Craigslist Founder and Philanthropist Shares Social-Media Strategies

If you want your supporters to share your messages on social media, you should email them the links to your own posts, not the messaging you’d like them to use, says Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist.

That’s how Mr. Newmark, who also has a blog about his philanthropy and advocacy work called CraigConnects, prefers to share the messages about the nonprofits he works with.

With a link directly to a post, it takes supporters only two clicks—one on the link and another on the retweet or share button—to broadcast the message to their online followers. It also shares the message from your organization’s account.

“Any nonprofit should be doing the same thing with the entirety of their board and membership mailing lists,” he says.

In the video below, Mr. Newmark explains why he thinks the simple strategy is so effective.