Lessons in love & Facebook organizing

Yesterday was a historic day for love and commitment here in Washington State as we became the 7th state in the nation to treat our lesbian and gay citizens equally with marriage equality.  No sooner had Governor Christine Gregoire signed the bill into law then I started seeing the Facebook statuses of friends changing to ‘engaged’. Amidst all the happiness & excitement I also noted a couple of impressive tactics employed on Facebook that could help anyone organizing for social change.

First was this picture from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) which spread around Facebook like wildfire.

 

 

Now imagine if they had just used the text of that quote as a status update? Would it have spread so far or fast? Nope. If they had posted a picture of Gov. Gregoire and the words as a descriptor I also doubt that I would have seen it from friend after friend on Facebook. Their simple call to action, ‘Do you agree? Click ‘Share” is also a really nice touch.

Is there a similar message that your organization would like your supporters to share with their friends? If you don’t have a graphic designer at your disposal you could still easily hack something together using a tool like Picnik (at least until they close in April).

The other impressive thing that I saw on Facebook yesterday was this timely and compelling ad which appeared in my personal Facebook stream moments after the Governor signed the marriage equality bill.

 

 

I tend to ignore Facebook ads, but I just had to click on this one. It went to this landing page for the Democratic Governors Association. Notice how incredibly simple this form and page are.

 

 

Now I hope that they are going to pass on the words of thanks to the Governor, but I’m sure the main impetus for this campaign is to identify progressive voters in Washington State, which has a Governors race in 2012.

Since Facebook ads are so easy to target and time your organization could replicate this for your issue. It could be around legislation, or timed to coincide with a holiday or other event. The critical factor is timeliness and being focused on the issue rather than your organization. If this ad had said, “Join the Democratic Governors Association and thank Gov. Gregoire” it would probably receive far fewer clicks.

Lastly, while we’re on the topic of love, I have to make sure you’ve seen these Valentines cards on NPR’s Facebook page. They speak directly to the organization and all the things that its passionate listeners love, and sometimes loathe, about it. This is a perfect example of what we love about digital communications and social media. It allows your organization to show more sides of itself, in this case showcasing NPR”s fantastic humor.