How to recruit for Facebook group protesting airport body scanners?
April 4, 2010 1:58 PM Subscribe
How to recruit for Facebook group protesting airport body scanners?
I started a Facebook group to protest against mandatory body scans for air travel.
What is the best way to recruit people for the group? I'm new to Facebook and learned the hard way that inviting people I don't know will get my account closed down, causing me to lose control of the group.
Assets: $100 Google AdWords credit, willingness to spend some money on Facebook ads...but I'd rather not get my friends and family involved, most of whom I think would have little interest in the topic
Eventually, I'd like to do something with the group like organize a protest or two, but that's for the next AskMeFi question
I started a Facebook group to protest against mandatory body scans for air travel.
What is the best way to recruit people for the group? I'm new to Facebook and learned the hard way that inviting people I don't know will get my account closed down, causing me to lose control of the group.
Assets: $100 Google AdWords credit, willingness to spend some money on Facebook ads...but I'd rather not get my friends and family involved, most of whom I think would have little interest in the topic
Eventually, I'd like to do something with the group like organize a protest or two, but that's for the next AskMeFi question
I wouldnt even bother really. Facebook isn't the place to try and make a serious point.
Have you considered an internet pertition? :p
posted by lemonfridge at 2:53 PM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Have you considered an internet pertition? :p
posted by lemonfridge at 2:53 PM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Make sure your group is indexed by Google (you can do a Google search about this if you're not sure how to do it) and that you're using key words that people are likely to search for. Think of which words are most likely to get anyone's attention, not just people who are interesting in this specific issue (e.g. "naked").
Post the link to your wall, in your profile info, and in that little section under your profile photo. Post significant updates to your wall, but don't do it so much that people get annoyed. Even if you're willing to annoy people, it's still counterproductive to be overly self-promotional in your wall posts, since people will "hide" your updates from their homepage feed if you post too often.
If you have the potential to add more Facebook friends (people you honestly know and haven't gotten around to adding), add them before promoting the site on Facebook so that your posts show up in as many people's feeds as possible.
"I'd rather not get my friends and family involved, most of whom I think would have little interest in the topic" -- No, no, this doesn't make sense. If "most" of them aren't interested, OK, target the others. Send personalized messages to your more politically active Facebook friends. If you dismiss all your personal contacts out of hand, you'll be restricting the group. Facebook is the perfect opportunity to reach out to your friends for help, since communicating with lots of friends is exactly what Facebook is designed for. Also, it's not just about the specific work they might be able to do for you -- it's also about the impression you make on other people. If you can get some of your friends leaving supportive comments in your group, then it's going to look like a thriving/popular group to strangers who find it.
Make sure the text describing your group is well-written and typo-free, and that all text and graphics look reasonably professional. I'm most likely to join a group if the text looks like something I might read in a magazine. Include links to reputable articles explaining the problem -- here's a good one from The New Republic. I generally won't join a group if the text looks like a polemical screed, with random use of ALL CAPS and exclamation marks!!!
Put the link in your Metafilter profile (in the "website" section).
posted by Jaltcoh at 3:04 PM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Post the link to your wall, in your profile info, and in that little section under your profile photo. Post significant updates to your wall, but don't do it so much that people get annoyed. Even if you're willing to annoy people, it's still counterproductive to be overly self-promotional in your wall posts, since people will "hide" your updates from their homepage feed if you post too often.
If you have the potential to add more Facebook friends (people you honestly know and haven't gotten around to adding), add them before promoting the site on Facebook so that your posts show up in as many people's feeds as possible.
"I'd rather not get my friends and family involved, most of whom I think would have little interest in the topic" -- No, no, this doesn't make sense. If "most" of them aren't interested, OK, target the others. Send personalized messages to your more politically active Facebook friends. If you dismiss all your personal contacts out of hand, you'll be restricting the group. Facebook is the perfect opportunity to reach out to your friends for help, since communicating with lots of friends is exactly what Facebook is designed for. Also, it's not just about the specific work they might be able to do for you -- it's also about the impression you make on other people. If you can get some of your friends leaving supportive comments in your group, then it's going to look like a thriving/popular group to strangers who find it.
Make sure the text describing your group is well-written and typo-free, and that all text and graphics look reasonably professional. I'm most likely to join a group if the text looks like something I might read in a magazine. Include links to reputable articles explaining the problem -- here's a good one from The New Republic. I generally won't join a group if the text looks like a polemical screed, with random use of ALL CAPS and exclamation marks!!!
Put the link in your Metafilter profile (in the "website" section).
posted by Jaltcoh at 3:04 PM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
As well as the SEO advice above, it might be worth getting pro-active and doing a search for bloggers who've written articles about body scanners, and send a polite email asking if they'd like to sign up to the page, and if so, whether they'd mind telling their readers about it.
Essentially, track down likeminded people with influence. Ask them if they'd mind using that influence to spread a cause they agree with. If enough people feel strongly about it, you'll get plenty of people joining. If they don't, then perhaps it's just not an issue that too many people are very bothered about.
posted by radioedit at 3:12 PM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Essentially, track down likeminded people with influence. Ask them if they'd mind using that influence to spread a cause they agree with. If enough people feel strongly about it, you'll get plenty of people joining. If they don't, then perhaps it's just not an issue that too many people are very bothered about.
posted by radioedit at 3:12 PM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
the people concerned with privacy who would theoretically join such a group aren't going to be on facebook to begin with.
posted by jrishel at 7:46 AM on April 5, 2010
posted by jrishel at 7:46 AM on April 5, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:33 PM on April 4, 2010