Image Credit: Thunderclap & World Humanitarian Day
Happy Toolkit Tuesday! This week’s post is all about Thunderclap, a tool that’s come up more than once in the past month among team Belle, and our clients. If you’ve heard the name Thunderclap, but didn’t know what the buzz was all about, find out why it’s one of my go-to free tool recommendations below.
A Round of Applause
Thunderclap is a social media tool used to boost awareness of an event, or to spread news about a campaign. By sharing a Thunderclap link with all of your friends, subscribers and followers, you can schedule a social media post to send from each person’s account (with their consent) at the the same time.
Don’t understand the significance yet? Imagine the exact same post and hashtag being shared across Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr (the social channels used by Thunderclap) at the same time, to coincide with a launch or promotion. By getting hundreds of users involved, you can potentially begin a local trending topic, and at the least, spread awareness of your cause. Interested? Read on to see how this all works.
Thunderclap How-To
Thunderclap is a straightforward tool, and takes you through each part of the process in a user-friendly way.
To create your Thunderclap, you’ll first need to connect your social channels to the tool and create a Campaign page on the site, which requires a short bio and details about the campaign, including selecting a Title and Category. These two sections help to organize the campaign on the Thunderclap website, and allows those browsing on the site to easily find your campaign. Next, you will need to provide the:
- Message & Message Link
The message and message link are arguably the two most important pieces of your campaign. The message is the text that your supporters will share at the same time, and the link within your message can send supporters and viewers to a donation page, website, video, etc – whatever best supports your call to action.
- End Date
Consider how long you would like your campaign to run, and add an end date. Keep the duration short enough that there is a sense of urgency, but long enough to collect a good amount of supporters. Thunderclap provides a number of recommendations here.
- Supporter Goal
Speaking of collecting supporters, you will also need to select a supporter goal, which is the minimum number of people you will need for your message to be shared. This is an important point:
If you do not reach your supporter goal, your message will not be shared.
There is no real advantage to choosing a higher supporter goal over a lower one, so if it’s your first Thunderclap, play it safe and choose the smallest goal of 100 supporters.
- Story
Your story will most likely be viewed by those browsing campaigns on the Thunderclap website. Sell your cause here, and let outsiders know why they should support your call to action.
- Campaign Photo
Here is where you will add a profile photo. Consider creating a customized image to accompany your campaign – something eye-catching, to make it more likely for people to notice and share your message when they see it on social media.
After going through each section, just add an email for easy contact with the Thunderclap team, and confirm your campaign!
First Comes Thunder…
…then comes a successfully completed campaign! By carefully planning out your Thunderclap, and spreading the word among your fans, you can raise awareness of your promotion, event, product launch or next great idea. Plus, everyone is doing it – you can check out some of the case studies for more inspiration!
What do you think of Thunderclap? Do you have a successful campaign story you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments below!
