A powerful tool to build awareness and promote your community project is getting people involved. When people are talking about and sharing your community project, the word about your work travels farther. Whether you run a social enterprise like Fiyaz Mughal, or are seeking to end homelessness and hunger in your neighborhood, engagement is key to getting the exposure and funding you need to operate.
How can you boost engagement? Here are some pro tips:
Make It Urgent
When you post on social media or put an ad in the local paper, you need to include a compelling call to action. By making it seem urgent, you’ll get a greater response. Leverage your community project’s cause to make people want to act right away and contribute. For example, if you work to provide clean water to poor villages, use a statistic showing how many people would benefit in just one day’s time.
Offer an Incentive
For a community project this may seem tough, as it’s unlikely you’ll offer a prize like a tablet for participating in a social media challenge. However, you can use incentives like matching donations through a big supporter (i.e. donate today and a local supermarket will donate one pound for every five pounds donated). Or, you can offer a free tour of your project, an interview or similar.
Host Meetings
Use real connections. Have live meetings with community members and parties interested in your project. But, here’s the key: let them participate! It can be tempting to share as much information as you can about your project, but the more input and sharing you seek, the more invested attendees will be in your project. Then, make sure you follow up by stating how you’re using their valuable input. This will keep the conversation going, increase your engagement and encourage people to share your project with others by word of mouth.
Ready to get started? Although community projects can be challenging to keep going, if you believe in yours, you’re sure to find solutions to boost engagement and raise awareness about your cause. Try using just one of these tips to boost engagement with your project and see how it goes. As you grow, slowly add more and more strategies to your toolkit.