How to grow your yard share group

[LizM - Site Moderator]

The yard sharing concept is very new. People don't really know were here. So we need a little help getting the word out.

To search hyperlocavore.com for people in your area:

- use the "peas" tab - (peas are members here)
- when you are on the Members screen, scroll down a little until you see the box below the All Members section.
- Click on Advanced Search
- Use that screen to enter whatever criteria you are looking for. Try different things.

If you get stuck check out the Video Site Guide linked on the right.

This is a list of things to try:

1. Be sure to invite your friends, family, neighbors and faith communities via the INVITE FOLKS tab on the top left of the screen. Be sure to add a personal note about why you think yard sharing is a great idea.

2. Follow up with phone calls. People get a lot of email. The invite may have gone into their spam folder.

3. Flier in your neighborhood, college, cafes and libraries with a link to hyperlocavore.com. There's a set of printouts at the bottom of this page.

4. If you blog or comment on blogs help us spread the word!

5. Make a yard sharing presentation at your church, synagogue, mosque, sangha, library or other community gathering place.

6. Get the service organizations in your community involved - 4H, Lion's or other service organizations are a good fit for the yard sharing idea.

7. Twitter about hyperlocavore.com and yard sharing, or follow and RT our tweets..

8. Join and encourage others to join our facebook page And share your own group's page on Facebook as well on Facebook pages which are more local to you.

9. Talk with people on this site who are not in your area. They might know someone who is close to you.

10. Put a sign up at your nearest community garden - but only if it has a long waiting list!

11. Use twitter to let people know about your group. First make a 'seeking yard share partners' group for your city or neighborhood. Then tweet and retweet a message that looks like this

Are you in Highland Park, Los Angeles - interested in finding yard share partners? #losangeles #gardening http://bit.ly/aJQt4

(Note: that link is a shortened version of the link to your group page. You can use your a status message on your profile to shorten any long url - also known as the web address) The # symbol is called a hashtag and it lets you create subjects that people using twitter can search.

12: Post to your local Craigslist.org communities, or other regional sites.


Here are some fliers to help you get going:

You will need to write in your own contact information, meeting
times etc. with a black sharpie.
Be sure to print clearly!


Neighborhood General Flier

Tabling Sign Up Sheet "Learn More About Yard Sharing"

Meeting Flier

Little Card With Web Address


That last flier needs to be cut up, and you need to add any
information that would be helpful such as your group name or your
phone number. These are for people who might be tabling at an event
and need something to write on. Let me know if you need other forms
or fliers. I am happy to create anything which you think will help
you get going. Just mail me at [e-mail].

You also may want to use an other "url shortener" to make the web address a little
easier to convey in the small space of a flier. There are many
tools out there that can help. Here is some more information on url shortening tools.

http://bit.ly
http://memurl.com
http://ow.ly

I like ow.ly best because it's associated with a great twitter tool I use a lot called hootsuite.com which you can check out if you are interested in becoming a power user on twitter.com

TIP: I am more likely to feature a group that has a GREAT group picture so change yours from the default right away. Please be sure you have the right to post an image.
Featured groups land on the front page!

If folks have any other suggestions please post away!

[Donald]

Hi:

I'm new to the site and before I found locavore.com, I posted to Craigslist and received eight inquiries about my gardening project. I conducted interviews to narrow down the group to four quality people because I believe that my yard can handle four people. Our first work day is tomorrow Sunday 2/28 and we all are very excited! I appreciate this resource.

[LizM - Site Moderator]

WONDERFUL - I hope you create a
pod here...and post pictures! We really love to hear from successful groups! It's so new to folks!

Keep us in the loop!

Thanks,

Liz

[LizM - Site Moderator]

So how did it go this year? Any change you will blog about the experience here? That would be awesome!