e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Building a Facebook Following via Shameless Bribery

April 27th, 2011

Well, “bribery” of a sort: over the past couple of days, two different organizations have tried an interesting tack to build their Facebook followings, promising to make a donation to a cause if people “like” their Facebook pages. First, Credo Mobile:

In honor of Earth Day, we’ll plant a tree for every new person who “Likes” CREDO on Facebook between Earth Day (April 22, 2011) and the end of the month (up to a max of 75,000 trees)

Not bad! Of course, they might just have paid to plant those 75,000 trees anyway, but this is a good way to give people a reason to take that all-important first step toward building an online relationship. Next up, Union Plus, which doubles the ante by including a Twitter ask:

• Join the Union Plus Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/UnionPlus: For every new Facebook fan, Union Plus will donate $25 to the fund.
• Tweet using the hashtag: #UnionPlus and include @UnionPlus – Union Plus will donate $25 for every new tweet with this hashtag.

Clever again, and in this case the money goes to a 2011 State Battles Fund, “a special initiative focused on the struggles of working people across the country….The America Votes State Battles Fund will oppose state legislation, ballot measures and executive orders that cut jobs, hurt the middle class and state economies.” I bet we’ll see more inducements like these in the future, intended both to recruit people and to spur them to act publicly in social media spaces.

– cpd

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