Social Media Strategy for Creating Something Out of Nothing
The Law of Conservation of Energy tells us that you can’t make something out of nothing, but such is the dream of thousands of charities and non-profit initiatives around the world. It’s incredibly difficult to construct a campaign that gets people engaged enough to give without taking, but this is often the only way to facilitate initiatives like volunteerism, raising awareness, and fundraising. How do you capture the hearts and minds of people such that they participate in your cause?
This was particularly challenging for the Made in Jerusalem team as we tried creating International Firgun Day. Spreading the word is challenging enough, but even harder was efficiently explaining the holiday in the first place. Understandably, “International Firgun Day” doesn’t really paint a picture for anyone who doesn’t speak Hebrew.
“Firgun” is a Hebrew word of Yiddish origin that defines the selfless feeling of enjoying another person’s success. Firgun is also the physical act of congratulating or praising someone, and it helps describe the supportive, collectivist spirit of Israel. The people of Made in Jerusalem (a non-profit startup support community) want the world to celebrate this sentiment every year on July 17. To participate, people are encouraged to publicly praise people on social media and in person.
To help promote the holiday, we had an overnight marketing hackathon through the day and night before July 17. We invited hundreds of people from all around Jerusalem to join the rest of the community with open hearts and minds. As far as engagement, here’s what we learned:
What Didn’t Work:
1. Emailing People You Don’t Know
We emailed hundreds of organizations very much aligned with the themes of Firgun Day: charities, Jerusalem support groups, and more. We asked for small things like t-shirt sponsorship or mentioning the holiday on their web presences. Around 5% actually responded saying they would help and asked how to do so, and about half of those people did not end up talking about us to their followers or groups.
We learned that, even if your messages are personalized, heavily segmented, and well-tailored to the recipient, you are unlikely to get far with cold emails. Instead, enter networks in which you have more leverage via people you know personally.
2. Asking People to Invite Their Friends
We wanted Firgun Day to go viral, which means exponential growth in terms of reach. This requires people sharing the event with their friends, and their friends doing the same. Many people loved the idea and joined our Facebook event page, but there were very few who liked it enough to invite their friends or tweet/post about it prior to July 17.
People are hesitant to invite their friends to random things for fear of spreading spam, and no on particularly likes being asked to do anything. Don’t make anything a task; indirectly encourage people to share or invite friends if they like the content. Frame it as “if you want to help spread the word, feel free to share,” or something along those lines, as opposed to saying “Please invite all of your Facebook friends.”
What Worked:
1. Personal Engagement
The most effective written communication was simply messaging people you know well, preferably via live chat. Our first request was simple — join the Facebook event page — and the success rate was nearly 90%. These people were also the most likely to invite their friends when we asked.
Similarly, the most successful Twitter strategy was targeting small influencers: people and groups with fewer than 5000 followers. These tweets received far more responses and retweets than did our tweets at super-famous celebrities and big corporations.
2. Create an Event
We invited hundreds of marketers, programmers, designers, journalists/photographers, and other members of the Jerusalem internet community to participate in a community-wide event for a good cause. We provided coffee and snacks (mostly donations from interested local businesses) and positioned the event as a fun opportunity for people to come showcase their skills and talents.
We categorized participants into four groups based on their skills, and each person wore a name tag with a colored sticker representative of their specialty. We had teams form and choose challenges from a list of 25 marketing “achievements” that included things like getting 2 celebrities to mention Firgun Day or getting content on the front page of Reddit.
This was not just a marketing event but an opportunity to network, collaborate, and meet people similar to oneself. We benefited from having dozens of different skill sets and networks. The different teams made apps, videos, articles, and filmed hours of Firgun-focused interaction with strangers. After the virtual dust cleared, Firgun Day got mentions online from people and groups that we had never heard of. It was even discussed on an Israeli military radio station!
It’s much easier to get people to come help you market your project when you construct it in terms of them, not in terms of you. Give them an opportunity to meet people, show off their skills, and experience things that are new to them.
3. Something Fun
End-users of platforms like Facebook and Twitter are using it for fun. They are browsing for entertainment, not for information, and there is a fine line between these two. Present your request in the form of an interesting activity, like a game.
Our campaigns best product was the Firgunator, a website app that automatically generates funny compliments for users and then allows them to Tweet or Share it with the touch of a button. Created by Uriel Shuraki, Firgunator.com took off and it was the most engaging strategy we experienced. Creating something with which people interact is one of the most important ideas for anyone trying to get attention.
4. A Surprise
The Firgunator also demonstrated how much people love being surprised. Many users hit the Firgun generator repeatedly so as to see what funny comment would pop up next. One of the keys in any non-profit campaign is to surprise the viewer in one form or another.
The Firgunator app was a success because it was funny, interactive, and people understood that they would see something new every time they engaged with it. If you can get people curious enough to click on something for an answer or result, they are far more likely to share it. Mini games, puzzles, and intellectual challenges are amazing ways to stimulate engagement with people.
Most important, the Firgunator was intelligently connected to the outside world. It was designed to be shareable, as Uriel Shuraki added simple buttons allowing users to instantly tweet the result, post it on Facebook, or copy a screenshot.
Michael Ravitsky
Development Intern at Made in Jerusalem
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