Featured Campaign

Profile Image

My goal is to ride my bike (aka The Rig) between my home and work every day in March. My commute...

Learn More

Use Your Social Networking Sites

How to use Facebook to promote your campaign

Facebook is a powerful tool for making the most out of your campaign. It's not a substitute for sending out emails to your list or reaching out in a more personal way to your community, but allows you to expand your reach and give friendly, unobtrusive reminders about your campaign. There are a few ways to utilize Facebook in spreading the word about your I Think I Can Campaign. Here's what ATC recommends:

  1. Create a Group for your campaign
    This is the best option if you are a big Facebook user, and you are willing to put a little time into it. You can simply hit ‘Message All Members’ on the group homepage and Facebook will allow you to write and send a message to everyone on the group’s list. We recommend keeping your messages short and sweet because we've found that Facebook users are pretty text averse. Post a full update to the "Updates" blog on your campaign page, and then provide a link to your campaign page in your FB message.
    For example:

    Hey Loyal ITIC supporters!
    It’s been a great week for my campaign. I went to the gym three times, and stayed away from my poison, dark chocolate! Please check out my site and sponsor my efforts:
    www.atthecrossroads.org/campaign/joeshmo. –Joe

  2. Post status updates about your campaign
    This is a good option for people who don't have enough time to create a group or write lengthy updates. This will not reach your whole FB community, but can be an effective way to get a couple of quick donations from people you might not have expected. You can do this on a daily basis and it won't annoy anyone, unlike a daily email. Tell people about your campaign, let them know if you just did something related to achieving your goal, or let them know how much you have to go before reaching your fundraising goal. Make sure to attach the link to your campaign page with your status update. You can also just post the link, without any update.
  3. Send messages to your friend network about your participation
    Since sending messages through Facebook basically works like sending an email, you should limit how often you are sending these. Keep them personal and individualized, but also short and sweet (the short and sweet part basically because you can’t really format the messages you send through Facebook like you can a regular email).
  4. Thank your donors through Status Updates
    Thank people for contributing, tag them in the post (write the @ symbol and then write their name), and put your page’s url in the post. It will make the donor feel all fuzzy, and will get the word out about your campaign.

How to use Facebook to encourage others to join the campaign

Got any questions? Ask Jon at jons@atthecrossroads.org

How to use Twitter to promote your campaign

Since the campaign is web-based, Twitter is a great tool for promoting yourself and ITIC. Here are a few ways you can use your own Twitter account to keep people in touch:

  1. Twitter can be a great way to micro-fundraise for your campaign. Example: davidstassen: I ran 150 miles in the month of March for charity. Feel free to donate or retweet: http://atthecrossroads.org/campaign/davidstassen
  2. Get your friends to follow you and start posting about your campaign. Update as frequently as you’d like, there’s a lot to talk about:
    • What you’ve done for your campaign. If your goal is to work out, let people know you’ve gone to the gym, share cool exercise tips, post videos, etc.
    • How it’s going (good days and bad days, encouragement you need, funny campaign-related stories)
    • Invite people to join you. If you’re having a great time doing your campaign or think it would be helpful to have people join you for moral support, give them the link to sign up:
      http://atthecrossroads.org/campaign/signup.php
  3. If any of your followers donate to your campaign, give them a Twitter shout out!
    Example: Thanks @penuginasana for your donation to my ITIC campaign! Your contribution will directly improve the lives of homeless youth in SF.
  4. Retweet our posts.. We’re @ATCSF and we’ll be keeping you posted on the general goings on of the campaign.
  5. Follow other campaign participants and see what they’re tweeting about!

Got any questions? Ask Jon at jons@atthecrossroads.org

New to Twitter? Here’s a great video to get you started.

A few more nifty ideas