It’s official. Social media is a huge deal when you’re fundraising with more and more people donating after being asked through Facebook and Twitter.
Here are our top ways of using social media to boost your fundraising.
Share your page on your Facebook Timeline
A whopping 97% of all social media donations are driven from Facebook, making it a great tool for drumming up support for your cause. In 2011 alone, fundraisers who shared their page on Facebook brought over one million donors back to JustGiving.
Updating your Facebook status with a link to your page means it will appear in the timeline of all of your friends. A great tip is to ask your friends to also ‘like’ or ‘share’ you status. News of your fundraising will spread even further to their friends. With each viral Facebook share worth an average of £5 in donations, it could mean a lot of extra money for your favourite charity.
Spread the word on Twitter
Twitter might not drive quite as many people to the site as Facebook, but those coming from Twitter tend to give considerably more. The average donation from Facebook is £18.33, whilst Twitter users give an average of £30.26.
Tweet to your followers a link to your page and ask them to give it a retweet so it’s seen by their followers too.
JustTweeting is an incredibly handy tool. Developed by two very clever fundraisers, it enables you to schedule automatic tweets that tell your followers how they can support you and keep them up-to-date with your fundraising progress.
Make a video and share it on YouTube
Video is a great tool when it comes to telling your fundraising story. And you don’t need to be the next Spielberg to put something together – with smartphones and digital cameras, it’s easier than ever to make a short video.
You can share your video on YouTube and then add it to your JustGiving page. With donors coming from YouTube donating an average of £28.77, it can have a massive impact on your fundraising.
For inspiration and some great tips, check out this example from London marathon runner Peter Goldsworthy. His simple, yet effective video helped him raise over £7,000 for Whizz-Kidz.
Use the JustGiving Facebook app.
Another way to share your page on Facebook is by using our Facebook app. The great thing about the app is that your friends can donate to your page without ever having to leave Facebook.
By making it ever easier for people to donate, you’ll hopefully see a little added generosity – people give an average of 44% more when they donate without leaving Facebook.
If you’ve got a great tip for using social media to boost your fundraising, we’d love to hear it. Leave a comment on our Facebook wall, send us a tweet or leave a comment on the blog below.
Tags: Facebook, facebook app, Fundraising Tips, social media tips, twitter, Widget, YouTube