How to effectively collect signatures
How to effectively collect signatures
Now that you’ve created a petition you’ll need to gain more signatures to build awareness and support for your cause. So what is the best way to do this? We’ve laid out the best ways to share your petition with others who care about your goal to get the petition signatures you need to achieve change.Learn how to effectively collect signatures for your petition using proven strategies. Maximize your petition's visibility by sharing it via email, social media platforms, and engaging influencers. Discover tips for organizing local events, leveraging hashtags, and making face-to-face connections in high-traffic areas.
We’ve laid out the best ways to share your petition with other people who care about your goal to get the signatures you need to achieve change.
Share on social media
Email your petition
Send a petition update
Join a conversation on social media
Create a hashtag for your campaign
Customise your headline for sharing
How to share your petition on social media
After creating your petition, we provide an easy way to share your petition on Facebook and Twitter with Change.org’s social media sharing tools.Simply log in to your petition, and use the “Take the next step” button on the right. Choose whether you want it to be shared on Twitter or Facebook, and your petition will automatically be posted to your friends on Facebook or followers on Twitter.We recommend using this tool frequently to get your petition the most exposure possible on Facebook and Twitter. You can also add a personal message to the post to give your followers an update.
How to Share a Petition on Instagram or Instagram Story
Take a photo, or upload an image to your Story.
In the Story editor, tap the link icon on the top of the screen (the one that looks like a chain).
Tap +URL.
Type in the URL of the website you want to link to.
Tap “Done” on the upper right corner of the screen.
Once you post your Story, your followers will be able to click the link to go to your petition and sign or share.
In addition to sharing your petition on your own social media profiles, you can:
Join Facebook groups related to your petition topic or location and share it there
Join online message boards on Reddit related to your topic or location and share
Link to your petition in the comment section of related news articles
Message influencers directly and ask them to repost
Email your petition
Email your petition out to former colleagues, business partners, local leaders, support groups and more. Like sharing on social media, emailing your friends and family about your petition and asking them to sign is a great way to build support and gain signatures. Asking your friends and family to sign and share your petition is the absolute best way to build momentum and collect signatures for your petition. Not only do they know and support you, their signatures show how important this campaign is to you and your community.
Here’s a sample message:
Collect signatures in high-traffic areas
Making face-to-face connections with people to share your passion for your cause and load up on even more signatures. Stick to high-traffic public areas where you're allowed to walk around and ask people to sign. College campuses and downtown areas where people work are a great place to start. Consider timing as well — you'll probably find more people out and about during lunch hours or class changes.
Send a petition update
Change.org’s Petition Update tool is one of the most effective ways not only to get more signatures, but also to keep your supporters updated and encourage them to take action to win your campaign.
Our top three tips for using Petition Updates to help your petition:
Update your supporters every single time something happens with your petition. Remember they signed your petition because they really care, so they will want to know what happens next. If you’ve got something valuable to share, send it, even if it’s every day. But at least share some news once every week.
There are many reasons to post an update, try to use each of these in your campaign:
Share media coverage or news stories that relate to the campaign
Ask your supporters for advice or contacts that will help win the petition
Tell them when you’ve been in contact with the Decision Maker
Ask your supporters to help your campaign in some other way, like donating to a Crowdfunder, posting on the decision maker’s Facebook page, or tweeting at them
Always ask your supporters to do something in support of your petition when you send an update. Here are a few examples:
“Read and share this news article so more people hear about our campaign”
“Leave a comment if you have ideas for how we can win the petition”
“Tweet at the decision maker”
Join a conversation on social media
Is your decision maker hosting an online conversation, or is there a Twitter conversation going on around your issue marked with a specific hashtag? To get attention from your campaign, start using the hashtag yourself to spread the word.
Example: Online advocates used the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt to spread the word about doubt surrounding Troy Davis' Death Row sentence. When Troy's sister started a petition on Change.org, signers tweeted links to the petition with #TooMuchDoubt, making sure others following Troy's story would see the petition. Troy was tragically executed on September 21, 2011, but advocates around the world were able to change the conversation around the death penalty..
Create a hashtag for your campaign
Are you fighting a longer-term campaign, one that many groups and individuals might want to tweet about? Create a hashtag for your campaign so that supporters can follow the campaign updates and talk to one another on social media.
For events and actions, hashtags should be as short as possible, and should be spread widely in advance. Abbreviations and acronyms are okay (Example: #NN15 for Netroots Nation conference 2015). For branding a campaign, hashtags can be a little longer to allow for full words, and potentially, the decision maker's name.
Example: After looking at the Brits 2016 nominations, Anant felt the lack of diversity of the nominees wasn’t reflective of the industry. Jumping on the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, Anant produced #BritsSoWhite to reflect the ‘whitewash’ at the Brit Awards. The industry took notice, and the awards ceremony responded to Anant's petition announcing that “diversity was not reflected at this year’s ceremony”.
Customise your headline for sharing
The title of your petition automatically generates as a tweet or Facebook headline when people share your petition. Sometimes your petition title might work for the petition, but may be too long or not make as much sense on social media platforms. It can be a great idea to try and customise your headline for sharing. Here you can adjust your title, add in your decision makers twitter handle, or even include a hashtag and really bring your petition to people’s attention. Simply click on the drop down icon next to ‘customise your headline for sharing’ and edit away. If you are going to use a twitter handle, make sure you put a full-stop before the @ - this will mean more people will see the tweet!
Example: Rosie has included her decision maker’s twitter handle in the headline for sharing. She also includes two hashtags for her campaign to create a law to protect models.
