Indies Urged to Join #Efairnessnow Social Media Campaign

With just a few weeks left in the congressional session, the Advocates for Independent Business (AIB), a coalition including the American Booksellers Association and a number of Local First groups, is urging indie businesses to participate in a grassroots social media campaign in support of e-fairness. The #efairnessnow campaign is timed to coincide with the start of the lame-duck Congressional session, and the hope is that the campaign will go viral and help influence members of Congress.

When the new Congress convenes in 2015, Republicans will take control of the U.S. Senate and will increase their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Given that, if e-fairness legislation is not passed in the lame-duck session, the long-term outlook for federal sales tax fairness legislation is uncertain. Getting the word out now and creating an organic groundswell of support among stores and their customers could go a long way to helping get e-fairness legislation passed by the end of December.

AIB is strongly urging all its association members to post its social media campaign images on their Facebook and Twitter feeds on a daily basis, in the hopes of prompting their loyal customers to do likewise. Stores are also encouraged to create their own images to add to the campaign.

Ultimately, the goal of #efairnessnow is to persuade customers of indie stores to show their support for Main Street retailers by posting social media campaign images on their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds with the hashtag #efairnessnow.

ABA member bookstores that want to participate in the #efairnessnow social media campaign can find more information, shareable images, suggestions, and more on the AIB campaign page, or by contacting David Grogan, senior public policy analyst for ABA, at [email protected].