I love harnessing technology, cutting costs and freeing our staff to do what they do best. Watch reality tv. Just kidding…I think we’re pretty good at spending time with people.
Here are two examples we’ve used recently….
1) Recently we had a volunteer vision night for the ministry in Portland. We had no paper invitation. We did everything via email, facebook and an online RSVP form made from Google doc’s (i.e. free!). We had 27 people show up to hear about how they might get involved! Awesomesauce. We spend less than $100 total (mostly on food) and we got the people that we wanted there…people that are comfortable with online technology. And more importantly our staff are connecting relationally with these people instead of making copies.
2)We advertised PDX Cru on facebook for 4 days at the start of the Portland State school year. Our staff didn’t need to run around printing promotional materials and trying to figure out how to gain permission to post things on campus. We may end up adding the paper aspect, but for now this serves us perfectly. Today the majority of students that showed up at Portland State for our first info meeting found us on Facebook. Well worth it.
What about you? Where has being forced to cut costs allowed you to be more effective and strategic?
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I’m curious about the fb advertising. We’ve considered doing it at our University (Concordia, in Montreal) but what we’ve noticed is that few facebook users now associate themselves with a Network, leaving our targeted ads only available to few people. Out of 30,000 Undergrads last time we checked there weren’t even a few thousand. Maybe that’s just a problem with our school or that the targeted ads have changed how they work now…
Having said that, we’ve put up a lot of posters, pointing people to our facebook & Liking our page & that’s been quite successful.
Yeah, I’m still learning how Facebook targets specific groups. I’m not sure if it’s based on a network anymore. It might just recognize that Portland State is on their profile. You can also target specific ages and cities too.
Also, I’m not sure that it would work at every campus. At PSU there is obviously a hole that we’re filling and students looking for us!
All things considered though, pointing people to our fanpage and engaging with them their has been fruitful so far.