For the Apple devotes like me, “Just one more thing” refers to the phrase often uttered by The Jobs at the end of a keynote. For you it should be a phrase you think about in your donation process. Specifically, asking your donors to share their gift with friends via Facebook or Twitter.
Eventbrite has had social sharing options on their site for a while now and has looked deeply at the numbers. In a March blog post they reported that people are ten times more likely to share an event with friends after they have RSVP’d for an event.
This makes intuitive sense.Once you say you are going to an event you want all your friends to go.
While it isn’t as obvious, I think people have a similar desire to share the fact they have just supported your organization after they give. We know that people give for emotional reasons, not least of which is the positive emotional experience giving brings.
As someone of faith, this isn’t cynical to me. I understand that I am to walk with the hungry, naked, poor, and imprisoned. Giving is part of the life I’m called to and living that life means living well.
By adding social sharing options, you provide an easy way for your donors to get the social recognition they deserve for supporting your cause. And when they share they are endorsing your organization to their social network.
Recently Facebook launched the “Send” button that makes this sharing more powerful. Send differs from “Like” because the donor gets to choose who is going to see the update. It allows your donors to target the message to people they think are most likely to appreciate it. In other words your users are segmenting their social network for you.
The easy part is inserting the button, the more difficult part is making sure that the link that is shared is to an appropriate page. By default both Twitter and Facebook link to the page where the button is located. Since the link is being shared from a “Thank You” page, that’s the worst option.
The minimum option is a landing page specifically designed for people coming from social sites. You can reuse this page for general “about us” links from social sites as well.
The best option is to create a set of pages specific to your common offers. If you are a rescue mission that would mean a meals page that is geared towards people who are coming because a friend pointed them to the page via social sites.
This is something that it is easy to do in phases. Start with the button pointing to your homepage, and then add the more specific pages over time. As in many things, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Online donor acquisition is a huge growth area that is going to take significant investment and suffer from many false starts and missteps. However, you can take your first step towards acquiring new donors online in an afternoon.
