Social media has somehow become one of the most time consuming, competitive, and mysterious marketing platforms to navigate.
There’s no one more resourceful than a fundraiser, though (if you know, you know).
Lucky for all of us, raffle programs that successfully sell tickets and grow engagement on social media aren't doing anything fancy with their posts.
They keep it simple. They plan.
And sometimes, they meme it out.
Half heart-warming and half hilarious, Food Depot Alimentare’s comment section is regularly full of love for the winners and/or more memes:
Serving over 65 provincial food banks, Food Depot has no shortage of stories and photos to prove their widespread impact:
The "hilarious" part though? That comes naturally.
Food Depot are daily Facebook posters, and mixing in memes has helped build conversation and community, not just excitement around winners and jackpots (but don’t get us wrong, those are great for engagement too.)
If you’re wondering what the “who’s who” of your local rural Nova Scotian community is up to on a Thursday night, they’re probably refreshing the firefighters’ draw results.
Winner announcements are some of the most engaging posts for raffling groups like the Nova Scotia firefighters.
What they really excel at, though, is standing out and keeping the conversation going between those announcements:
They’re relatable.
They’re a breath of fresh air during an era of information overload.
The lesson here is that “providing value” on social media can mean giving someone a laugh, a nod, a smile.
Every post doesn't need to (and shouldn't) spell out every detail of your raffle or other fundraising ask.
And in return hopefully that value you give comes back to you as a Like, a Follow, then a purchase. ✅
(Noob is slang for newbie, which is slang for someone who’s new at somethin... Actually, don't worry about it. Let's just focus on mastering memes. 😛)
If your feeds are full of text blocks, copies of posters, or they’re just inactive – dig into a more memeingful strategy.
1. Determine what kind of humour your target audience is into
Are you a hospital foundation whose Facebook followers are predominantly age 45+ parents? Think about what kind of humour/pop culture references would work for them (and consider which you want to steer clear of.)
2. Monitor accounts with relevant memes
Once you know what kind of memes your audience would like, follow a few dedicated meme accounts and sift through them every week or so to see if anything strikes you as shareable.
Then, you can save the image and share it with your own caption about 50/50s -- just make sure you credit the original poster/meme creator at the end of your caption with a tag like this: (Meme credit: @ACCOUNTNAME)
3. Don’t put pressure on it
Sure, you want to post at least every few days about your raffle, but don’t pressure yourself to deliver a hot ‘n’ fresh meme every. Single. Time.
Keep posting your “why” -- you know, examples of the stuff you do with your portion of raffle funds. When a laugh-out-loud meme comes across your social feeds... Well, we’re just saying you should share it with the world. We could all use some extra laughs.
So do we. Get in touch and let’s chat about your fundraising program and getting a raffle into the mix.