Start facebook groups for micro-campaigns

Sat, 27/12/2008 - 23:33

A few weeks ago, I noticed that my favourite chocolate bar was no longer suitable for vegans. I know there are much more important causes that I should have been campaigning on, but I really like this chocolate and didn't want to lose it!

I started a facebook group calling for the bar to be vegan again and invited a few friends. It was a bit of an experiment to see if small facebook campaigns could be successful without huge mailing lists of supporters.

Lots of people quickly joined the group, and before long we'd all written to the manufacturer asking for milk to be removed from the recipe.

Fortunately, we got replies telling us they'd just added 'contains milk' because there is a risk that tiny particles would get into the chocolate and they were worried about allergies.

Because of this response, we wrapped up the campaign, but if we hadn't, I have no doubt the group would have continued to grow and we would have been able to exert pressure on the manufacturer.

The message is that you don't need a massive mailing list to start a facebook campaign, just a few like-minded friends. Let the power of the networks do the rest. I'm excitedly waiting for the next opportunity to start a micro-campaign. What facebook group are you going to create?