Last weekend I sang in a choir for a church conference. The song (and theme of the conference) was “Have I done any good in the world today?”

The lines struck me:

Have I done any good in the world today?
Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad?
If not, I have failed indeed.
Has anyone’s burden been lighter today
Because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help was I there?
Then wake up and do something more

There are many ways to apply those verses to your life. Right now, I’d like to discuss just one.

By now you’ve heard of the suffering in Haiti. You’ve watch the accounts of millions of lives affected by a devastating earthquake. If you’re religious, you’ve probably prayed for them. Maybe you’ve passed along a message calling for donations–even given something yourself.

Now I’m asking you to do something more. This is not just a feel-good “awareness” campaign. There is something you can do to change things.  I quote the LDS Church’s First Presidency:

We are keenly aware that many in America are dealing with economic challenges caused by the recession. However, we are appealing to members to donate to Church Humanitarian Services as their means allow in order to help our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Despite the funds already raised, more money is still needed, and we’ve been asked by a prophet to give. While I mention religion because it informs my understanding, this is a human issue.

As your means allow, please donate to Humanitarian Services and/or other organizations to support the relief efforts. When we’ve done all we can do there, other locations will still need our support.

I know that your life will improve as a result of your donation (I’ve seen it and studies prove it), as will the lives of those suffering in Haiti. Please take one more step and share this on Facebook or post your own message encouraging donations. The more reminders we send, the more good we can do.

THANK YOU! (Tomorrow we’ll return to our regularly-scheduled communications-oriented programming).

Creative Commons photo by Agência Brasil.

But my focus here is on creating video even if you don’t have any budget.

Just get started and get going. As you prove the value with cheap video, the budget for nicer video will come along. Good luck!

(photo courtesy of Canon USA)

The winner, Brenda from North Carolina, is a grandma who can really use the money, so she’s quite thankful. What a great way to spend part of my day.

As some of you may remember, I ran a giveaway here on this blog last year. I ended up sending new, 2009 AP Stylebooks to two of my readers.

Prizes are a great way to get people’s attention. They’re a good way to motivate people to action (whether it’s posting comments on this blog or becoming fans of The Frugality Game). They’re also wonderful because it feels great to give.

With that in mind, I think I might run another contest here soon. Make sure you subscribe and return so you don’t miss it. Oh–and we’re also still going to give away an addtional $50,000 and a new car in The Frugality Game. That’ll be an exciting day!

What have you awarded or won? If you ran a contest, what would it be? (Why not give it a try?)

If we never ask, we’ll never hear “no”. We’ll also never hear “yes” or even “maybe”.

• If you never ask for the interview, you’ll never get the job.
• If you never ask for the sale, you’ll never get the commission.
• If you never ask for the date, you’ll never get the girl/guy.
• If you never ask for the recommendation, you’ll never get it.

You may be going through a difficult time (or, you might currently be on top of the world). Whatever your situation, try to remember something that you appreciate. It may be as simple as having access to the Internet (you’re reading this, aren’t you?). I know the holidays are technically over, but thanks giving never goes out of style.

Here’s a challenge: offer gratitude this week. Me? I’ll be writing a personal list and trying to remember to thank God and those around me for so many great things in my life. I hope you do the same.

Photo by PlaxcoLab

For now, I’d like to know: how many Twitter accounts do you have?

Post your explanations in the comments, and retweet, so we can find out about other people. Thanks!

Some people will love you, some will hate you, and some don’t care. We’ve gotten the whole range of comments, some amazingly supportive, others paranoid, helpful, negative, disinterested or fanatic. Some of my favorites:

• “I love it! Graphics are great. If this teaches me something, I’ll be grateful. If it’s just fun, that’s okay, too. :->”
   
• “My husband and his sister are both deaf so I know how having captions would really be helpful to another who segment of society.”
   
• “343 on todays hit the piggy game. Whats your score?”
   
• “I was suprised to find out what the game was about.I didn’t expect it to be what it is,but on the other hand it was very interesting.I like the fact that they only let you play so much at a time.It makes you want to go back again.It might be good for me to play it so I can learn to look at things in another way and figure stuff out.I like this game”
   
• “I think I found a glitch. where do I report it?” (Another user responded with the answer).
   
• “Was really excited about the game until it asked your monthly income. Not comfortable sharing such info so I lied. I may sound like a conspiracy nutjob but hey with this obsession with control by our gov’t who knows what they have in store for us. I will stick with you unless you continue asking for personal financial info.” (The government already knows your income–and working with real numbers is the best way to actually improve your finances).
   
• the game is alful!”
   
• “So far the game is interesting….I like it two thumbs up (:”
   
• “why would I want a game to know how much money I make on a monthly basis. I think this might be a scam! Not playing again!”  (The best part of this was the response from other users–read the next two).
   
• “Some people crack me up. So rude for no reason. Shooting down people’s good ideas & a scam, come on?? It’s a cute game & I think it’s great that a group of people would go to so much effort to help us, in our economy, learn how to live better & prepare for the future. It is slow, I need a skip button or something! And it’s a bit cheesy, but I can tell a lot of effort went into it & that’s appreciated. I’ll play, you can always learn something new!”
   
• “It is a good idea. The public needs to be better about spending, and because games appeal to everyone, this is the perfect medium. The people that have left comments in the vein of “OMG THEY WILL STEAL MY INFORMATIONS” are just ignorant. You can find out more about someone with a Google search than you could with this game.
  Educate yourself, stop being paranoid, and perhaps take something for what it is. Fear is the result of ignorance.”
   
• “Would love to something like this done with every high school student in order to graduate high school.”

One benefit of a passionate community: you don’t always have to defend yourself from criticism, because someone else does it for you.

Photo credit:  RBerteig

It’s a free, online adventure that helps families improve their finances while having fun.

In this “adventure that will change your life,” users explore the world with the fictitious Frugal family while gaining valuable tools, resources and learning. As players track spending and create budgets, they unlock savings, as well as additional games and storyline.

Users can play, save and win (prizes up to $50,000), as they learn to be smart, spend right and live well.

How is David J.  Garcia involved?

I’m involved in all of it. Technically, I’m in charge of social media, but I’ve also helped with the design, script, user experience, promotion and business development. This is the dream job I never even knew that I was dreaming of. I love it.

How big is it?

This is going to be huge. There are prizes (including $50,000 and a new car). We’ve already got 10,000 fans on Facebook, before we even launched.

How do I play?

Starting today, you can go to http://www.TheFrugalityGame.com/ to preview the game and “create your passport.” Then, come back every day to unlock more gameplay and savings. If you use invitation code DJGPR when you register, you’ll get a bonus 2,500 Frugality Tokens (which help you win prizes). Go play, have fun and good luck!

We reached a huge milestone for The Frugality Game on Facebook yesterday: 10,000 fans. It feels great to hit that mark before tomorrow’s launch.

Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about what works. In future posts, I’ll dig in-depth to explore the details. For now, here are some initial thoughts.

• Have a good product. This doesn’t mean that your product has to be perfect. Since The Frugality Game hasn’t even launched yet, many people have become fans based on the just the concept, the pitch and the prizes.
   
• Leverage other efforts. Since many social media projects don’t start with a huge budget, you need to tie into what’s already happening and apply it to social media. Repurpose existing contest and tie into existing promotions. For example, I was able to get a $1,000 prize for pre-registered users extended to fans.
   
• Offer rewards. When you’re in budget meetings, social media is about what it can do for your company. But when you’re online, it’s all about what you can do for your audience. Not everyone responds to prizes, but enough people do (and enough large brands have set the example). We also offered fans an early invitation to the game.
   
• Use your connections. Everyone who knows you or your brand should know that you’re on Facebook and how they can benefit. If some of your friends and family let their friends know, the multiplier can be significant. We asked our employees to become fans, then ran a contest for them to recommend it to friends.
   
• Customize. Adding a custom landing tab can give you a great way to offer your pitch. We included information about the games and prizes, an arrow pointing to the “Become a fan” button, and a email sign-up. Remarkably, 35% of fans have also pre-registered with the email sign-up.
   
• Engage. But don’t over-post. Once a user clicks “Hide” or “Unsubscribe” because they feel spammed, they’ll probably never see your updates again. However, realize that you will lose some people along the way, and that’s okay as long as your increase is bigger. Also, responding quickly and frequently to comments has increased the sense of community. When people ask questions–answer!
   
• Advertise. Advertising on Facebook is one of the biggest opportunities in marketing today. Prices are still relatively low, since not everyone has figured it out yet, and you can target your exact audience. Viral growth is a powerful multiplier, but it relies on the size of your initial population. Get the most out of your efforts by investing in well-targeted ads to grow your initial viral seed.
   
• Test. When advertising, try different images, different copy and different demographics. When you find something that works, test variations of that. You could spend a few dollars per fan if you don’t test, but potentially much less if you do. I found advertising combinations that resulted in a new fan for every $0.09-0.45 spent. More on how to do this in a future post (subscribe).
   
• Find the right fans. Once you have a few fans, figure out what they have in common (look at profiles to find out what else they’re fans of). Then advertise to more people like them. This helped me realize that women who are fans of TigerDirect.com might also become fans of The Frugality Game (they did, in astounding numbers).
   
• Get creative. Social media is so hyped right now that people expect extraordinary results with small budgets. Prove you can deliver something with a small budget, then don’t be afraid to ask for more. Companies like to invest in things that are working (and producing measurable results).
   
• Go viral. Our final push to get over 10,000 (we added about a thousand fans yesterday) came when I posted:
  

  We’re giving away $1,000 today! Last chance to invite your friends before the drawing…just go to http://Facebook.com/FrugalityGame and click “Suggest to Friends” under our profile picture. Stay tuned later for the announcement of the winner.

  Dozens and dozens of fans posted and commented that they had invited their friends. We’re still seeing significant growth from that blast. Obviously, that wouldn’t have worked without the other elements already in place.
   

If you’re interested in learning more about how to leverage Facebook and increase fans, please comment, subscribe, and post on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you!