Newsletter – Rotarians on Social Networks Fellowship

January 22, 2013

Facebook Advertising Campaign Helping to Improve Rotary’s Public Image in Northeast Illinois

Facebook Advertising Campaign Helping to
Improve Rotary’s Public Image in Northeast Illinois

By Rich Lalley, Club Service Advisor and Webmaster,
Rotary District 6440
January 20, 2013

Continuing a successful campaign begun in January 2012, Rotary District 6440 delivers millions of ads to Facebook users living in northeast Illinois. The campaign is funded with a Rotary International PR Grant and contributions from District 6440 Rotarians through their annual dues.

The campaign features more than two dozen different ad executions in five themes: “Reasons to Join Rotary”, “What’s Rotary?”, and ads promoting GSE, Rotary Youth Exchange and RYLA.

From July to December 2012, these ads were seen more than 13.6 million times by over 200,000 Facebook users living in District 6440, just north of Chicago. The ads targeted adults 30+ with an interest in charities/causes, teaching/education, the environment, politics or small businesses, or about 30% of the adult population living in the district. (The Youth Exchange RYLA and GSE ads targeted younger adults and teens too). Many of the ads feature Rotary videos produced by RI, and many link to special Facebook pages about “What is Rotary?” and the “Why join a Rotary Club?” These pages provide viewers an inquiry form to request more information about Rotary in Northeastern Illinois, and our District membership committee follows up on all inquiries. In 2012, more than 135 people contacted the District and were connected with clubs in their communities.

Throughout 2012, Rotary ads were seen 48 million times and the District Facebook Page grew from 170 to 1,127 fans! These fans are exposed to an ongoing stream of Rotary news through the posts on the Rotary6440 page which are featured in their newsfeed. A complete report on the July – December campaign, including performance for all ads, can be found on the Rotary District 6440 website.

December 18, 2012

ROSNF Delivers Rotary in WA Training Seminar

In November 2011, the then district governors of 9455 and 9465, the two Rotary Districts in the Australian state of Western Australia, decided to offer a joint Facebook training seminar to all Western Australian Rotarians and Rotaractors. The task of designing and delivering the seminar was assigned to Simone Carot Collins, founding Chair of ROSNF and an assistant governor in District 9455 and Kero O’Shea, ROSNF board member and social media coordinator for District 9465. Simone was chair of the ROSNF Training Committee and Kero a committee member.

The task of designing what became the Rotary in WA Facebook Seminar addressed a number of challenges. Foremost among these was a realisation that many of the participants in the course had very significant concerns about privacy issues relative to Facebook. The four-hour seminar was designed to deal with this issue first, to reassure participants and allow them to focus fully on learning how to operate Facebook safely and effectively. The seminar planning, marketing, delivery and follow-up saw the use of seven different social networking tools in an intensive exercise that streamlined the entire process and virtually eliminated double-handling and rework.

The Rotary in WA Facebook seminar, held on 12 February 2012, was attended by more than 150 Rotarians and Rotaractors, with representatives from almost all metropolitan clubs and several country attendees. The success of this seminar led to a second course being held in the southwest of WA in March. Together these programs and other courses conducted by Kero and Simone provided Facebook training to more than 400 attendees and underpinned the development of a significant network of Facebook pages in Western Australia. District 9465 alone has more than 50 pages with a combined page following of over 6000. Another success story for ROSNF!

Prepared by

Kero O’Shea

21 January 2013