Scouts and Scouters now is the time to ramp up your online sales planning for the 2010 popcorn sales campaign. This is the third year that the Boy Scouts of America has allowed the use of e-mail to increase sales. The BSA created unique sales ID codes for each scout to e-mail to their relatives to buy popcorn which would be credited to that Scout. This year have your parents extend that system to their social media networks which are likely much larger than their e-mail address books.
It’s the obvious next step in using online tools to help your unit excel by using the social media sphere. A number of units and councils are using all manner of social media. This Pack from Virginia has outlined their campaign goals and achievements on their web site along with other useful information about their unit. The Bay Area Council has links to the national BSA listing of social media links such as the national council’s Facebook Page and Twitter page. These folks have set the precedent so it’s time for your Pack and Troop to get on the ball with leveraging social media for your benefit.
Start with a Facebook page. You need to have a personal account first. Then create a Twitter page for your unit. Pretty sure you need to have a personal account to do this as well. Assuming you already have personal profiles for both of these platforms though, invite all of your personal FB friends and Twitter peeps to “Like” your unit Page and “Follow” your unit Twitter account. Then send invites to your Scouts’ parents to Like and Follow and have them forward both sites to their friends and peeps to help build momentum for the virtual sales effort. The main thing though is to make sure that your parents forward their son’s online ordering code to their social media connections.
For your Page consider creating an Events tab to advertise the neighborhoods, football tailgates and other events and places where your Boys will be selling popcorn. Also think about creating a landing page and adding a PayPal button to it to accept general donations to your unit year round. Naturally you’ll want to keep the wall updated regularly so that your growing list of Facebook fans can brag about your unit and encourage other youngsters to join your unit.
Use social media to have a record breaking sales year for your Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and make this 100th year of Scouting a memorable one for your unit.
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