Socially Tricking-out The Charleston Green Fair
Last Sunday, I spent six straight hours manning the Go Green Charleston booth at the first annual Charleston Green Fair. I really had a blast chatting it up with everyone that stopped by, and loved spreading the knowledge with our "Is it Recyclable" tabletop game. It was an amazing event!
I also spread a little social web love around immediately prior to, during, and after the event in an effort to increase the engagement of the Go Green audience. Not only did our core audience get a richer experience, so did the city as a whole. Times are tough, and money is tight for all nonprofits, so using existing tools and devices has never been more important. Here are a few webby things I did to engage my audience during the Charleston Green Fair:
- Used the @GreenCharleston Twitter feed and Go Green Charleston Facebook page to remind our supporters about the event. We received a few immediate responses about attendance, and a couple general questions...cool!
- Sent a last minute message out via the @GreenCharleston Twitter feed and Go Green Charleston Facebook page offering a reusable shopping bag to the first 3 people who mention the offer at our booth. All three bags were given away - 1 from Twitter, 2 from Facebook.
- Posted real-time event photos via TwitPic on the @GreenCharleston Twitter feed. Each image got a similar amount of views and comments, so it would seem our remote audience was consistent throughout the event.
- Chatted with friends and supporters via my personal Twitter account, and was able to arrange a few on-site meet-ups. I also received some interesting comments and encouragement from everyone during the long, but fun, day. Thanks!
I guess the message here is that there are a lot of little things you can do with your existing communication channels that can increase the engagement of your audience, without decreasing the funds you in your bank account. As always: set goals, experiment, track, analyze, and repeat.