Social networking stuff

[cheekyweelassie]

Does anyone know more than me about social networking? Or, actually, does anyone know even less than me about social networking?
I work for a gorilla conservation charity (I've posted already in the thread 'Vote for Gorillas' - thank you to all the people who have voted), and I need to reach out to people who have an interest in conservation, poverty reduction, climate change and endangered species. My own social networks are really tiny for the scale of the task. We are a tiny charity (just seven people) against some much bigger competition. The prize money isn't huge ($20 000) but it would fund our project for a full year.
I'm a total novice when it comes to using Facebook and Twitter, although we do have those sites (under The Gorilla Organization, and Stephen Fry 'twitted' about voting for the gorillas at the weekend which was brilliant).
I'm quite baffled by blogs and the other ways to create and expand networks..which is a problem because I'm involved in a campaign at work that really needs to make use of these methods to ask people to vote for our project in an international competition.
Does anyone have any experience or advice on how to use the internet effectively for this kind of thing? We don't have much time, resources or knowledge! I'm a press officer, and used to using print and broadcast media, but this is really an online campaign as people vote online and the information is all on the website http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk
How can I generate interest, and votes?


Thanks.

[anakin]

You could create a group on Facebook and invite people to join? It then generates a little ad on the homepage of group members' friends and they might join also... I'd give you a step by step guide but it's blocked at work nearly all day...

[lovesitx]

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-New-Facebook-Group

Invite all your friends to join, then ask them to invite their friends, then get them to invite their friends etc