An increasing number of nonprofits are expanding their social media efforts with Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups.

And for good reason:

Facebook is one of the largest social media sites on the web:

• More than 200 million active users
• More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is 35 and older

And their users are very active:

• Average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 4 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day
• More than 30 million users update their statuses daily
• More than 6 million users become fans of Pages each day

Hubspot, an Internet marketing company in Cambridge, Mass., recently published a free book for businesses looking to use Facebook.

I was curious how useful How to Use Facebook for Business would be for my typical nonprofit client, so I downloaded it (no email required!) and read through the 22-page guide.

The ebook includes the following topics – all very useful for any nonprofit:

• Why you should be on Facebook – business value overview (also applies to nonprofits!)
• Facebook’s ad builder can be used to research potential supporters by filtering on age, location and interests.
• How to create an engaging Facebook Page to encourage wall comments – seen by all of commenter’s friends.
• How to use the FBML application to add HTML content to your page (also see this video tutorial).
• How to get search engine credit from Facebook with the HTML application.
• Using Facebook’s analytics to measure traffic on your Facebook Page.
• A Facebook reference guide and glossary.

I found these two pages particularly useful:

And a one-pager on the difference between Facebook Groups and Pages (also see this post).

Download the ebook here: How to Use Facebook for Business

John Haydon delivers social web strategy solutions for “the quick, the smart, and the slightly manic.” Curious? Then connect up with John.