities around the country, and the events are a critical part of the association’s fund-raising strategy. The organization was exploring how to better integrate social media to boost interest and engagement before, during, and after the events. The result was a pilot program that kicked off this summer in Kansas City.

A big part of the program included the use of a “social media zone” on site, ultimately increasing the awareness of the association.

The “social media zone”, created by DI, included a display that showed a live feed of posts with the #KCHeartwalk hashtag on the left third and then a curated feed of images on the rest of the screen. The display became a popular backdrop for selfies, as people would wait for their photos to appear and then snap a picture of themselves in front of it.

The program was a big success as the hashtag trended in Kansas City for nine hours, and those posts reached more than 260,000 people while the walk took place. The local chapter also amassed 70 new Twitter followers and 40 new Facebook likes during the event. The local chapter of The American Heart Association raised more than $850,000.