by Alicia Schmidt, Digital Content & Marketing Strategist
Ok, I'll admit it. For all of my social media proselytizing, there is part of me that just wants to shrug my shoulders and channel Jan Brady when it comes to Facebook, "Facebook. Facebook.
Facebook."
Sure, I can see how it has transformed our personal
interactions. And I can see the benefits for political and advocacy
organizations. But for BAVC? - a training organization that serves as a type of
art and social issue media middleman?
BAVC jumped on the Facebook bandwagon a few years ago (long
before Pages were really functional), mostly out of an unquenchable
curiosity
with emerging media and technology. We like to tinker with new things,
to see
if we can find new applications for our community of media makers. But
with
limited time and resources, we weren't sure that Facebook was worth it
for us
as an organization? And we're still not sure.
What we do know is that there are 400 MILLION active users
on Facebook and they are getting older everyday. Statistics vary,
but the
fastest growing population on Facebook is men and women 35 years and
older
(desk jockeys who have ready access to a computer or a mobile device).
For us,
the potential of reaching a diverse and savvy community of media makers,
potential audience members, and donors is what motivates us to continue
experimenting.
Building A
Community vs Building a Landing Page
From what I have heard, there are two schools of thought
about Facebook users, which rather than being oppositional, seem more
like
multiple truths. Some "experts" think that Facebook users don't like
to leave Facebook. As such, they recommend creating a lively Facebook
environment that includes posting living content like your blog posts,
videos,
newsletters, etc., all within your page tabs. These folks believe that
you
should participate in Facebook as a community and that you can motivate
your
audience to action entirely within Facebook.
Other folks think of Facebook a type of "landing"
page for your organization website. It is an entry point for folks to
get to
your website, where they are then motivated to action.
From our experience so far, both are true. I think it really
depends on the focus of your organization. We get a fair
amount of traffic to our site from Facebook
(if you don't know where your traffic is coming from, sign up for Google
Analytics ASAP).
For BAVC, I decided on a hybrid approach: 1) Make it easy
for users to link to the BAVC site if they want; but 2) also set up
tools to
help us keep our Facebook page easily up-to-date with high-quality
content
Building your page
- CREATE A CUSTOM URL
It is always a good idea to set up a custom url for your Fan Page. It
makes the page easier to promote and can
be used to re-enforce your message.
To create a custom url for your page, log in to Facebook and then go
here http://www.facebook.com/username/
- LINK YOUR TWITTER, YOUTUBE AND OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
This is pretty simple to do in YouTube. Just go into your
YouTube account and look under "Sharing." If you have a Google
account linked to your YouTube account, you can set up automatic
sharing where
YouTube will post to your Facebook page when you upload a new video.
Your Twitter
account can be linked directly to your page in Facebook (word of
caution,
though, it will post to your admin profile at the same time - use a
twitter app
instead if you just want to post to your page).
-
LINK YOUR BLOG or OTHER RSS CONTENT
As far as I can tell, there isn't the syndicated feed option
for your Notes tab like in the individual profile Facebook pages, so
you have to use a
Facebook App to bring an RSS feed of your blog onto its own tab. At
BAVC, we use RSS
Graffitti to post new blog posts to our Wall. Just log in to
Facebook, search for RSS (you will lots of options), choose RSS
Graffiti and then choose "Go to Application." And then just follow the
directions.
-
CREATE A PERSONALIZE LANDING TAB
Depending on your skill set, there are a few different ways to do this,
but one of the easiest is to use the Static FBML Facebook
application (Facebook Markup Language). The FBML app allows you to
create a
custom page and add it as a tab to your Fan page using html. Don't know
html?
Try viewing the source code on your website and pulling over elements
from your
site that makes sense. Or, try using a free html template from a email
marketing software company like Campaign Monitor or Vertical Response
and
customizing it for your needs. You
can also "borrow" code from some of the best use examples and
customize it for your organization. Use inline CSS for best results (Premailer
is a great little "cheater" application that creates inline CSS for you
if you need it.)
 So, the "Wall" and "Info" tabs on a Facebook
page are static, but the other tabs can be moved (drag and dropped)
into
whatever order works for you. To create a tab from an application,
click on "Ads and Pages" to go to the control panel for your page, then
click on the little pencil icon next to any app, and click Application
Settings. It usually gives you an option to add a tab.
Then, go to the "Wall" page of your site, and
click the "Options" link just under the big Share button in the
status update window. It should open a few more links including
"Settings." Click on "Settings" to set your default landing
tab for visitors who visit your page for the first time (ours is our
FBML "Welcome" Tab).
- ADD A DONATION BOX TO THE LEFT COLUMN OF YOUR WALL PAGE
To add a donation box on the left column of the Wall tab on your Fan
Page, create another
instance of the FBML box. Using html, you can create a link to the
online donation
page on your website. Then go back to "Edit my Page" and clicked on the
FBML
"Application Settings" for our "Make a Donation - FMBL"
application. In settings, choose
to "Add" a box and then hit okay. Then go to the "Box"
tab on your Wall page, locate the FBML box on that page, click on the
edit/pencil and select “Move to Wall Tab." For
more on this, check out
our reference page for our fisccal sponsorees >
- ADD THE STANDARD FACEBOOK APPS AND TABS
Add whatever apps and tabs make sense for your organization or project.
At BAVC, we added events, videos, discussions and reviews.
- USE THE FBML APP to PUT UP A COPY of YOUR LATEST E-NEWSLETTER
At BAVC, we create an HTML newsletter every month. As an
experiment, we have started putting it up on Facebook with a
subscription
link. To do this, just add another instance of the FBML box and
enter the HTML from your last e-newsletter. Again, to maintain the
integrity of your design, inline CSS works best.
Other Resources
Five Essential Apps for your NonProfit Facebook page >
Facebook Best Practices for Nonprofit organizations >
So you want a Facebook page for your Nonprofit? >
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