Blog

By Chris Johnson
Director of communications

More sharing of free/super inexpensive ways we're spreading the message about The Fuller Center for Housing: Today, it's something you'll find on YouTube … and linked to from our website and Facebook page.

It's a short video making use of what's known as kinetic typography or motion typography or something to that extent. I just call it one cool thingamajiggy as we say down here in Georgia. OK, not everyone around here talks like I do (though everyone should).

It was produced by Kelli Yoder. Kelli was a communications specialist at The Fuller Center but left a few months before I arrived. (She must have heard I was interested in the director of communications job!)

Though Kelli was busy at Elon University working on her master's, she contacted me and wanted to see if she could put any of the new skills she was learning to use on a volunteer basis to help us spread awareness. I said something to the extent of, “Hot diggity dog, you sure can!” and one of the things she came up with was this video.

It succinctly explains the general concept of our Save a House/Make a Home initiative. She could have made a loooooong video explaining all the details of working with banks and financial institutions and such, but what she does in less than 90 seconds here is what we truly need to build this very needed initiative.

We need to simply let the world know that there are too many unwanted vacant houses and many decent families who could use them. It just makes no sense to us to have families unable to find decent housing when there are millions of vacant properties that banks and other folks simply don't want anymore.

And this very short video sums it all up. Thanks, Kelli!

Little things mean a lot (Part 2)

By Chris Johnson
Director of communications

This week, I'm sharing some of the cool little ways we're spreading our message for free … or at super low costs.

Here's kind of a fun one. You've probably seen versions of this on Facebook with various other causes. Basically, you try to find a message that people want to be associated with and give them an easy way to attach it to their profile picture in their Facebook feeds. Our graphic artist Richard Aguirre designed this, and the arrow points straight to the picture of the person who shares the image. Kinda cool huh?

If people like the photo and the message (and, again, nobody seems to be against helping people help themselves as we do at The Fuller Center for Housing), then they are likely to click “share” on such a photo and it appears next to their picture. And if their friends like it, they might share it … and so on and so forth.

The point is that the more it's shared, the more people get a glimpse of what we do here. It's more likely to get shared than a long story … which kind of stinks for writers like me who love to tell a story with words more than with graphics, pictures and video. Oh well, it's the short-attention-span world we live in and my immense literary genius is just going to waste!

There's one example at the top right and a simple explanation of how it works below. Be sure to go to our Facebook page and pick out one of these images you like best. I personally like the cute little girl below from Peru (who lives in a Fuller Center home, and you can see a video of her by clicking here), but some folks might like the one above that shows more folks in action. It's your choice. All I ask is that if you agree with the message, just take the fleeting moment it requires to click share. That fleeting moment of your time could change somebody's life!

Little things mean a lot (Part 1)

By Chris Johnson
Director of Communications

Whether you love or hate Facebook, there's no doubting its impact on society. Not only does it allow each and every person to have a say on matters from the trivial to the life-changing, but it helps organizations like The Fuller Center for Housing to spread awareness of our great work … without great cost.

Not that we have anything against paid advertising, but anytime it's possible to spread our message at no cost, that's the path we choose. That allows more funds to go directly to our mission -- making sure people have access to simple, decent, affordable housing.

This week, I'll share some of the cool little ways we're spreading our message for free … or at super low costs. It's a product of a lot of learning and a little common sense.

We've been experimenting with interesting ways to engage Facebook users, especially those who are not already friends of The Fuller Center but who are likely to support our work. And the best thing is we're not trying to “sell” ourselves. We're just letting people know who we are and what we do. You don't have to “sell” a mission like ours. You just have to get people to get a glimpse of it.

So the first little experiment I'll share this week is this quote from founder Millard Fuller. It's not my favorite quote, although I definitely agree with it. I'll use his best quotes later on. I just wanted to see if folks out there on Facebook would like to see and share this quote and photo of Millard.

They did. They shared it with many friends. In fact, it's the most shared item we've had in the history of our Facebook page, and we can't even calculate how many other times it's been shared out of our realm of measurement. But between those shares and about $15 I spent out of my own pocket (let's call it an extra donation this month), we multiplied our usual Facebook reach about six-fold. And you'll see more such quotes in the future, though we won't wear out that approach to garnering attention on Facebook.

It's just one of many seemingly little things we're doing that attract a lot of attention, and I'll share more this week. Some folks might think it's silly or a trick or whatever, but it has been seen by thousands of people, including thousands who had never even heard of The Fuller Center for Housing.

There's no mathematical formula that X amount of awareness equals Y amount of dollars. But it's a pretty safe assumption that zero amount of awareness equals zero amount of dollars. And it's the donations of people like you who make our ministry possible. And we're going to seek out even more people like you.

I think Millard would approve.

by Kirk Lyman-Barner, Director
US Field Operations

Part II - Memphis