No one gets anywhere by not asking, you need to ask to get what you want. A child cries when it’s hungry – it’s asking to be fed. A person cries in pain when they’re hurt and need help. Asking gets you what you want – and need.
Every organisation needs to freshen its supporter base, it needs to get a younger generation on board, and what better way than through existing supporters.
You’re current supporters can be your best asset when it comes expanding your supporter base.
No matter what you’re using to connect with your current supporters, – email, e-letter, FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletter – you have an audience you can confidently ask to help with your supporter drive.
You need to be asking your current supporters to encourage their friends, colleagues and family to learn more about what you do, and ultimately support the work you do.
Social media makes it a lot easier to connect with many people in “real time” – you should be making the most of it’s capabilities.
When you share something on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or anywhere else for that matter, you should be asking people to “Like” it – to share it, and retweet it, to pass it on. The people your connections are linked with are likely to be more inclined to take a look at what you’re sharing, and some of these will become friends, fans, followers or connections – you will not only have the ability to grow your traditional supporter base, but you will have the added opportunity to grow your online connections (spread).
When one of your supporters sees something and shares it – the reach can be immense – it’s truly a case of from one to many. Using your current supporters to help spread word of the work you do is like a referral campaign, the return could be a lot higher than you might imagine.
What have you got to lose? Are you going to start asking all your connections to help?
Are you perhaps going to ask each of your supporters to introduce you to ten of their own connections – imagine how far your message could spread, it could become viral.
What are you going to do differently to find new supporters?
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