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Tips for Recruiting Supporters to Your Facebook Cause

October 14, 2009 By Abny Santicola

The “Announcement Board” is a way to communicate broadly with supporters. Communicate updates, campaigns or calls to action, and ask people to take a particular action. Regular communication keeps cause members engaged.

"Just don't overdo it," Koch said.

"Telling people what you're doing is very different than telling them what they should do to help you," Koch said. "Say it in a way that lets them know that you want them to help you achieve the goal, for example, 'Please invite 10 friends today.'"

The “Media Board” is a place where you can post videos, photos or articles. A counter shows how many people view posts, and supporters can click "Report" to post the messages from your media board to their profiles, or click "Send to Friends." It's a great way to get the word out and spread meaningful media about your cause.

“Donor Match” is a function that organizations can use to fundraise or recruit more members. It’s especially useful among your most passionate supporters, such as board members. Matches focus on a goal or benchmark, and the donation is only made if goal is achieved. For example, at the time of this writing, Alex's Lemonade Stand's Causes page featured a post in Donor Match that supporter Jay Scott would donate $50 if the cause reached 200,000 members by Sept. 4. A counter indicated how many members were still needed to achieve the match, and visitors could click an "Invite" button to send information about the match to their friends.

Recruitment campaigns where supporters are given incentives to recruit others to your Causes page also get more people to join your cause. Things you can offer include T-shirts, conference admission, trips to see work being done on the ground, etc.

"Campaigns or contests help drive people, and incentives give that extra push," Koch said.

Building community on Facebook can happen off the site, as well. E-mail supporters a link to your Causes page; put a link to it in your e-mail signature; provide computers at events you hold so attendees can sign up to support your Causes page; send out press releases and encourage local news coverage of it; call or text people you know informing them of Facebook campaigns you're running; and enlist the power of word-of-mouth — tell everyone you know.

Koch said the most common mistakes nonprofit organizations make when it comes to Facebook Causes are thinking:

  • their brand is the most important thing. Some organizations will disable the Media Board or wall to have more control over the page, she said, but the idea behind Causes is to offer an opportunity for people to rally around a cause they believe in. Supporters really want to work with you, she said, so your page will be much more effective if you have an open policy.
  • that creating more than one Causes page is confusing. It really depends on the work your organization does and how it wants to go about its Causes strategy, she said.
  • "I created it and it's not doing anything. Facebook must not work for us." Koch advised really spending some time on your page and pushing content out to your community to get the word out.
  • the page needs to be approved by all internal departments. Koch recommended deciding your policy for this ahead of time, and how much time you need to devote to different kinds of communications.
  • that person doesn't work for us so we can't trust her. Koch stressed the benefits of organizations turning over a bit of control to supporters, noting, "They'll be your best activists."

Another common mistake she sees organizations make is having no sequencing strategy. She stressed the importance of getting people to the Causes page and behind the mission before launching a campaign on Causes. Not only is this key to a successful campaign, but it also makes supporters who were there with you from the start feel like they helped you achieve something valuable.

Some principles Koch recommended organizations play with once their Causes pages are up and running are:

  • urgency
  • personal recognition
  • getting friends involved
  • storytelling (along with photos)
  • incentives, and their creative consequences
  • thinking about what works with offline supporters
  • asking supporters what they want to do. What are they passionate and vocal about?

Click here to learn more about Facebook Causes.


 

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