Social Media Promotion

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You can use a variety of social media tools to promote your event. Before you dive in however, the first thing you should do is make a list of the social media tools that you use or have access to. Examples are your Facebook page, your company’s page, and related Facebook sites that you "like"; Twitter accounts and forums that you comment on; your blog, your company blog, or blogs that you read; and LinkedIn groups, etc.

Next, decide why you want to use social media to promote your event. Do you want to recruit volunteers, generate donations, look for a worthy project, or generate coverage or buzz about your project?

Here are some ways to use social media at every stage of your project. Choose what works for you.

Find a worthy project — If you are looking for a good project in your community, but not sure what to do, you can run a contest for people to suggest a worthy project. You can promote the contest a number of ways, including on your company Web site, Facebook page, in the company E-newsletters, on Twitter, or on LinkedIn. You can tell the local media about your contest, and ask them to run something on it. You will need to do this well in advance of the PLANET Day of Service so that you have plenty of time to run the contest, generate buzz, get enough entries and choose a winner. If you do something like this, you will also have created some buzz that you can build on when you show off the end result.

Promote your project — Once you have selected a project, consider how you want to promote it. Make sure the owners of the location of your project are okay with promotion. If you are doing a project in a women's shelter or a private residence for instance, they may not want you to discuss the location with the public. However, you may still be able to discuss the project, just without all the specifics.

Once you have permission to promote the project (you should probably get a signed, written copy of this), take before-and-after photos and video to showcase the project. A Flip camera is an easy, inexpensive way to make a project video. If you have enough time, consider running a contest to choose some of the plants or trees that you are going to use. For instance, if you are working on a garden at a school, you may want to get the students and parents involved ahead of time in selecting the plants.

You can also talk about the project on your Facebook page or on related Facebook pages, like those belonging to a state, other allied trade associations, or allied companies. On your company Facebook page, create an "event" page and post photos of the project as it develops.

Remember to engage the social media outlets of the organization for which you are doing the project. If you are working on a hospital garden for instance, post photos and information on the hospital's Facebook page. If they have a blog, ask them if you can give them information and photos for the blog.

Share your project after the fact — After the event, share the story — the before-and-after photos, video, and photos of your team that you took as the project unfolded — in your company's client communications: E-newsletters, Web site, magazines, etc. , Post it to YouTube and link to it from your company blog, or your other social media.. Don't forget to share this story with the organization you helped out because it has communication outlets that it can use to share the story with its audience.