Raising awareness and funds online

So it's getting up to Easter time and everyone is heading out on an extended weekend here in the UK.  I know our US cousins don't get this weekend so I expect to come back to a massive number of emails...especially as I've decided to take a few days off at the other end as well.  However before I go I thought I'd share a couple of things that I've seen recently on-line that I've really like around raising awareness and raising funds using social media.  

Having moved onto Twitter a few months ago and immersed myself in the wonders of the media I've found it incredibly useful in finding out new info and keeping abreast of all sorts of things but importantly by following the correct people I've found some folks doing some great things on-line that we can all learn from.

First on my list is the work being done by Bullying UK on all sorts of social media and on their own website to increase awareness and get people bought into their message.  It's really about taking part.  These guys have really embraced the new wave of social media in earnest and have kept themselves abreast of many changes, updates etc.  They have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Flickr and their website is all about being up to date and interactive.  Not least of which is their anti-bullying poster application (my poster is on the left here - creative huh?) which allows you to go on-line and create your own anti-bullying poster and print this or send to a friend.  An excellent viral little tool which can be used by children and adults of all ages (well over 20,000 posters had been created when I published this blog).  A great learning tool and it seems very helpful in raising awareness of the plight of people being bullied.  Click on the link above to see the other great stuff they are doing across differing media it's a fantastic example of good ways of using social networking tools to help promote your message.

My next excellent example is from Dog's Trust.  These guys once again have lots of differing options when it comes to social media and that is important - giving people the choice of how they want to interact with your org.  They have a great Facebook application which can take funds on-line.  Now as some of you will already know we can't take funds on-line in Facebook (no secure pages) but what this application does is gets you to pledge the funds on-line on Facebook then takes you very quickly out of Facebook in order to confirm and get the sensitive data (credit card numbers etc) then send you straight back to Facebook to say thanks and then lets you have a Dog's trust sticker for your profile so that you can let your friends know that you've donated and that they can donate.  Suggested amount of £1.50 is nice and low to encourage folks to give and not even think about it.  Click here to have a look at the application.

OK so that's me for a week or so as I'm going to be working hard doing lot's of DIY around the house but I hope you found this useful and if you are interested then feel free to follow me at Http://twitter.com/robmcallen.

I honestly tried to keep this one short! ;-)

Thanks and have a great holiday weekend.