Westside LA Team In Training - Summer 2009 Marathon & Half Marathon Team

Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

I see many TNT participants use Facebook in a variety of ways. It’s a great way to reach out to your close friends and family on there. Let me walk you through using Facebook to its full potential, so you can get maximum exposure for your fundraising.

Don’t have a Facebook account?
http://www.facebook.com to sign up. Go to the Friends link up top and click on “Find Friends” to start your social network.

Photo
Upload a photo of yourself wearing your TNT training jersey.

What’s On Your Mind?
It’s the new status updates. If you have a blog, be sure to add your link to your post each time. You may post your fundraising page here, but don’t do it too frequently – you don’t want to spam people’s news feeds.

Basic Info
Click on your name on the top nav bar to view your own profile. The first thing you should do is click on the “Info” tab next to the “Wall” tab and click “Edit Information”. Under Personal Information, add some TNT keywords to your Activities, Interests, and About Me. Add that you’re training for a marathon. Under Contact Information, under Website, add all your links for your fundraising page, running blog, and/or other website profiles you may have.

Your Wall
Since you’re on your profile, you can automate your blog feeds to your wall too. Under the status update button, “share”, there’s a button called “settings.” Under “Stories Posted by You”, click on “Blog/RSS” and enter your blog URL. Your updates will be fed in as “Notes”, but it’s not in real time, so don’t be alarmed if it’s not there right away.

Interacting with other TNT
Check out the TNT Facebook Group’s Forum and meet those who have gone through the program. Also join our season’s Facebook Group and interact with your teammates!

Advanced
There’s plenty of other ways to use Facebook to help promote your fundraising. You can add apps, connect your Twitter updates to Facebook status updates, join Causes, start groups, create events, and more. I would suggest to create a Facebook Group instead of a Facebook Event to get people aware of your fundraising page, because an event will eventually expire. You can keep the group and use it for potential future seasons.

I hope this is a good start for those just getting into Facebook. Some may find this more useful than mass e-mailing, some don’t. Just think of it as another avenue to fundraise. I’m sure it will also open the doors to new ideas, and also making new friends. Good luck everyone!

For some of you, recommitment is around the corner. I’ve been approached by some participants about some unique and exciting ideas for fundraising. Most of my ideas come from researching other TNT fundraising pages outside of LA, checking out fundraising forums, and researching how other nonprofit organizations fundraise. The information is definitely out there, but the tough part is figuring out where to look.

A great resource for fundraising ideas are various Team In Training related and running forums. Skimming through some of the following forums, I already picked up some unique and exciting ideas such as bowling nights, magnets, buttons, having a table at an auto dealership, gift card fundraisers, restaurant revenue shares, local business reviews, and much much more.

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Community Forums
This is the official Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Fundraising Forum for Team in Training. This is HIGHLY recommended, and contains a lot of valuable fundraising information.

Facebook Team in Training Group Forums
This is a great resource for fundraising knowledge sharing from experienced and new Team in Training members. It seems to be updated with new topics and replies frequently, and reading some of the old archives are very helpful too.

MySpace Team in Training Group Forums
Topic threads don’t go very deep, but there’s pages and pages of topics which you can read through for many ideas.

Active Running Community – Fundraising Topic
This forum isn’t a Team in Training focused page, but you can use the same ideas and techniques from other nonprofit organizations. Not much going on here, but archives can also give you some great ideas.

You really have to take the time to read through some. I encourage you to also participate and contribute. Network with other TNT participants and alumni, meet some new friends, share ideas!

This site now utilizes Facebook Connect. What does that mean? Without being too technical, it allows us to integrate Facebook features. Like what? Well, you don’t need to re-register or keep filling out your name and e-mail on this site each time you want to comment. It’s one less username/password to remember. You just have to click on “Connect” on the lower part of the 2nd column of this site (see the facebook logo?), and login with your existing account.

You can also invite people from your Facebook friends list to come check out our site. You can tell them how great this Team is! As you can see in the Facebook Connect area, your profile pic and information will be posted for other TNT to find and connect with you. We’ve added this feature to make this site a little more interactive and fun.

One feature that seems to be buggy at the moment is being able to post your comment activity to your Facebook News Feed. Everything else seems to work. Please let us know if you come across any weird issues. Also, if you want to be a contributor for the blog section, just let us know too!

Please note: By connecting to Facebook on our site, it may leave you still connected to Facebook after you leave our site, so please be aware of your login sessions in and out of our website.