Over 1000 people are now fans of our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/cirweb) adding a powerful social media component to or organizing capability. We have been using a huge email list and an extensive web page to communicate with volunteers since the year 2000, but our Facebook page has only recently become a relevant component of how we recruit volunteers for habitat restoration projects. Facebook is attracting new people to our organization, and we plan to use the page to post news and interesting features about the islands soon.
Just 20 year ago, non-profits would use written newsletters and phone trees to publicize events. Now we can use the web, email, blogs Facebook and soon Google Plus to reach volunteers. Using these tools to their fullest extent can be rather time consuming, but we are able to reach thousands of people quickly and at short notice.
As popular as CIR is with the public, attracting fans to our Facebook page requires a little finessing. Earlier this year we publicized the page to our email list (of nearly 1,100 people) which provided an initial surge of fans to the page. We also created a custom "landing page" so that people who visit the page for the first time see an attractive graphic urging them to "Like" us and learn more about the organization. Links to the Facebook page can be found on our of our promotional materials, including business cards, brochures and on our web page.
We look forward to adding more fans in the future, and we plan to use the page for more than just announcing volunteer opportunities. Watch the page for interesting news and tidbits about all eight of the Channel Islands and about environmental restoration in general.
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