So much of social media marketing, and marketing in general, for that fact, seems like it’s almost in the background right now. First and foremost, many people are worried about their health and the health of loved ones. Next, they’re worried about their jobs and income. That’s about where it ends–right now at least.

That’s why a lot of these creative content marketing opportunities we’ve seen the last week just seem to fall flat (see Chipotle’s attempt to use Zoom in a creative way, for example). It all just seems kinda forced.

Until, that is, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, came up with the best piece of content marketing I’ve seen yet during the COVID-19 crisis.

Partnering with the good folks at Allina Health, BCBSMN is launching a skilled volunteer opportunity to create masks for hospital staff–at a time when they desperately need it.

BCBSMN (specifically, Amanda Theisen, long-time KSTP employee-turned-PR-pro) penned this blog post explaining the initiative and exactly how people can help.

The post is pitch perfect. It hits all the right notes. It explains how the initiative came to be (with a good shoutout to Susan Schuster, one of the most connected people in the Twin Cities). It has a short video explaining how to make the masks. It lists out Allina Health locations where you can drop off the completed masks. And finally, one last call to action–if you can’t sew, donate through GiveMN.

Straight-forward and to the point. And, I thought it worked perfectly.

Of course, the wonderful thing about a partnership is you get double the distribution when both brands promote the effort on their social media channels. Here’s how BCBSMN promoted it on its Facebook page. I know both brands promoted it across social media–and it definitely received some media attention as well.

But BCBSMN didn’t stop there. Any good social media effort also needs solid community management. And, given the stakes have never been higher, this was more important than ever.

You can see on the Facebook post BCBSMN is actively responding to questions from its community–and good questions, too.

The blog post had 150+ comments last time I checked (when was the last time ANY blog post had 150+ comments?!?!?!), and I noticed BCBSMN replying to almost every comment and question. Again, I can’t remember the last time I saw that happen!

All in all I loved this content marketing case study for so many reasons–many of which I’ve highlighted above. But, most of all, because it will make a difference. For all of us here in Minnesota.

Thank you, BCBSMN team. For making a difference for Minnesota.