Pi Beta Phi is one of First Book’s strongest partners; they have worked with us since 2007, and their generosity and dedication have helped us get new books into the hands of thousands of kids from low-income communities.
Recently, Pi Beta Phi issued a challenge that was as easy as 3-4-5: If they could reach 3,000 followers on Twitter and we could get 4,000 followers on Twitter, they would donate funds to provide 5,000 brand-new books to kids in need. (At the time, we had about 3,400 followers, so it seemed like an easy enough goal to reach.)
We threw the challenge out to our tweeps, and they really delivered! People don’t always have the time or resources to help in big ways, so they sometimes respond enthusiastically when given the chance to help in smaller ways. Many of our followers re-tweeted the request, but many more went above and beyond the call of duty, sending it individually to popular or influential friends of theirs on Twitter.
* Whoa, you lost me, First Book. For those of you not on Twitter, you can think of it as a network of overlapping circles. If we “tweet” something (post it to the First Book account on Twitter), all of our “followers” (the people who sign up to receive our comments) can see it on their own Twitter page. They can then “re-tweet” it, and share it with their own circle of friends and followers, sometimes adding a comment of their own. So the more a message is shared, the more people see it.
We even picked up a couple celebrity followers – Alyssa Milano and Kirstie Alley. Both of whom – in addition to being lovely, talented and strong supporters of community service organizations – have huge followings on Twitter. Like, hundreds-of-thousands-of-people huge, all of whom were able to see the re-tweeted challenge.
Thanks to the efforts of our many dedicated online supporters, we hit 4,000 followers quickly, and kept going. At present, we’re up to 5,800, and Pi Beta Phi will be donating the funds to purchase 5,000 brand-new books for kids in need.
As we say on Twitter: First Book supporters FTW!