On my Facebook profile I’ve got many friends I went to school with, some I’ve worked with, many I do business with and five hairy apes. No not ex-boyfriends, but Ugandan gorillas that I friended via an organization called Friend a Gorilla. The group is working to save gorillas by allowing people to “friend” a gorilla via Facebook by donating $1 to their fund via Paypal. The money goes toward preserving these amazing animals.
When you visit the site you can find all sorts of info about gorillas and you can see the names, background, family group and pictures of the gorillas you want as your Facebook friends. But much like on Facebook, their bios are reserved for their “friends.”
So when I came across this site, I was excited to help out and I adopted a few. But what excited me even more was the campaign itself. What a fab way for a nonprofit to put Facebook to use to help their cause. Who can resist getting updates from a lovable, goofy gorilla every now and then? It’s taking a successful model–the “adopt a child” plea– which is always hard to say no to, but then using Facebook to take it to another level by:
1. Playing on people’s vanity by allowing an app, or a page showing the gorilla they adopted. and 2. Giving it the irresistibleness to go viral.
The app instantly posts to your Twitter and Facebook accounts announcing your new friend. There’s also the ability to friend a gorilla as a gift.
Check out the site both for the cause and for an example of a great way for business and nonprofits to use social media to get their message out and raise funds. www.friendagorilla.org