Common Sense Society (CSS), a nonprofit, encouraged people to share their stories of where they were on September 11, 2001, to help students understand how to learn about others’ lived experiences. CSS conducted a #WhereWereYou UGC campaign to provide teachers and students with meaningful lessons from September 11th attached and provide first-hand experiences of accounts from Americans all across the country on where they were on that historic day.
Common Sense Society started the #WhereWereYou UGC campaign to create awareness for the 20th anniversary of September 11th and to use this milestone as an opportunity to educate the next generation on the significance of this day in American history.
Common Sense Society created a 60-second #WhereWereYou video that they used as a tool to spark conversation among people who watched the video with the objective to inspire viewers to share their experience on September 11, 2011 with #WhereWereYou. The video contained historical footage from media coverage of the September 11th attacks that occurred 20 years ago. The video featured citizens from around the United States, from a NYC firefighter and a midwest 7th grader, who all shared where they were on September 11, 2021.
What made this campaign unique was the combination of the UGC #WhereWereYou activation with the availability of participants to download Common Sense Society’s custom curriculum on September 11th called “Understanding September 11, 2001.”
Common Sense Society executed a successful UGC campaign centered around elevating user-generated responses on where people were to encourage more people to join in and share their stories with #WhereWhereYou. Common Sense Society recognized participants by having their community managers respond to the meaningful stories people shared and followed up with resources for teachers who wanted to use their content in their classrooms, including creating and distributing a comprehensive September 11th Curriculum.
Common Sense Society generated 148,908 engagements in reaction to their #WhereWereYou UGC campaign and earned 692,941 total video views across Facebook, Twitter and IGTV. In addition to the widespread participation of people sharing where they were on that day, an additional 2,475 people downloaded the September 11th curriculum.
