This week at the United Nations Refugee Agency we launched our Causes page. We’ve reached 50,000 members in just under 7 days, which is a huge achievement. We’ve raised just over $50,000 and boosted our Facebook fan page to 20,000 fans.
Some quick thoughts:
1) Facebook is the best tool to build a huge community at high speed. Never let anybody tell you that Facebook doesn’t work. It works if you use it properly.
2) People had a reason to join that aligned with our goals. If they’re willing to join to help raise money, will they be willing to participate? If 10,000 people join your community what will your business do? Why not start your own membership petition list?
3) Spend hours working on related causes, groups, influencers, bloggers and everyone else relevant to have a big launch. One key influencer can mean 20,000 people.
4) If you can explain why your community is going to be big, have no fear of asking for help from partners. Get yourself featured on YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and anyone that might have a relevant interest.
5) The real work is just beginning. It’s easy to stop working when you get big. The truth is membership size is fantastic, but we need to work even harder to forge a community from this. The real work is only just beginning.
Congrats on the fantastic start!
Posted by: Mathieu | Monday, 22 June 2009 at 10:34
It's a great achievement but at the end of the day, people were effectively bribed to join - they knew that by becoming a member, they would be donating $1 to a fantastic cause at no cost to them.
Additionally, the UNHCR is a charity with fantastic brand equity - I wonder how successful a similar campaign would be if it didn't involve a charity, and there was no financial incentive.
At the end of the day, little of this matters if the 50,000 members are now engaged and form a community around the UNHCR brand. What a great opportunity!
Posted by: Martin Reed | Monday, 22 June 2009 at 16:52
Congratulations Richard, that's a fantastic start!
Posted by: Sebastian | Friday, 26 June 2009 at 07:11
Man that's a really great achievement. To bad that I don't know how to leverage Facebook ...maybe you should write something about this.
Posted by: Michael @ Freshome.com | Saturday, 25 July 2009 at 10:47