#efairnessnow Campaign Picks Up Steam

The Advocates for Independent Business’s #efairnessnow social media campaign is picking up steam. The American Booksellers Association, a founding member of AIB, is urging its member bookstores to become active participants to help the campaign go viral by posting campaign images on their Facebook and Twitter feeds, or, as Harvard Book Store in Cambridge did, create and post their own #efairnessnow image.

“The #efairnessnow social media campaign has garnered a great deal of enthusiasm, generating likes and positive comments from consumers,” said ABA CEO Oren Teicher. “We need to keep the momentum. Congress is expected to take up e-fairness after the elections so please join in this campaign and help to spread the word that e-fairness is not only good for business, but for the entire community. Congress has heard from associations, and they’ve heard from retailers. Now, they need to hear it from consumers. So please, take a moment to share, tweet, or retweet one or two or all of the campaign images.”

Though still early in the campaign, the #efairnessnow images have been shared on Facebook by hundreds of businesses and consumers, and retweeted by a growing number of Twitter users. “Needless to say, the more that share these images, the more likely we reach a point where this campaign is indeed viral. But we cannot do that without active involvement from our member booksellers,” said Teicher.

To help spread the word, booksellers are encouraged to:

• Reach out to their customers and ask them to speak up for a fair playing field by posting one of the campaign images on Facebook or Twitter with the hashtag #efairnessnow. Ask them to contact their members of Congress and/or tweet the image to them. Booksellers can find and download the images here. To see some sample tweets or Facebook comments, click here.
• Post one of the campaign images to their own Facebook and Twitter accounts, and call their members of Congress and urge them to support sales tax fairness.
• Connect the campaign even more closely to their stores by taking photos of customers calling for e-fairness. And remember, use the hashtag #efairnessnow. (Booksellers who do create their own #efairnessnow photos are asked to let ABA know by e-mailing Senior Public Policy Analyst David Grogan.)

ABA members can find more information, shareable images, and content suggestions on the AIB campaign page.