I live in New England, where people line up for ice cream in the middle of a snowstorm. This year, though, people are snow-shy. Every time the white stuff is in the forecast, people are remembering a month of being snowed in last winter.

The Blizzard of 2015 had great publicity, and it was all free. Can your nonprofit do as well?

A Storm of Free Media

A blizzard has no bank account. It has no marketing budget. Without paying a cent, however, the storm that hit New England on Tuesday had its own hashtag…and hundreds of unpaid photographers.

I went on Facebook one Tuesday morning last January and found this:

And this:

And even this:

The Secret of the Storm’s Success

It snows every year. Why do people rush out each time it snows and snap photos?

I think it’s because a storm is a shared event. By taking pictures and posting them, people say, “I was here. I was a part of this.”

Can You Do As Well as a Blizzard?

Are you making people feel that your events are shared events? When they attend your events, do they want to claim them and show they were there? You invite them to show up in person. Are you inviting them to show up online, with their photos?