I was indulging in one of my favourite lunchtime pastimes today – checking out websites which have won awards. Today’s site, Waterlife, was courtesy of the SXSW 2010 Web Awards.
Waterlife won the award for the Activism category, a sector I find seriously interesting for two reasons. Firstly, I am fascinated by the web’s ability to instill and express emotion, which any good activism website will do, and figuring out how they achieve that heart warming, skin tingling effect. Secondly, the idea a website can change the course of history by making people DO something about political or ethical concerns is simply awesome.
Considering Waterlife is raising awareness of the challenges The Great Lakes is facing in the States, a far cry from the streets of Freo, Western Australia, where I live, it surprised me to feel a lump in my throat as I surfed around the site. How did they achieve it?
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Your totally awesome Facebook Fan Page is all set up and populated with exclusive behind-the-scenes content – you can almost taste the engagement. …except the fans are nowhere to be found. (side note: “build it and they will come” is one of the greatest lies ever told).
So what now? How do you reel ‘em in? Why with a contest of course! Just pick up a few iPod Nanos to use as prizes (who doesn’t love those things?!) and lay out your conditions for entry… all you must do is become a fan, write on our wall, post a discussion topic, upload a fan photo, tag yourself in said photo, ‘like’ our status update and then tell all your friends about it! Then you can just sit back and watch the fans flock to your page.
Not so fast… while this may have been a quick fix in the past, Facebook tightened the reins on contests with the updated Promotion Guidelines released late last year. Three months later, I’m still seeing heaps of renegade Facebook Pages out there, running their illegal contests, with no regard for the laws of the land. So, I thought some cliff notes might be handy.
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OK so this is a tad self promotional but there’s something in it for you so don’t be too quick to judge. I will be presenting at this year’s Sydney ad:tech and if, despite this announcement, you were still thinking of attending (16th and 17th March) then drop me a line (marc@thinqdigital.com.au) as I can send you a code that scores 20% off your ticket(s). Here endeth the promotion.
