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Blog Post: We're changing...
Jul 1, 2010
We're changing...
Important Announcement:
From July the 19th we will become "Reason Digital". »|
Blog Post: Is your message getting through?
Mar 23, 2010
Is your message getting through?
We'll be giving a brief talk about getting the best out of email newsletters at Charity Comms' quarterly seminar in London on 16th September. »|

Who uses Facebook?

Over 300 million people worldwide use Facebook, and as of the end of 2009 1 in 3 people in the UK has a profile.

In November 2009 almost 30% of all internet traffic was to Facebook. In the UK, Facebook is visited more often than the BBC, YouTube, Amazon, eBay amd Wikipedia. (source: Alexa)

If Facebook were a country it would have the second largest population after the United States.

More than 50% of UK users between 18 and 34 and more than 50% are women. The fastest-growing demographic is currently women over 55

How can your organisation use Facebook?

It’s possible to upload press releases, presentations, videos, photos and more to your organization’s fan page, which can become a second home for your online communications. Many people may end up connecting with you via Facebook before they ever find your website.

Pages

Facebook Pages are one option available to nonprofits as the offer more features than some other page types, including:

  • a friendly URL like http://www.facebook.com/your-nonprofit-name
  • people can find you via Google. Facebook Pages get indexed and is searchable inside and outside (i.e. Google) of Facebook. Which also means you can boost your search engine rankings.
  • access to users’ feeds - When Facebook users become a “fan” of your nonprofit page, they will be notified of your status updates every time you make one! Then they can comment, share and/or like your wall posts which then shares it with all their friends – now that’s viral.
  • applications to your Page and engage your users with videos (YouTube Box), photos (Flickr Box) reviews, flash content, RSS feed readers for your blog posts
  • Statistics - "Insight portal" provides engagement performance analysis to help you improve your content. Use the stats to gain valuable insight into what your constituents like, what type of content they interact with the most, what they share with their friends and what they don’t like or respond to.

See:

Groups

You can create groups for your organization or event to make announcements, join discussion groups or share pictures or videos. There are two kinds of groups on Facebook - open and closed groups. So be sure to create open groups so that people can find it and your members can invite others to join.

Events

You can create and promote events, add pictures and invite your contacts to join. You can also post details of events in your profile so people can RSVP for an event. You also have the option to leave the event open to people in your network or open for everyone.

Causes

More than 25 million Facebook users have signed up to support nonprofits.

Do

  • Think carefully about what to call your page/group/cause - action verbs and campaign goals are more attention-grabbing
  • Participate in the conversation - respond to wall posts & messages, post information about outcomes, consistently thank fans and remind them how they're making a difference.
  • use the "announce" feature - use it often, but make each announcement unique, short and use exclamation points for attention.
  • Make use of tools available for your own website, particularly on your most popular or most controversial content (e.g Faceboook Connect, share buttons etc.)
  • Keep an eye on engagement levels (from posts & comments to less involved interactions such as "likes")

Don't

  • send out endless emails to your group members
  • rely on Facebook as a fundraiser - Causes don't currently offer good returns, but choose to give through other channels (PayPal, JustGiving etc)
  • rely on a single network - not everyone uses Facebook yet!

Useful links

Next: Writing for Twitter