I think I finally get it but do you?
Howard Lake | 16 July 2009 | Blogs
It was the Iranian protests that did it. Protesters’ success at using Twitter to get their message out across the world finally made me realise the huge potential of this new media malarkey. It was definitely a Wow moment.
And for a luddite at heart this has all been a bit of a revelation. I have been playing at “getting with it” for over a year now. I have itunes AND Spotify. I got this blog gig though would confess to being a not very regular blogger. And have now got more Facebook friends than I know what to do with.
Actually that’s not true. I know exactly what to do. They have formed the nucleus of my social networking supporter base for the coalition I work for these days, for Scotland’s Disabled Children. In a week we recruited over 100 fans and the vast majority were friends I cajoled (or more likely scared) into doing so. But they are now posting to their Friends to join, who in turn encourage their Friends to join and so it will snowball.
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Ultimately it and Twitter (and other media) will be a great way of mobilising supporters for campaigning activities. And the best bit of all is that it cost absolutely nothing to do.
Which makes me wonder why more small charities and voluntary organisations are not using new media tools to create a supporter and donor base. There is plenty free advice out there on how to involve and engage your supporters at all levels – try either of these for starters: http://www.thegoodagency.co.uk and http://www.johngrainassociates.com. And Howard Lake is doing lots of excellent events on social networking and fundraising – at reasonable cost too.
It is about taking the core principles of involvement and engagement and simply deploying them in a new way, on a new platform. One that is actually pretty easy to use and extremely cheap to develop.
And if I can get it – so can you!
You could start by becoming a fan of for Scotland’s Disabled Children (fSDC) on Facebook…. http://www.facebook.com/forScotlandsDisabledChildren
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.