Laurie Boris

It might sound like a particularly virulent case of a disease you don’t want, but a ThunderClap does not require a trip to the clinic. It’s a crowdfunding social media deal that is totally free for your network of friends to participate in. If you’d like to get a whole lot of social media attention all at once—say, for the launch of a book, she said coyly—you set up your event, share your link, and when you hit the minimum number of supporters…BAM! It glitter-bombs the interwebs.

Okay, not literally. But if you get 100 people to agree to support your message, via Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, every single tweet and post is released on the day of your choosing, amplifying your message.

If you don’t hit the 100-mark, you get bupkes.

Mine was set up for me by the lovely folks at Book Partners in Crime, but it looks fairly straightforward if you’d like to set up your own.

1. Start an account at https://www.thunderclap.it
2. Click “start a thunderclap” on the top bar.
3. Sign in with your Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr account.
4. Follow the directions to set up your own message.

HeadTalker is a similar crowdsourcing sort of product, but it asks for 50 supporters…a much easier task if you only have a short time to get a message out.

I’d love your help making my first try at these new opportunities a success for the launch of Playing Charlie Cool. If you have a minute and don’t mind voting, here are the links:

ThunderClap   https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/16606-can-charlie-play-it-cool

Headtalker     https://headtalker.com/campaigns/can-charlie-play-cool/ 

If you don’t care for the standard message, you can adjust it a little to your taste. Whatever you put up there is what goes out if we hit the quota.

Thank you for your help! Stay tuned, because on launch day, we’ll be giving away some Amazon gift cards and stuff. More about that later.

Also…if you’re an author or have an event, a cause, or something that might lend itself to a social media boost, maybe you’ll want to try this new tool.