So you’re now all set on Facebook. Yee haw! But what do you do to make your mark?
Here are 9 great tips for building a full-bodied, engaging Facebook page for your online nonprofit community.
10 Tips for Nonprofits on Facebook
1. Take Advantage of the Nonprofit Template Tools
Now that you've set-up your Facebook Nonprofit page, make sure to enjoy all the goodies it provides. With Donate Now buttons, Events, Fundraisers and much more, if you're not taking using these powerful tools, do it now!
2. Use Your Visuals
A beautiful, high-quality photograph is the most effective way to tell your nonprofit’s story. With social media relying more and more on visuals, and posts with photos gathering 53% more likes and 101% more comments than ones without, communicating with words alone will leave your message in the dust.
3. Don’t be Shy to go Live
The popularity of Facebook Live is booming. Report from a rally. Interview passionate donors. Host a Q&A. This new tool is an incredible way to connect with your supporters in real time.
4. Research
Spend time observing what others in your field are doing right (and wrong). Watch and learn from similar organizations with a large Facebook following. What tone are they using? What type of content gets a lot of likes or shares? Try to pinpoint the sweet spot of fan engagement and aim for that.
5. Keep it Interesting and Shareable
Focus on compelling content. Discover what makes your fans tick then use what you find to make this content more visual, fun, different, and most importantly, shareable!
6. Educate and Connect
Don't just broadcast news about your organization and use Facebook as a platform to hit up donors. Remember that most people’s primary interest on Facebook is interacting with friends and family while defining themselves as unique individuals. They don’t come to Facebook to be marketed to. Instead, they come to Facebook to learn about the people and issues they care about. So educate them about your causes and reinforce their caring.
7. Ask Questions and Converse
What is your favorite world landmark? What do you think of our latest campaign? Cake or pie? Asking supporters to comment, spark conversation and interact will help boost the visibility of your updates. Plus, people tend to be more comfortable joining a conversation than starting one. This is a wonderful way to get to know your community better and increase engagement on your page.
8. Be Strategic
Always keep your audience in mind when posting. Why should they care? Why would they respond? Facebook's Newsfeed algorithm is displaying fewer page updates, and they give priority to images, videos and increasingly, paid promoted pages. If the first few people who see your update react, they'll share it with others. If not, it's dead, so make every post count.
And do pace yourself. Nobody wants their newsfeed bombarded from one source. Commit this party foul and you might find yourself “unliked.”
9. Use Facebook Insights
Insights is your personal in-house statistician. It will tell you what content your fans like or share the most, what age groups you’re popular with and what times of day your status updates get the most visibility. Take full advantage of this powerful this tool to alter your Facebook strategy. Here’s a great article from Kissmetrics digging deeper into Insights.
10. Be Real!
Always respond swiftly to messages quickly and authentically. This keeps the conversation alive proves that there are real, live, caring and delightful people (you!) behind the Facebook façade.