World Voting Together The secret to Chabad's online contest strategy. Jacob Berkman Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York C habad-run groups have done remarkably well in recent years when it comes to online philan- thropy contests. Chabad representatives were well represented in last year's Jewish Federations of North America Jewish Community Heroes contest. Last January, Chabad's West Bloomfield, Mich.-based Friendship Circle, an organization dedicated to helping children with special needs, won $100,000 when it finished third in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook. Earlier this summer, 17 Chabad programs across the United States each received $20,000 in the sec- ond running of the Chase challenge. And last month, Chabad tooted its horn by publicizing that eight of its Jewish day schools are poised to win $500,000 each in the Kohl's Cares for Kids online challenge. The Kohl's challenge, much like the others, essentially is a glorified popular- ity contest in which organizations are allowed to nominate themselves and then solicit votes from their fans and friends. The top vote-getters win a cash prize. Kohl's, the department store chain, is giving away $500,000 to the top 20 vote- earning schools — some $10 million in total. Jewish Backdrop There is nothing overtly Jewish about the Kohl's challenge — in fact, the con- test prohibits winners from using the money for religious purposes — but it was a Polish-Jewish immigrant named Max Kohl who planted the seed for the 1,000-store chain with a small cor- ner grocery store on the south side of Milwaukee in 1927. As of Aug. 25, a dozen of the top vote- getters in the contest, which ended Sept. 3, were Jewish day schools. Of those 12, eight are under the auspices of Chabad. So what is Chabad's secret? Skeptics and some fellow competitors have suggested that Chabad uses bots to 28 September 16 • 2010 cast thousands of automated votes. Chabad does have something of an advantage over other Jewish groups, but it's not an unfair one. The Chabad net- work, which includes thousands of indi- vidual outposts all over the world, has proven powerful during these contests, according to Motti Seligson, a spokes- man for Chabad.org who has become Chabad's social media guru over the past couple of years. Applying Teamwork And the movement as a whole has been really good about not cannibalizing its online base. While scores of Chabad organiza- tions may have started out as entrants in the Chase or Kohl's challenges, the network as a whole figured out pretty quickly which ones had a serious chance of winning and then the system placed its chips on the potential winners. The method has proven to be especially valuable in the Kohl's challenge, Seligson said. Each voter can vote a total of 20 times, and only five times for one school. Hypothetically, that means if support- ers of the Silverstein Hebrew Academy- Great Neck in suburban New York cast votes for the school five times, they each have 15 votes left. "Everything that is created is created for a Divine purpose, and the idea is to use everything to make the world a bet- ter place and for a higher cause he said. "Social media is no different. If there is a way of harnessing that to do a better good, then absolutely do it." Strategic Lessons While not everyone has a Chabad net- work, there are still some lessons to learn from the group's tactics. In terms of winning a contest, the number of Facebook friends an organization has will not necessarily translate into votes. According to Levi Shemtov, executive director of the Friendship Circle in West Bloomfield, said, "During our campaign, we were helped significantly by other Chabad organiza- tions who were willing to help an affiliate win an important contest. "We believe that many of the Lubavitch orga- nizations entered the race encouraged by our success with the Chase campaign. We were also happy to offer advice in their campaigns. "Lubavitch benefits from a close rela- tionship amongst its members — we love pulling together to help with a chal- lenge." According to Seligson, the Michigan Friendship Circle was up against organi- zations in the Chase Challenge that had up to 500,000 Facebook friends. The Friendship Circle started with 600. In the end, though, the organizations with huge followings were fortunate to get 20 percent of their friendship base to vote. Friendship Circle ended up with 60,000 votes. The key, Seligson said, is that the vir- tual must be backed up by the real. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter may be good entry points to a relationship or a conversation, he said, but actualizing those relationships takes real-time interaction. Working together to win money for Chabad projects. Numbers Count So in a system of mutual support designed by the Chabad schools, those original Silverstein voters may then cast five votes each for, say, Chabad Hebrew Academy of San Diego, Cheder Menachem in Los Angeles and the Rohr Bais Chaya Academy in Tamarac, Fla. During the Chase challenge, it became clear that the Chabad-affiliated Friendship Circle of Michigan had a shot at winning a prize, so the other 100 Friendship Circle outposts throughout the United States rallied behind their Michigan counterpart. It's not cheating or skirting the rules, Seligson said, it's just actualizing a social network effectively. Circle Of Friends For the Friendship Circle, that meant generating offline press with publicity stunts and face-to-face meetings in the real world. For instance, the group organized an Improv Everywhere-style freeze at a Detroit Pistons game, enlisting 200 volunteers to attend the game and freeze like statues for a minute at a specific time. When the minute was up, the vol- unteers ripped off their shirts, revealing T-shirts that advertised the group's web- site for fans and members of the media to see. In Charlotte, N.C., Chabad's 220-stu- dent Charlotte Jewish Day School used an inside-out approach to garner 45,000 votes by Aug. 24 and earn 14th place in the Kohl's challenge, according to spokesman Rabbi Bentzion Groner, director of the Friendship Circle of North Carolina. The elementary school has a relatively small base, but it tapped into alumni now in their teens to hold a vote-athon. The school, which was started in a basement in 1984 with just a couple of students, enlisted 50 teenagers to bring their laptops to the school, where they spent an afternoon reaching out online to as many of their friends as they could, soliciting votes One by one. And, of course, the school invited in three television stations and the local newspaper to check out the event. But, Groner said, the school's success thus far has been about making it a gen- eral cause in Charlotte. First, the group worked on acquiring votes from its own base and extended network. When it became clear that the school had a chance to do well, it went after those who care about Jewish education. It became clear that the school would be the only one in Charlotte — Jewish or non-Jewish — that had a chance to win, so Groner and others went after the broader, non-Jewish Charlotte com- munity. Groner estimates that about 60 per- cent of the school's votes have come from its natural extended base. The rest came from outside. "We made it about the community," he said, "and the community really got on board." r] Jewish News Associate Editor Alan Hitsky contributed to this story.