The Heritage Foundation, with the support of the David All Group,
is ramping up its efforts to connect with conservatives through social
networking sites and encouraging its members to share needed information
with their peers online.

Last week, the Heritage Foundation launched NoEnergyTax.com - a fully integrated and interactive site powered by Act.iv.ist to "shed light on energy taxes."

Robert Bluey, Heritage's Director of Online Strategy, had this to say about the initiative -

The real and ugly truths about cap-and-trade are not being exposed by the media. Therefore, we've created this powerful site to directly empower our nearly 70,000 Facebook Fan Page supporters with the tools they need to expose myths about this policy through their network...The power of social media is being realized through a strategic deployment of technology and a common goal.

Act.iv.ist is a sophisticated new web tool that helps organizations push their message out to the communities in which people are already active, including Facebook and Twitter.

To see for myself, I signed up as a member simply by clicking the Facebook Connect option at the top right hand corner of the site. From there, I could earn points by reading, commenting, signing up for email updates, inviting friends, and sharing information with friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. I don't even have to go to NoEnergyTax.com - I can access the site through the Facebook fan page.

There are limitless things you can do as a supporter to win points and spread information through your personal social networks.
In fact, the more information I consume and share, the more points I can earn.

Other sticky site features include:

• A dynamic points counter at the top of the page
• A Leaderboard to track and reward supporters for taking action elsewhere
• Seamless integration with the Facebook Connect Platform that lowers the barrier of entry for first-time site visitors

Not only are these new modern media initiatives working to help spread its conservative message, they're working to grow the Heritage Foundation's support base.

Just yesterday, Heritage accrued over 8,000 Facebook fans in one day - that's multiple times more than most organizations' total friend counts.

How do they do it? 

By taking charge and taking notice in a threefold process:

1.  Setting Achievable Goals

The Heritage Foundation's goal was to reach 75,000 fans. As of this afternoon, they sat at 84,448. But why stop there? The new goal is to reach 100,000 fans by 2010. They're well on their way to achieving that goal.

Why you're goals may not be that high, you can start by setting smaller, more achievable goals. Once you reach them, your members are encouraged by the momentum, and are more likely to help you reach your next goal by inviting their own friends to become supporters of your organization or campaign.

2.  Recognizing Benchmarks

When the Heritage Foundation reached its 75,000 fans goal, it updated its fan page picture to recognize that achievement.

3.  Thanking Supporters 

One of the most important things the Heritage Foundation is doing so far is recognizing individual supporters through its Featured Fan campaign.

What are you doing to reach your goals & recognized your featured fans?

Disclosure: David All, president of the David All Group, founded TechRepublican.com