LivLarge

Following on from my last post A Guide to Advertising on Facebook, I wanted to delve a little further into using Facebook to promote charities and causes.

Last week I heard from some experienced cause marketers who have tried it out for themselves.

Let’s hear it from the experts!

Tim Fullerton the Online Communications Manager at Oxfam America admitted that Facebook is becoming more important in promoting Oxfam.  They particularly see it as a vehicle to help them reach out & interact with a younger and wider audience than traditional media allows.

Oxfam know that their supporters generally have like minded friends and family, so once they
add their fan page on Facebook, it advertises Oxfam to anyone they’re connected to.

Oxfam's Facebook Page

I also spoke to Joe Thomas at Kiva.org.  Their business model is solely based online so I was interested to find out how their Facebook presence meshed into their overall communications plan.

Joe shared his experience and said that he has found Facebook extremely useful for promoting Kiva.  While setting up each group , page and cause profile took a lot of effort, he continuously invited users to the group and eventually it went viral and began to grow on its own.

Kiva's Facebook Page

Content is key

Tim says that they are seeing a steady growth to their fan base which he believes is attributed to the fact that they update their content several times a week.  His team generally spend an hour or two each week on updating Facebook. This includes posting all of their action alerts, interesting articles about their work, and opportunities for people to volunteer.

Kiva staff typically spend 5-15 hours per week updating their content.

A cost effective channel

“It’s a great way to get in front of new people without spending a lot of
time or money” Tim Fullerton, Oxfam.

There’s no doubt that it has been effective for Kiva, they have now raised $12,988 through Facebook viral marketing!

It looks like Social Networks are a great place for Causes and Charities to promote themselves.  This makes sense as people are usually very passionate about the causes that they support and are therefore more than happy to promote them to their friends.

Subscribe to Liv Large