How to Fundraise on Twitter to Get More Donations
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or cause by raising money from a large number of people, typically through the internet. Similar to crowdfunding, Twitter connects people to each other through tweets on its platform. GoFundMe and Twitter both bring people together, so why not combine them into your fundraising strategy? Once you’ve launched your fundraiser, follow these steps to learn how to fundraise on Twitter.
1. Build a community
While Facebook discourages you from “friending” people you don’t know, Twitter encourages people who don’t know each other to connect and engage in conversation. In order to make the most out of Twitter, you’ll want to engage with other Twitter users and develop relationships over time.
- As with Facebook, start by finding and connecting with people you know — family, friends, colleagues and classmates.
- Use the standard and advanced Twitter search to find topics, keywords and conversations related to your cause or fundraiser.
- Send people messages and retweet their posts. Most likely, they’ll in turn retweet your tweets, which will help promote your fundraiser.
- Follow and retweet other people raising funds on GoFundMe to build a community of people fundraising for a common cause.
- Ask your followers to retweet by adding “please retweet” at the end of your tweet or use the abbreviation “RT.”
2. Get visual
Tweets that include photos receive 313% more engagement, according to Twitter. If you’d like to see more donations, you need more people to see your fundraiser, which means using more photos in your tweets. Try using a tool like Canva to create eye-catching images you can pair with your fundraiser easily.
3. Create custom links
To gauge how well your fundraising efforts are going on Twitter, create custom links that you can add to your tweets. Bitly is another and useful tool that you can use to see how people are reacting and engaging with your content. If you notice that people are clicking on your link more when you share fundraiser updates, adjust your strategy to create more content around your good news. Plus, using Bitly will shorten your link, which will help give you more space to share your story within Twitter’s 280 character limit.
4. Experiment with promotion
A strong social media strategy includes a variety of content. Avoid using the same messaging in every tweet and think outside of the box. Instead of tweeting “Please donate to my GoFundMe,” try sharing an image you created that includes an inspirational quote and tweet “This is one of [beneficiary name]’s favourite quotes. Consider donating to help him/her stay positive.”
Some other tips:
- Find out which hashtags are associated with your cause and tag your own tweets with them. Anyone following a given tag will see your tweet.
- If the tweet includes a link to your fundraiser, you’ll boost the number of potential donors it might reach.
- You can also pair existing tags with a custom hashtag unique to your fundraiser.
4. Share tweets on Facebook
It’s important to use different types of social media to promote your fundraiser.
If you think your Facebook audience would benefit from seeing your Twitter content, consider connecting your two accounts. After you publish tweets or retweet great content on Twitter, you can showcase it on your Facebook page after connecting your accounts.
5. Inspire others to donate and share
Not only will you be doing all of the promoting, but you will also want your family, friends and other Twitter users to do the same. Having others promote your fundraiser will help spread the word to other audiences that you may not have been able to reach. Besides asking people to share your fundraiser, you can reach out to them directly to ask for donations. See our blog post for help on how to ask people for donations.
Twitter helps spread awareness for your fundraiser
There are 1.3 billion registered Twitter users on the platform, so what better place to get the word out about your fundraiser? Start by creating and fostering a community and inspire others to promote causes that matter and you’ll be on your way to completing a successful fundraiser. If you haven’t already, sign up to create your fundraiser today.