It’s a smart move for nonprofits to use Facebook. Yes, you may already have your own website but think about this: In an average day do more people visit your site or Facebook? Take advantage of the high level of traffic to deliver bite-sized chunks of information to your supporters.
For a person, on Facebook, you set up a profile. For any organization, you set up a page. They are two separate parts of the Facebook universe. “Friends” follow your personal profile. Pages have “fans.” Confused? I find this phrase helps me keep the two clear: “I’m a fan of your work and a friend of yours.”
Pages are created by a Facebook member. Consider them your nonprofit’s Facebook administrator. The information on their personal profile, will not appear on the nonprofit’s page.
But when you post a item on your nonprofit page, the update will be seen by everyone who is a fan of your organization. The news will appear in their news stream on their Facebook profile. This is big as it gives you an easy way to get in touch with people who like what you’re doing. Of course the challenge is making sure that your updates have good content, are to the point, and are enriching. Pictures, YouTube videos, and blogs can help get the job done.
Additional Resources:
Of course, pages aren’t the only way for nonprofits to use Facebook. Do you think pages are best? I know some orgs have had a lot of success w/Causes.
I’m more of a fan of pages than causes. Causes can allow an organization to raise money. But there have been a few studies that have found that not a lot of funds (sometimes as low as 2 cents per fan) come through that method. There is a risk that someone will donate $5 and feel they’ve done their part to solve a community issue. I’d rather try to make a case for a larger gift or volunteer involvement.
I prefer to use social media as more of a stream of information about the work of the nonprofit. An end result of that should be support but I think it can be risky to immediately ask for a gift. Too often I see groups trying to get money by saying, “We do good things… support us.” In this scenario, the nonprofit makes itself appear like any other group and that means that there’s no “stickiness” to have an ongoing gift.
I haven’t tried it yet but there is a way to add a donate button to a page.
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[...] Fun with Facebook [...]