The best new outreach idea we’re trying for the fall is Facebook. You may have heard of it.
Outreach by definition is an effort by an organization to connect its ideas to the general public.
You take your ideas to the audience.
And where is our audience? On Facebook!
We’ve done quite a bit with Facebook in the past – advertising, Cru group, events, etc.
But a Facebook Fan Page is a whole ‘nother deal.
First off – you should subscribe to Brian Barela’s blog (click here for an explanation of the life-changing discovery of how to subscribe to blogs). You would know all this stuff already if you read his blog and another blog he contributes to: mediaforministry.org
This is our strategy this fall as we meet freshmen (courtesy of Brian Barela):
- Add them as a friend on Facebook
- Click the “add a message” box
- Write something like this: “Hi this is Tim from Cru – you filled a card expressing interest and I just wanted to invite you to come to Cru on Tuesday at 8:30. Please also join our fan page: Facebook.com/ArkansasCru”
Before I start, let me shoot down your main excuse (at least it was mine):
- “I don’t know anything about setting stuff up on Facebook and I don’t have time right now to learn” – I had a student set it up (I attached below the email I sent out to solicit help- just copy and paste!). I guarantee you have a student who would be willing and able to do it.
First the Why’s, then the How’s:
Why?
- Facebook is where students live. Go where students are.
- It’s free. We all know advertising isn’t cheap. But thru a Facebook Fan Page you can “advertise” your events on a site where 99% of your target audience spends hours every day
- It’s interactive – students can comment and ask questions.
- You can get a custom URL for free (website name): facebook.com/ArkansasCru
- Fan Pages are way more “viral” than Groups. So we’re shifting from a Facebook Group to a Fan Page. Check out this informative video explaining why from Brian Barela.
And best of all: It’s pretty easy to work the system (by “liking” the fan page, commenting on it, etc) to where your Cru Fan Page will show up on the News Feed of anyone your students are friends with.
How do you set one up?
- Here’s a step by step video on how to do it (from Brian Barela again!).
We watched this video in staff meeting yesterday – it builds a great case for why we HAVE to engage in social media:
Here’s an email you can adapt to solicit help from students.
