Add “forward to a friend” to the graveyard of dead phrases.

Did it work for a time? Who knows! But it’s getting tired now and I’m sad to have to be the one to inform you it’s time to put ol’ forward to a friend out to pasture.

You can and should enlist your readers in amplifying your work. But you either have to go bigger with a reader referral campaign (like what Lyneka Little did for the Prison Journalism Project)…

OR you have to make a different ask.

Today, I’m offering you three fresh ways you can get your readers boosting up your stories without making their eyes glaze over.

Three ways to go beyond forward to a friend

Invite readers to start a conversation in public

💡 What they did: Sean Ellis, the godfather of growth, makes a play at the bottom of most of his newsletters to get readers to post about the story they just read on social media.

🤔 Why it’s interesting: Readers take your work and put it in front of THEIR AUDIENCE. This is especially useful if some of your readers are influential or have a good platform, but it even works with readers who have a small, committed following.

🍿 How I’d do it: Weird that Sean packed in so many calls to action here! He knows better. Make this a SINGULAR ACTION: “Share your take on Instagram” (choose your channel) and then offer them a prompt and remind them to tag you. It really helps if you react to or reshare your readers posts and/or feature them in your newsletters.

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Ask them to reshare your posts online

💡 What they did: When The Institute for Independent Journalists was putting on their conference earlier this year, they asked us to reshare posts they had already put up online. They also gave us the graphics in case we wanted to make original posts.

🤔 Why it’s interesting: This is an incredibly fast ask. Sharing a link to posts that are already online and asking people to boost them is a two click action. You couldn’t make this any easier on your readers. Obviously, it also boosts your posts and it will encourage more of your readers to follow you on social media which means they’ll see your work on multiple channels and get more invested in your world.

🍿 How I’d do it: If you publish your newsletter AFTER a story has been published and posted on social media, grab one or two of the posts and link them in your newsletter along with an ask to reshare “Did you find this useful? Reshare our post on Bluesky or LinkedIn.”

If you publish your newsletter BEFORE you post about those stories on social, you can either grab a past post for them to boost or just direct them to your channel. For example, “Did this newsletter resonate with you? Grab my post on Instagram and reshare it to your stories!” (link to your Instagram channel and just know that some readers might beat you to having the post up.)

Enlist readers to post flyers in their community

💡 What they did: The 51st sent out a dedicated campaign about word of mouth with the subject line “Help The 51st Grow—for Free!” and it included several innovative asks including "Join Our Street Team.”

🤔 Why it’s interesting: This is a great ask for local news publishers but I also think this could work if your newsletter is topic based and if people gather somewhere around your topic (for example, I’m thinking of Emily Stochl’s Pre-Loved which covers secondhand fashion). It’s an ask for your most enthusiastic readers and it’s pretty likely they’d call up a friend or two to help them, which also spreads the word and builds some loyalty and connection to your publication.

🍿 How I’d do it: Make a digital flyer in Canva and write up instructions on where you want people to post them (what kinds of businesses or where to find bulletin boards). I’d also ask them to post a photo and tag you.

In the example above, Maddie Poore, worker-owner at The 51st, geared this towards building a local volunteer squad they could lean on for events and other support (check out Maddie’s interest form). But I see this as a strategy that could work just by making the flyer and telling readers where to post it.

The tl;dr of making fun asks of your audience

If forward to a friend is still working for you, GREAT. Put me on blast on social media for calling time of death too soon.

If not, try changing up how you ask your audience to amplify and don’t be afraid to go big—like The 51st’s street team! I recommend making your own call to action menu (grab this free worksheet I made) so you can rotate your asks, one at a time.

It’s highly likely that you have some loyal fans in your base who would be willing to jump in and help. All you gotta do is ask.

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