A guide for project idea applicants How to promote your idea and engage your community
Welcome Thank you for being part of Fund My Neighbourhood. Fund My Neighbourhood is a $40 million participatory budgeting program that gives South Australians the power to nominate and vote for projects to improve their neighbourhoods. We want to help you make the most out of the promotion for your idea. In this guide, you ll find some tips on promoting your idea, a template email to send to your community members and content examples for social media. Voting closes on Monday 20 November 2017, so activate your community now to engage them with your idea and submit their vote. Read on for some tips and templates to help you along the way.
Promoting your idea We've put together some tips to help you promote your idea and get as many votes as possible. Check them out below. Make sure you include a link to Fund My Neighbourhood, specifically your idea page, in your communications. 1. Email your networks: Let your friends and family know about your idea! If you already have a database of community members, partners or clients, let them know about your idea and ask them to support you. We've created a template for your use/reference to send if you require. 2. Word of mouth: The best way to promote your idea is to actually talk about it to others. If you attend business meetings, markets, community events, social groups or other places where people get together in your neighbourhood, don t forget to encourage them to submit their vote. And remember that your team or community group members can be helpful in this aspect too - ask them to promote the idea and invite their own networks to vote. 3. Social networking: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube or Instagram or your blog is designed to help you reach out to like-minded people. So make sure you share your idea via those channels. 4. Facebook events: If you have a strong Facebook community, create a Facebook Event to set a virtual voting day to remind your friends/followers to vote. Link to your idea page on Fund My Neighbourhood from there. Also remember to include instructions on how to vote. 5. Community events: If your organisation meets regularly, take the opportunity to talk about your idea and add a voting component to the session to encourage your team to spread the word and submit their own vote. Or, if you have the time, why not host a get together to tell people about your project and encourage them to get involved?! Face to face interaction is a great way to relate to your audience and enable them to vote. If you haven t already, make sure you take a look at the promotional tools we've developed to help you promote your idea. You ll find everything from downloadable flyers to a workshop video on the Resources and Video page of our website. You can also request pre-printed flyers from us by emailing us: fundmyneighbourhood@sa.gov.au To get the most out of your promotion, it's worth monitoring how it's tracking. To do this, you can: 1. Monitor and reply to comments on the Fund My Neighbourhood website. The public can send you questions and comments about your idea, so keep an eye out for them and interact with your audience! 2. Monitor Facebook page data, Google Analytics, or simply use a short, trackable link (try bitly.com). This is a great way to see how many clicks your link is getting based on the promotions you're doing. If you haven t already, make sure you take a look at the promotional tools we've developed to help you promote your idea. You ll find everything from downloadable flyers to a video of a workshop on the promotional resources page of our website.
Content Examples Sample communication content email To encourage your community to vote for your Fund My Neighbourhood idea, we suggest (in addition to promotion on social media) you communicate with your network, through emails or newsletters. Below is a sample communication you re welcome to use or adapt for promotion of your idea. Ensure you populate it with your project details, and check the info where highlighted! Vote for our Fund My Neighbourhood idea Our idea insert idea here needs your vote to help us on our way to [insert project description] in [your area/suburb/address] to help [insert purpose]. Fund My Neighbourhood is a $40 million participatory budgeting program that gives South Australians the power to nominate and vote for projects to improve their neighbourhoods. We re seeking XX funding to [insert a more detailed description of your idea here, as seen on your page of the website]. We need your vote to make this happen and help improve our community. How to vote You can find out more about voting including a two-minute step by step video and answers to common questions on the voting page of the Fund My Neighbourhood website or check out the voting guide attached*. *[We ve provided this document as a link in the email as well as in the Appendix at the end of this document. Simply save or copy, paste and reattach to your own email] Add below only if upcoming workshop in your area/applicable: Detailed How to vote workshops [if applicable, view sessions here] Fund My Neighbourhood is offering sessions across South Australia for people who need extra help casting their vote: from locating projects to stepping them through the voting process. There is one in our area coming up here [insert location found via the website: View the list of voting information sessions here.] Don t miss out! Voting closes on 20 November 2017. If you need any assistance, feel free to contact us, email fundmyneighbourhood@sa.gov.au or call them direct on 1800 791 384. We appreciate you taking the time to cast your vote. Thank you for your support!
Sample communication content Social Media These fictional examples are for illustrative purposes. You can copy these messages or develop your own feel free to be creative! To increase engagement with your idea, we suggest posting clear, eye-catching content about your idea and include a link for community members to view the idea online. Below are some examples on how to vary your content across channels. Facebook Community audience. Using a photo is a great idea, as is engaging content that appeals to your member base/followers. Are you tired of dodging the potholes on Smith Street? So are we! Vote for our idea in Fund My Neighbourhood to help us fix the roads in our neighbourhood. [Insert link] We want to make the Playground in Sun Court safer for our community. Sign up to Fund My Neighbourhood to vote for our idea and help us create a safe play space. [Insert link] Have you heard about our Fund My Neighbourhood idea? It s [insert project name] and we need your vote to help receive funding for the local sports park. See more here and vote for us! [Insert link] Don t forget to vote for [insert project name] in Fund My Neighbourhood! We re looking for funding for our organic market co-op to help the community. [Insert link] Twitter Professional audience, media and organisations. 140 characters, concise messages. Use #FundMyNeighbourhood if there is room. Vote now for [insert project name], it s time for road repairs on Smith Street! [Insert link] #FundMyNeighbourhood Help us make the Sun Court playground a safer play space. Vote now! [Insert link] #FundMyNeighbourhood Our idea [insert project name] is up for #FundMyNeighbourhood. Vote to help improve the local sports park. [Insert link] Don t forget to vote for [insert project name] to help fund the organic market co-op! [Insert link] #FundMyNeighbourhood
Instagram Hashtags work very well on Instagram, ensure you tag relevant community members or organisations and encourage them to interact with your post. Links in Instagram posts aren t clickable so add a link to your project in your profile bio and ask followers to click there to vote. These messages can be similar/the same as your Facebook messages. Are you tired of dodging the potholes on Smith Street? So are we! Vote for our idea in Fund My Neighbourhood to help us fix the roads in your neighbourhood. Head to the website and vote via the link in our bio. We want to make the Playground in Sun Court safer for our community. Sign up to Fund My Neighbourhood to vote for our idea and help us create a safe play space. Vote using the link in our bio! Have you heard about our Fund My Neighbourhood idea? It s [insert project name] and we need your vote to help receive funding for the local sports park. See more here and vote for us! Just head to the website using the link in our bio. Don t forget to vote for [insert project name] in Fund My Neighbourhood! We re looking for funding for our organic market co-op to help the community. Take a look at the program and register to vote by using the link in our profile. NB. Choose your own hashtags examples include: #fundmyneighbourhood #smithstreet #[yoursuburb] #southaustralia #community LinkedIn Professional audience, businesses. Could be organisations, use a simple photo or video and tag connections who you believe may be interested. Fund My Neighbourhood is a a $40 million participatory budgeting program that gives South Australians the power to nominate and vote for projects to improve their neighbourhoods. We re applying to fix the potholes on Smith Street and need your help to get the idea across the line! Vote here: [insert link] As part of Fund My Neighbourhood, we want to make the Playground in Sun Court safer for our community. Sign up to vote for our idea and help us create a safe play space. [insert link] Have you heard about our Fund My Neighbourhood idea? It s [insert project name] and we need your vote to help receive funding for the local sports park. See more here and vote for us: [insert link] Don t forget to vote for [insert project name] in Fund My Neighbourhood! We re looking for funding for our organic market co-op to help the community. Take a look at the program and register to vote here: [insert link]
Good luck with promoting your idea! Reminder, voting closes Monday 20 November. If you need any assistance, please don t hesitate to contact us: 1800 791 384 general enquiries 0403 915 890 voting enquiries 0466 089 531 voting workshop enquiries fundmyneighbourhood@sa.gov.au For all Fund My Neighbourhood info and resources, visit fundmyneighbourhood.sa.gov.au Appendix (next page) 1. How to vote one page guide