
THE CHALLENGE
Helping Fairtrade America change the world — one social post at a time
At The Content Factory, we’re always excited to help organizations overcome their digital marketing challenges and achieve their goals, but it’s especially rewarding when we can help an organization that actively seeks to make the world a better place.
Fairtrade America is is an independent non-profit 501(c)3 organization that promotes sustainability and fair working conditions for producers in developing nations. One important way they help spread the word is through social media, and the non-profit turned to TCF to help drive more engagement and referral traffic from their social media marketing efforts.
We’re big fans of chocolate, coffee and worthy causes here, so we jumped at the chance to help them make an even bigger impact.
THE SOLUTION
Social media marketing optimization, a new Instagram presence and Twitter parties
The Content Factory began by auditing the NPO’s existing social media properties to find opportunities for improvement, then worked with Fairtrade America to put an optimization strategy in place. This also involved planning and implementing a new Instagram social presence — a perfect fit for a brand with high visual impact and millennial appeal.
We also worked with Fairtrade America to create #FairtradeChat, a branded content Twitter party that brought other organizations, brands and influencers in the movement together with consumers for a recurring one-hour themed conversation.
TCF co-created 20 of these events, consistently pushing the client’s hashtag into Twitter’s top-100 trends during the program. The average #FairtradeChat received over 6 million timeline deliveries an hour on the strength of 2,200 tweets using the hashtag, reaching an average of 1 million Twitter users from one chat until the next.
#FairtradeChat became a staple of the global organization’s social strategy, frequently featuring guest co‑hosts from across the human rights movement.
Social media referral traffic before TCF (over three-year period):
We created an aggressive social marketing strategy that included:
- Defining, listing and engaging with influencers and followers
- Preparing staff for events with official hashtags, attendee lists, and shareable graphics to build brand authority and define PR opportunities
- Organizing giveaway contests to raise consumer awareness for licensed brands
- Managing social media advertising campaigns across all channels
- Social listening, followed by sharing brand mentions and movement news
- Creating a steady flow of branded graphic design elements for social sharing
- Optimizing and updating each social channel in step with algorithm changes
Throughout the process, we communicated with Fairtrade America’s team daily, meeting bi-weekly and reporting monthly on progress, challenges and recommended next steps.

– Kyle Ronald Freund, Media Manager, Fairtrade America
THE RESULTS
286% more referral traffic from social media marketing
In the course of three years of managing Fairtrade America’s social media marketing, The Content Factory was able to generate a billion organic Twitter impressions, grow the Facebook page following by 1,135% and account for 6 of the organization’s top 10 traffic referral sources:
Social media referral traffic after TCF (over three-year period):

– Mary Linnell-Simmons, Marketing & Communications Manager, Fairtrade America
Become a TCF success story
The Content Factory can help you gain more visibility, influence and engagement on social media with a marketing strategy designed for your specific organization. Visit our Social Media Marketing services page to learn more about the TCF advantage, then download our pricing proposal to learn how to get started!