48 hours ago in Hanoi, Vietnam. (Photo: Matt Mullenweg)
“Tweet To Beat could generate help for thousands of students in high-need public schools. My colleagues and I are cheering you on!”
-Charles Best, CEO of DonorsChoose.org
The Ethical Bribe
The gist: To benefit U.S. public school students, I will bribe the entire world to follow me on Twitter for $3 each.
I’ll also be giving away a round-trip ticket anywhere in the world and a fully-loaded MacBook Pro. But first things first…
This is “Tweet to Beat”, a follow-up experiment to LitLiberation, which was a campaign by bloggers and their readers, and CEOs and their employees, to spread the power of literacy worldwide. It was a new fundraising model based on competition and social media scalability, and it funded not only US public school projects (20,000+ students) but also libraries and schools in developing countries. I’m in Vietnam with readers right now to visit two of the schools.
With zero financing or hard costs, this model ended up raising more than $250,000 in less than a month, 3x more than Stephen Colbert during that same period.
The Experiment
I think that was just the tip of the iceberg, and Twitter is the perfect laboratory for a new-and-improved approach (at least with a few variables).
It’s public and therefore accountable, it’s trackable, it allows exclusive communication with followers when needed (“protect my updates” under settings), and it’s current media popularity makes it the ideal PR vehicle for this campaign. Last but not least, though this experiment has no victims, produces no spam, nor violates the Twitter Terms of Service, this alternative use will get some purists hot and bothered.
Here’s how the Tweet to Beat campaign works:
1) For every new Twitter follower in the next two weeks, I will donate $1 to DonorsChoose.org, and an anonymous supporter will match $2, for a total of $3 to U.S. public school classrooms per follower. For now, the matching limit is tentatively capped at 50,000 new followers, though I’m open to increasing it later. 50,000 new followers would mean $150,000 to U.S. public school education, and I hope to double or triple this total with a few twists.
The goal is directly helping 25,000 U.S. public school students in low-income and high-need areas in two weeks. This timeline is half the time dedicated to LitLiberation. My current follower count is, at the time of this writing, 22,782, so we’ll round down and begin the count at 22,500.
Every Twitter follower will also get:
-6 months of RescueTime’s Pro time tracking tools for free (Normal price: $48). Just install it with no data entry and know exactly how you spend your time. Set thresholds, alarms, or use it for an entire business team. Full disclosure: I am now an investor in RescueTime, as I think they’re the best out there.
-6 months of DropBox’s Pro 50GB account for free. (Normal price: $60) This is a reader favorite. Sync your files automatically to your computers and the web; sign in and access your files from any browser or mobile device. It’s the world’s easiest back-up and syncing service.
-6 months of PhoneTag Alpha, the latest voicemail transcription service, for free (Normal price: $60). This is closed to the public and an exclusive for Tim Ferriss followers (!). Read voicemail on your mobile phone, portable device and/or e-mail. Forget about phone interruptions and suffering through long-winded voicemails.
Total value: $168 to each follower.
2) There is a simultaneous competition for those who would like to spread the word. Just do the best you can (Facebook, blog, e-mail friends, FriendFeed, add to your e-mail signature, tell local media, etc.) and detail what you did in the comments here. Tell your friends who are teachers and encourage them to do the same. Bonus points go to people who act sooner vs. later. Deadline for comments is 3/30/09 at 3:30pm PST.
If you’re able, I suggest you use a service like http://bit.ly to get a unique URL for this post so you can track clicks on your individual link as you promote it. Click-throughs are more important than “exposure”. Here are a few links you can use:
https://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/09/tweet-to-beat/
http://bit.ly/tldW (shortened URL for this post)
Not sure of what to say? Here’s the simple version for Facebook status and other channels:
“The Tweet to Beat – Paying $3 per Twitter follower: http://bit.ly/tldW”
Just get them to this post using curiosity and let the post do the convincing. For more promotional tactics that work, see the comments from this past competition.
The prizes:
Grand Prize: Round-trip ticket anywhere in the world Continental Airlines or one of their OnePass partners fly. This is pretty much everywhere on earth. Redeem the ticket anytime within 10 years, so no rush. If you prefer the 2nd-place prize, opt for it and the 2nd-place winner will get the round-trip ticket.
2nd-Place Prize: Brand-new condition 15″ MacBook Pro and laptop backpack with the following specs, donated by direct marketing expert Joe Polish (his Richard Branson interview here):
15″ MB PRO 2.6GHZ 2GB / 200 / SD APPLE $2,794.00
UPG 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SODIMM W / INSTL
ADD 2GB(1X2GB) PC2-5300 DDR2-667 SODIMM
APPLECARE PROTECTION PLAN-MACBOOK PRO $349.00
PACE 15.4″ (BLUE) LAPTOP BACKPACK EVERKI $29.99
How Little Does It Take?
I hope you choose to participate and make a difference. Karmic capitalism doesn’t take much.
Taking an hour to mentor a child, sending a single e-mail, or following someone on Twitter — remember that the small things are often what have the biggest impact, as we actually do them.
Please spread the word and further the experiment. I’ll share all of the results so others can duplicate them with non-profits worldwide.
Interested in doing more? Please consider donating a few dollars directly to U.S. classrooms near you through DonorsChoose.org.
“One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action.”
-Peter Drucker
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Comment Rules: Remember what Fonzie was like? Cool. That’s how we’re gonna be — cool. Critical is fine, but if you’re rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for adding to the conversation! (Thanks to Brian Oberkirch for the inspiration.)
Great idea! I posted it on Twitter (which automatically updates my Facebook).
I have just joined in from Australia
http://TwitPWR.com/7PG/
My friend in the US does similar work for US public school students and this resonated with me after hearing his story. Would love to come over and see this first hand
Great work Tim!
Posted to Twitter and started following you. This is awesome! Can’t wait to see the results!
Tim, great idea. Posted to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. @Firewalker96
Great topic and to top it off great karma. I read Tim’s phrase “karmic capitalism” and thought….cool phrase, shuffled over to NameCheap and snagged the domain name after using Google for a discount code (“namecheap discount code”). All in $8.81 for a sweet domain name. Now to put it to good use, not really a domain for the get richer phase of my life, now seeking ideas in the karmic path of thought. Any ideas? Email them to karmiccapitalism (at) gmail.com. Until I get a proper landing page and email set up at the actual website, all done within 24 hours.
All this came about after reading the domain article on Tim’s blog:
FEBRUARY 27TH, 2009
How to Buy Domain Names Like a Pro: 10 Tips from the Founder of PhoneTag.com
Ideas sprout from everything you read.
Cheers, thanks Tim and everyone.
Thank you! I’ll tell my roommate. I have an item on donorschoose.org so I really appreciate you doing this!
I just shot out a tweet on @wallerblogdotcm
http://twitter.com/WallerBlogDotCm/status/1303022874
This is a great idea!
[…] Now Here’s How to "Buy" Twitter Followers! I’ve seen a lot of threads on how to best use twitter, and how to get lots of followers. Well, Timothy Ferriss is donating $3 to charity for each new follower he gets between now and March 23rd. I think that’s a great form of ethical bribery we can all learn from. The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower […]
I posted about your contest on two forums. One with 118k registered users and 2100+ actively viewing, and the other with 50k+ registered users and 1100 actively viewing. I also tweeted about it. But I’m still in the double digits there.
Hey Tim,
I retweeted and facebooked what you are doing – that’s awesome. A couple days ago I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda. Have you seen it? A scene that really struck me and convicted me was when an American Media man had captured all the violence and was showing it to his colleague. He didn’t realize that an African man was standing in the room and apologized later to the man for being inconsiderate. But the African man said “isn’t this good, because when your people see what is going on here, they will have to do something and come help us”…The American man sadly smiled and said “I think they will watch it and say that it is terribly sad, but will just continue eating their meals..”
So, I’m glad you aren’t just seeing the need around you and continuing to just “eat your meal” but you are doing something to help. It’s great. Something I’m wanting to grow in.
Oh, I meant to mention… I hope you don’t mind: I used the image from this blog post as the icon for the Tweet To Beat twitter account.
Awesome job! I started an account on bit.ly, linked to my twitter (@Vorien) and posted what you suggested. I only have 12 followers at present, but i got 10 clicks in the first five minutes. Inspired, I posted a link and put it in my facebook status. Looking at the aggregate link things are going really well! Thanks Tim!
link sent in email newsletter…for those interested in doing more http://www.teachforamerica.org/
RTed (@jeeq) and posted on email list of the largest gaming company in US (http://bit.ly/18w974).
Already getting many responses through mailing list!
Great idea Tim!
Hi Tim. Where are you in Vietnam right now? I’m in Saigon and would love to take you around to some of the more hidden spots of Vietnam. Here’s a video I helped a friend do around some of the hidden places of Saigon: http://current.com/items/88679761/rare_meat.htm
@Michael Walker,
Michael, I totally agree campaigns like this should be accountable, and this is why I included a quote from the CEO of DonorsChoose.org (DC) at the top of this post and am using a public tool like Twitter. DC is involved, and I’ll also document everything as it moves forward. Could not agree more that this is critically important.
All the best,
Tim
Thanks all! This is just fantastic and you guys are rocking it. I have to jump on a bus but will check in later today, but I am, as always, impressed and overwhelmed by how awesome my readers are 🙂
Pura vida,
Tim
fyi: Charles Best bio–founder of DonorsChoose.org http://tiny.cc/CaIw2
Just tweeted and facebooked your link. As a teacher I think what you are doing is awesome. You ever been to Borneo? I’ll be over there starting the 15th for two weeks. Feel free to stop on by.
Thanks, Venhi. For those interested, here is the bio on the founder of DonorsChoose.org, as recognized by USA Networks:
http://www.usanetwork.com/characterapproved/honorees/best/video.html
All the best,
Tim
I volunteered at my granddaughter’s 2nd grade computer lab today before I read about your project. What can one person do? Whatever you can, wherever you are, whenever you get the chance! Start close to home – soon-saving the world takes time. Let’s start with educating our children! Thanks Tim for the $3.00 project. I tweeted support for your project – @SeniorTweet on Twitter. Val Spangler
Posted “The Tweet to Beat – Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower: http://ping.fm/tlwsi” on Twitter and as my facebook status. This seems like a great cause — thank you!
Hello Tim, sent out specific emails to friends, friends on facebook, twitter, and other social media I subscribe to.
Best
Jose
Intriguing idea–will be interesting to see what happens. Tweeted and followed.
Tim!
Your post was so damn timely in that I was thinking of how I could thank you. I just donated directly to an education project in Manhattan. Your book has changed my life. Seriously. I am about to start my own company within few months and it all was inspired after reading your book. So thank you – and the money that I just donated was in your name (not technically, but “karmic-ly”). The product that I will launch will also serve to help woman in need. So a big shout out from NJ..
Blogged it. Suggested to John Scalzi that he might blog it.
Wow, what a fantastic plan and a worthy cause!
I’m in…
Holy moley, Kay’s gone high tech and signed up for a Twitter account. It’s a week of crazy firsts, not the least of which I have my first public speaking engagement tomorrow. Talk about leaving your comfort zone. Of course, now I have no twitter followers myself, so I definitely think you should return the favor and follow me on twitter linked here.
I think it’s great what you’re doing for education. I already donate a considerable amount of time and money to a scholarship foundation I created in 03, so I’m not going through donorchoose. They are a great organization though; I’ve heard lots about them.
Hi Tim,
My first experience with “Karmic Capitalism”. Published link http://bit.ly/7Qd5v via Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed.
Will be forwarding to friends involved in education in the States.
Cheers
Ken
I retweeted. I know that’s not much but hopefully will help a bit.
Spreading this through the usual, and some unusual, channels. Also showing
it to contacts in China, India, Mongolia, and Thailand as an example of how
to approach philanthropic fund raising in creative ways. Good work.
Ty
Holy crap, I got over 7,000 clicks on my bit.ly link for this post and it was retweeted 45 times, that’s $135 right there. Awesome work Tim.
The bit.ly info page: http://bit.ly/info/18w974
Hi Tim, this is compassion in action. I put your wonderful idea as part of my blog for tomorrow at ExploreLifeBlog. Kindness is such a positive force for change.
Joseph
Great motives, fantastic idea. I’m trying to do my part, too, and spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, delicious, Stumbleupon, Buzz, etc.
Great Idea – I hope to hear more about how this turns out when its all over.
John
Tim,
You’ve been inspiring me since the I purchased “The 4-Hour Work Week” the day it was released and began using it to guide my business development strategies.
Now you’ve done it again with your unique pairing of using an ethical bribe that benefits EVERYONE in return for their becoming your valued Twitter subscriber/follower.
Brilliant!
Those who follow you will benefit immensely by your experience, knowledge and wisdom, and society will benefit from the value you’ll be adding to our educational system through your donation and that of your anonymous contributor.
Thanks for demonstrating how one person can influence others in meaningful ways AND make a powerful, positive difference in the world!
I hope others will follow your example of being of service and adding great value in their own way.
Jay Aaron
Strategic Visionary / Visionary Strategist
You and your ideas! Spreading the word facebook, blog, twitter……
Thanks for being an example of someone who cares, it is an inspiration.
Sending out to Twitter and Facebook.
Spread the Love.
[…] what the heck, you could even win a laptop for your effort in helping spread the word. The man to stalk: @tferris His blog entry on it: The Tweet To […]
Man, I just had a discussion about how Fonzie would scare parents of today, and here I’m being reminded to be like Fonzie in the comments… Dilemma.
Anyhow, twitter, facebook, livejournal, and my http://foo.ca site. Nice idea; I’m a big fan of donorschoose.org and like to see people step up.
Please follow up with which projects you’re planning on funding, and which ones you do. Bonus points for basic science equipment for poor schools.
Dude… this is another stupid publicity stunt. A lot of people are stupid and will fall for it, so congrats on exploiting the poor.
Hey Tim,
Great to see on what you are doing and making small steps to changing the world. I tweeted, facebooked, myspaced, msned and blogged your link.
Massive inspiration.
Good Luck.
Hi, I’m retweeting this as well – its a great cause and look forward to the results!
great idea, hope it works out well for the students!
I have posted this link from above to facebook, twitter, myspace, loopt, dugg it on digg. Chatted with all of my IM peeps.
Tweeted from India. All the best in your experiment.Your success would inspire more people.
Tim,
Great social media event. I followed the instructions and created my URL and posted to my twitter and facebook accounts. Thanks for introducing me to the http://bit.ly website. It is awesome!!! Looking forward to see how this experiment unfolds and watching your followers go off the chart. Thanks for donating to a great cause!!!
Cheers,
Bryan aka http://twitter.com/freedomweaver
Hey Tim,
I am trying to get people to RT your page. I was surprised by a reaction which I thought you may want to address as others may think the same.
Without naming any name, but you could figure out easily anyway, here’s some replies I got:
“I love @Tim Ferriss but that “experiment” is only an attempt to get more followers in his profile don’t be blind :)”
“I am not tweetering anybody begging for new followers ego trip, even for literacy or charity sorry”
I have to admit that I am a little disappointed at this reaction as it’s coming from someone very involved in the twitter community, anyway…
Otherwise, you can check my stats on bit.ly under username “ash”. I am spreading the message exclusively via twitter. I am trying to reach prominent twitterers, people in others countries (w/ translated message). I look for communities (schools, libraries, etc…) using twitter and with an interest in literacy and I spread the message to them as well. I’d like to get ppl from all over the world to visit your page!
Whether this is a marketing scheme or not, I fully support the purpose of your experimental project. Empowering kids with the power to read and strive later on is priceless.
###
From Tim: Thanks for the comment, Ash. I did a Twitter search for the comments you listed above and couldn’t find anything at all, but my general feeling is this: the world would be boring if we all agreed on things. In addition, I think online pundits are critics by nature, so I would expect some push-back. Not only this, but the entire experiment is designed to elicit a response, so this is good news.
Thanks for the support!
Tim
always open to helping a good cause! I’m retweeting this @sylviet
what a great cause
created short url http://tr.im/thetweet2beat so ppl can use that
I will be posting on twitter, blogs, and some school lists
Amazing idea and fabulous work all around! Sending out a tweet, posting a bulletin on myspace and setting my status on facebook. I’ll also be hooking up my e-mail list with this inspiring cause and easy way to help. It’s really a win win win for all! Thank you!!!!!!!
shot out a tweet on @amitwaks
gr8 idea and a very good cause – i hope this is success
best wishes
amit
What a brilliant concept and very giving gesture. The best of luck with it Tim. Will do what I can to support you.
You my friend have a retweet coming your way, catchy title & great cause!
I submitted your post to our site, vokle.com . You can use the black arrows on the home page to scroll to the “Tweet to Beat” non-profit card where people can actually video chat for free in real time to organize themselves around the cause.
This is the kind of thing we just launched vokle.com for.
I hope to meet you in China sometime soon. 😉
Just looked at Bit.ly and my efforts yesterday represented 7.6% of all Bit.ly clicks. 🙂 (110 of 1,412) through updating two of my Twitter accounts and doing a couple @replies.
I also just had 3 “crazy ideas” run through me and I think they’re going to increase that percentage quite a bit.
The first one will put my gaming channel (2,615 Fanatic YouTubers) and email list (1,300 CRAZY Xbox gamers) to use. (Got any old video game stuff that you’d like to donate to the cause?)
I see you’ve gone up 1624 followers (24,406-22,782) between posting this yesterday and right now. It’s really hard to determine how many of those followers came from my actions but I would guess 25-50 which would represent 1.5-3% of the increase.
Today’s plan will include a more accurate way to determine who followed you and why through creatively using hashtags and @replies.
That is all I have to report. 🙂
Tweeted to my about 760+ twitter followers here: http://www.twitter.com/dhempe
Posted on my facebook (Hrish Thota) where I have close to 780 friends!
Posting on my blog here: http://www.dhempe.com
Hope to win this contest! 🙂
All the best for reaching your target!!!
Tim,
This is my first post to you – I’ve been following your blog and Twitter for about 6 months now since I first read your book. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this to really contribute on your next social venture and I feel this is an excellent idea. As a young and travel-hungry entrepreneur, you truly inspire me and I constantly speak of you in high regard to my friends, mentors, family, and professors.
I am doing all I can to support this cause. I am sharing this with my Social Entrepreneurship class and spreading the link to your blog post through: my University’s resources (teachers, mass emails, Entrepreneur Society, Daily Newspaper, announcements), my twitter account, Facebook status, a group on Facebook, and sent an email to all my contacts and will include the link in all future emails sent out. I got creative and did a Craigslist posting under local news for San Diego.
ex: “Ready to help U.S. education? Philanthropy made easy. #1 NY Times Bestseller author Tim Ferriss donating $3 per new Twitter follower: http://bit.ly/18w974”
p.s. After I graduate this semester I plan on living in Spain with a family for my first mini-retirement.
p.s.s. “Trial By Fire” was awesome! Hope to see more soon. 🙂
~Arman Assadi
Tim, I’ve been following you on Twitter since you first discovered it! You know by now that I choose to donate my money, time, and efforts toward alternatives-to-school which promote true democratic education (click on my username to visit the iLearn in Freedom Network.) I respect your choice as your own, though, and wish you the best in all your adventures — everything is a learning experience and the world is our classroom!
@Alex Tim has been supporting DonorsChoose for quite a while now, and I believe you will find the answers to your questions in previous blogs. Try the related articles or search engine for more info.
@David Lithman wrote:
“The more we can increase the awareness of the problems in the school system the better off America will be in the future.”
Highly recommend the writings of John Holt (How Children Fail, Instead of Education: Ways to Help People Do Things Better) and John Taylor Gatto (Dumbing Us Down, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling) for an inside look at the System from well-known, highly respected educators in the field.
Grabbed some quick stats from the web on the financial picture (economic recession/depression aside):
Gleaned from the HSLDA website (no endorsement of this organization implied): -=- Another obstacle that seems to be overcome in homeschooling is the need to spend a great deal of money in order to have a good education. In “Strengths of Their Own,” an independent study first published in 1997, Dr. Brian Ray found the average cost per homeschool student is $546 while the average cost per public school student is $5,325. Yet the homeschool children in this study averaged in 85th percentile while the public school students averaged in the 50th percentile on nationally standardized achievement tests. -=-
From the MyKidsDeserveBetter website: -=- “In dollars adjusted for inflation, public schools spent about $876 per year for elementary and secondary school students in 1930, when student literacy rates were close to 90 percent. In contrast, in 2003 public schools spent about $7500 per student, while literacy rates fell to the 50-70 percent level in many public schools.”
“…average annual tuition costs for Catholic and Protestant-affiliated schools for the 2002-2003 school year were approximately $3500-$4000 per elementary-school pupil and $5500-$6000 per Secondary school pupil.”
“In 1998, the Home School Legal Defense Association commissioned Larry Rudner, statistician and measurement expert at the University of Maryland, to do a study on the academic achievement levels of home-schooled students. The study tested 20,000 home-schooled students on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). …
“The study found that in every subject and grade level of the ITBS battery of tests, home-schooled students scored significantly higher than public and private school students. On average, homeschool students in the first to fourth grades performed one grade level higher than comparable public and private school students. By the fifth grade, the gap began to widen, and by the eighth grade, the average home-schooled student performed four grade levels above the national average.
Home-schooling parents not only give their kids a superior education, but spend far less than public schools. For example, some excellent phonics reading programs cost less than $150. Even if we assumed that an average homeschooling parent spent about $1500 a year on learn-to-read or learn-math books, computer learning software, and other learning materials, that is about one-quarter the average $7500-a-year that public schools spend per student.” -=-
Wanna talk economic stimulus?! Consider sending that money home to the parents (many teachers are parents, too, for those concerned about job security) and let them pick up a copy of “Teach Your Own” by John Holt at the local library. FYI: Homeschooling doesn’t just take place in the home, or necessarily restrict parents from pursuing their own careers (although parenthood is an honorable and fulfilling occupation in its own right!)
Support groups, co-ops, local clubs and organizations, genuine (vs. compulsory) community service, etc., all represent real life learning and socialization with interesting, experienced people of all ages, not to mention allowing kids the freedom to develop their own sense of self-esteem for being a productive member of society during their formative years. Win-Win from what we’ve observed in our own freeschoolin’ family over the past 20 years. Try it for yourself, but be forewarned, freedom in learning is highly addictive! 😉
Cheers ~
Penne & the CanDo! Crew :o)
Luck is when opportunity meets *inspired* action!
My usually-very-web-enabled-brain still is catching up to Tweeting. Perhaps it is having a newborn, or being 42. I dunno. But I know how to donate $3 and pass the word to get others to do it. Thanks Tim – always love your stuff.
Best, Peter
@gratefulguy
Great idea!! Love the use of twitter for this. I have tweeted this and will email it to a group of friends. Best of luck!!
Great idea!
Already posted the status on my Twitter and Facebook accounts!
Jozef
[…] If you’re new here, you may want to check out the archives. You can also subscribe to my RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!I was reading with interest Tim Ferriss’ ‘ethical bribe’ idea to raise money for charity using a system he calls Tweet to Beat. […]
Tim, what an excellent project. I’ve written about Tweet To Beat on my blog and it also gave me an idea as to how other well-known folk on Twitter could use their name to make money for charity. Best of luck with your endeavour.
Tim,
I am sure this is a great cause and all but I feel like someone has to step up and protest nevertheless. I am subscribing to your blog because I love the ideas of the 4 hour workweek – get more done in less time, think global, and so on. However, many of your latest posts have been revolving around setting up competitions and the like to involve the readers. Well I am not interested and I think this is not in line with your own philosophy, at least not from the reader’s perspective. I think spending time taking part in freebie competitions has little to do with 4HWW. To make matters worse, many of us are not in the US, and are not on Twitter. I just wish to learn more about working smarter, not harder. If you wish to donate money to your favourite cause, just do it, I do not need to know. Could we please return to the basics.
Sven
keep on twitting http://twitter.com/pronline/status/1304849236
Hey Tim great idea! I saw some of the campaigns Seth Godin had, and it´s an interesting experiment in mobilizing your “tribe” in action all while growing it too quite clever 🙂
If you know anyone at Facebook please ask them to remove the 100 invite limit please, it is slowing down the spread of great ideas!! Hence, that was 2hrs of work @ the office non company related to click on everyone on my list haha
Any suggestions from people on how to spread this more on Twitter in your network? I only have close friends that I am following right now, maybe it´s time to grow for a good cause.
Hi Tim,
Very interested in the experiment.
I work for a non-profit in the UK, a CVS (Council for Voluntary Sector) which represents the 3rd sector and our expertise is support and development for community, voluntary groups and charities.
I however also have a medical centre in Bangladesh.
A relative has a building that was used as a medical centre in the 80/90s and they expanded and moved on leaving the building which is empty now.
By assembling a management team in Bangladesh and setting up a charity in the UK I could have a medical facility in Bangladesh with 30 beds up and running. One of the managers at my work place used to work for a micro-finance in Sri Lanka and her parents are retired doctors, uncle and auntie doctors and sister a nurse; she is keen to get involved. Ben my direct manager worked for an international charity also and would like to assist.
By providing affordable healthcare not only will the poor benefit but the profits will be put back in to the business to duplicate in other areas of Bangladesh.
I am looking eagerly at this type of scheme that can help raise the money. I calculate that a facility can be up and running with £100,000 and breaking even under 12 months even after slashing costs by 30 – 40% as well as offering a designated free service.
I am savvy on social media optimisation and have access to some of best individuals in running a charitable operation that can span continents. Winning ingredients really!
So please keep us posted. (even personally if you can) Your assistance by sharing the data and giving some advice could see affordable health available in Bangladesh to millions of people.
thanks
Azzam
Great idea 🙂
I just tweeted to my mere 190 followers: https://twitter.com/jimeh/status/1304897534
Unfortunately I’m no Kevin Rose with 250 gazillion followers… lol
Tim, I’m looking forward to seeing how this all works out. Tweeted about it http://bit.ly/oDOK0, posted to FB.
Good idea Tim I will spread the word! Keep up the good work!
Tweeted here: http://twitter.com/abhimehr
Blogged here: http://some-place-else.blogspot.com/
Both twitted and blogged.
Brilliant idea.. I’m really curious how and if this will work and in what way… I’ll promote it through my twitteraccounts (@mieks, @edutweeter)
I followed you and also tweeted the message for you as well as posted on my facebook and friendfeed accounts.
http://twitter.com/cyandle/status/1305038718
[…] Ferris ha ideato un esperimento interessante: The Tweet to Beat – Paying $3 per Twitter follower è una campagna con la quale si propone di donare alla scuola pubblica americana 3$ per ogni nuovo […]
Oops! Looks like my my numbers were a tad off… 😛 Bit.ly seems to have been acting strange lately. Anyhow, the new math is 115/10,741 which is still a STRONG 1%! 😀 lol
[…] In a follow-up to his viral campaign which raised over $250,000 for DonorsChoose.org, 4 Hour Workweek author Tim Ferriss is offering $3 for every new Twitter follower he gets in the next two weeks, and hoping to raise a total of $150K for U.S. public school students in low-income and high-need areas. If you’re not already, then follow my favorite author and vagabond, @Tim Ferriss. Learn more: The Tweet to Beat: Paying $3 Per Twitter Follower. […]
Sounds very attractive. Is it real?
I spread the word on Twitter. Thanks.
Brilliant idea, of course… you go, Tim!
Besides posting this information on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter… I sent out a PERSONAL email on the subject, to friends, family, and PODCASTS that I love (who I’m hoping will give a shout out to the cause). I believe that when you put your plea in your own words, people react more positively.
I also made it a point to include a bit about joining Twitter, since a large number of people may not understand what it is and how easy it is to use.
Good Luck! Peace, Love, and Tweets…
Tim,
Thank you for what you are doing! It’s people like you that change the world!
I am now following you on Twitter, and am posting this link: http://bit.ly/aidtoschools on my Facebook page. I will also forward it to a couple of mailing lists I have.
Posted to Twitter and facebook and will add to Myspace as well. Will also include as a status on Digsby instant message client. This is an amazing idea and hope it floors all of us with an awesome response from people.
This is fantastic. I followed you on Twitter of course, then sent out a tweet to my followers (@retta719)
I posted the link on my Facebook page as well.
I’ll definitely blog about later on as well. I’m opting out of the contests, just happy to help the spread the word for a good cause. 🙂
Very cool idea. Tweeted it several times. Best of luck at reaching at least 50,000 more :)!
Done! Twittered. Will also add to our myspace page.
My twitter was here: http://twitter.com/CharisPsyRev/status/1305286140
will come back once I’ve myspaced it, etc.
thanks!
[…] the contest, follow him, promoted the cause, retweet, and comment on your efforts at his blog: Tweet to Beat. Enjoy This Post? Get Updates With Every New Post or Comment Just Click To […]
Very cool idea and WHAT worthy cause!! I wrote about it on my blog (and RT’d you and followed!).
I don’t want to sound negative but there is a bigger issue than money in education. My daughter is a social worker in the Bronx and many times she feels frustrated because there are opportunities for kids to do all the things you espouse but they or their parents don’t want to do it. The money is already there. It’s the lack of a family that is a much bigger issue. I believe around 80% of children do not have a father and almost the same percentage are born out of wedlock. Since the mid sixties that number has been dropping precipitously. Without a good family foundation, these kids are doomed to follow the footsteps of their parents. It’s a vicious cyle there. I feel most sorry for the kids because they are neglected and generally left on their own or, too often, beaten or sexually abused. This is the hidden story you don’t hear on CNN etc. If you look below the surface you will see that the social issues have a very dramatic impact on success in these areas. I know it’s a feel good thing to raise money but what is more important is to see what the real issues are and whether those dollars are spent wisely. It seems everyone is trying to use money as the cure for all the ills. We have spent billions and billions on education in these areas with very poor results over the last thirty years. The root cause needs to be examined and my view is family life as the key to success. We need to reinvigorate that and you will see results in all areas of children’s performance.
Hi Bob,
I totally agree with the family as root catalyst (positive or negative) of education, both in school and self-directed. That is not, unfortunately, something I can affect as easily as under-resourced classrooms. One step at a time, but I certainly agree.
All the best and thank you for the thoughtful comment,
Tim
also on my myspace page, here: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=455428488&blogId=475772113
danke!
wow- great idea! and now i have someone new to follow! will RT, as well
Great idea, Tim,
I’m putting that tweet headline you wrote up (great headline!) at the top of every email that goes out of TweetReplies.com. Everyone will get it when they receive their @replies by email.
I’m also going to write a marketing newsletter to my 100k financial advisors and refer to this post, to introduce Twitter for use in marketing.
I started a debate on Facebook and Twitter about whether this efficient, low-investment, high-visibility campaign is another example of gutless do-goodery that points to a decay in moral fiber or a creative leveraging for a time and resource stressed society.
I’ll add an email signature, and put something on Facebook 🙂
Great Idea. Following you too!
I just wrote about it on my blog
(link is under website–my name).
and on my twitter
http://www.twitter.com/twinklescraps
🙂
tina
Great idea, looking forward to seeing the impact. I tweeted about it http://twitter.com/sdeelio and will email my friends and family.
http://bit.ly/xRMDT
Hey Tim – just posted on Twitter
I love this concept, way to go. In these trying economic times you must be commended on such a noble goal. a couple of questions:
1. how could this be regionalized so money goes to a specific school system or area of the contributors choice
2. with the internet being such a home to scams, how do contributors know that their money will go to the exact educational cause you claim
3. how can this idea be “franchised out” so that more people can/will do this exact same type of fundraising i.e. a high school class project, etc.
Great idea and the cost is perfect so that everyone and anyone can participate.
I retweeted this twice to my 750+ followers (@dhempe). I have also updated it on my site. Already 33 people clicked on to this link. Very noble idea!
Cool! Good luck with the project.
I can’t wait to see the outcome! 🙂