Use your social networks

Facebook is a wonderful tool for promoting your Campaign. We wouldn't call it a substitute for sending out emails to your list or reaching out in a more personal way to your community, but it allows you to expand your reach and give friendly, unobtrusive reminders about your campaign. Plus, as we've found in the past, it's always surprising to see who donates after seeing a post on Facebook. Long lost middle school friends...ex-boyfriends' sisters...your mom's accountant... Give it a shot and see who bites!

1) Create a Group for your campaign
This is the best option if you are a big Facebook user, and 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. Try posting your full update to the blog of your campaign page simply link to the post you’ve written in your Facebook message instead..

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) Make your campaign an Event
This is a great option if your campaign is a one-day endeavor, or if your campaign has some kind of gathering involved. You can still send messages to your friends and family, and keep the event to the length of your campaign (ie: if you plan on starting February 1st and ending March 31st, you make those the start and end times for the event). However, if people write on the wall of the event page, it will not show up in News Feed or on your Profile page. But, you can still send a message to all the ‘Attending’ members.

4) 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).