Great images boost your place in the news feed

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, marketers, Facebook page administrators and users.

Facebook launched an enhanced news feed that’s rolling out to all users in the next weeks on both mobile and the Web.

The enhanced news feed now allows users to tailor and focus more easily on specific feeds:

• All Friends: a feed that shows you everything your friends are sharing.
• Photos: a feed with nothing but photos from your friends and the pages you like.
• Music: a feed with posts about the music you listen to.
• Following: a feed with the latest news from the pages you like and the people you follow.

What does this mean for your nonprofit?

The enhanced news feed means that you’ll have more engagement, but you’ll also have more competition.

More engagement: One of the biggest changes in the enhanced news feed is the size of photos. They are huge! This will create more photo views, comments, likes and shares.

There is also a new following feed that allows Facebook users to see all of the updates from every page they follow. I personally doubt many Facebook users will view this feed, but people who do use this feed will be more intentionally engaged with the updates.

More competition: Up until now, photos were competing against text updates and links in the news feed (in addition to other photos). Photos, which have 39% more engagement than text-only updates, had a clear advantage. But now those same photos will be competing for attention with other photos in the photos feed.

Here are five things you can do to compete for attention more effectively in the new news feed:

Post better photos

1The photos feed means that you need to post photos that are even more remarkable and relevant to your audience. This will allow you to stand out against other pages that are also posting photos.

One way to instantly improve your photos is to make sure they all tell stories, like this one:

Promote your best photos

2Go to your Facebook Insights and filter your page posts by photos, and rank them by virality. Every couple of days promote one of your top 10 photos to fans — yes, it costs a bit of money, if you can afford it. This will give your top photos even more likes, comments and shares, which will in turn generate more organic viral reach, which is way better than paid reach through Facebook ads.

Make your page beautiful

3Whenever Facebook receives a new coat of paint, users tend to explore a lot more, which can give your page a fresh burst of new visitors in the short term. Make sure you upload a new cover photo, fill in gaps in your milestones, and weed out boring content. This will increase the likelihood that visitors will engage even more with your page content.

Be useful and present

4Because users can now view all pages they’ve ever liked in the “Following” feed, unlikes will spike in the short term, especially for pages that boosted likes with fan gate contests, but failed to be useful. Make sure that you publish content that is useful, and also work hard to create useful discussions within your posts by replying to commenters.

Build a stronger fan base

5Leverage your email list, your website and other social media channels to build a stronger, more engaged Facebook fan base. You should also promote your Facebook page as a secondary action for new donors and subscribers. This strategy will always win out in the long term, regardless of how Facebook’s news feed changes.

What do you think about the new news feed?

The post 5 ways to dominate Facebook’s new news feed appeared first on Socialbrite.

Get your Facebook page buzzing by using these tactics

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, Facebook administrators.

If you’re like most busy nonprofit professionals, you make your best effort to have an organized content strategy on Facebook. Still, there are times when you get buried with other projects and simply have no idea what to post on your Facebook page.

Here are 19 quick Facebook page post ideas that you can use right now to get your page buzzing.

1. Ask a fill-in-the-blank question about the specific area of your cause. Begin the prompt with “Fill in the Blank:”
2. Ask a multiple-choice question related to a specific area of your cause. Begin the update with “Quick Poll” and then write the choices on separate lines (A, B, C).
3. Cap that! Ask fans to caption a photo. Post an unusual photo (that has to do with your cause) and ask your Facebook fans to come up with a caption. Tell them that the best answer wins an Einstein award.
4. Play the elephant game. Crop a small section from a photo, post it on your page and ask fans to guess what it is. For example, a dog shelter can post a picture of the dogs ear and ask fans to guess what breed the dog it is.
5. Let Google Analytics help you. Post a picture from your one of your top viewed Web pages and post it with a comment or excerpt from the article.
6. Let aliens abduct your page. The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta did a show that involved a tiny alien. In December they dressed it up as Santa and shared it on their page.



7. Isn’t that Pinteresting? Post a picture from one of your Pinterest boards that’s received the most repins. For inspiration, see what Survival for Blondes does.
8. Play and edge. Ask a question about a topic where people have strong opinions one way or the other. For example, “Yes or No: Do you think we should ban assault rifles in the United States?
9. Supporter love. Post a picture of one of your top volunteers in action and share something really great that he or she did recently.
10. Let locals know that you care. If you notice a news article about a tragedy in a specific city, target an update to that location letting those fans know that your organization cares.
11. Post a fun fact related to your cause. “Did you know that…?”
12. Share a post from George Takei’s page. You won’t go wrong there, unless your organization leans more conservative.
13. What the FAQ? Post the answer to the most common question you get asked at events.
14. Ask your supporters for ideas. If you have an event coming up, ask your Facebook fans what they’d like to see to make it memorable, different and amazing.
15. Share your work life. Snap a quick picture of a peculiar item in your office and share it on Facebook with a comment. Or take a picture of staff doing cool and interesting things.
16. Share a post from a partner page. Your sponsors spend a lot of resources to support your nonprofit. Make a point of regularly promoting their agenda to your fans.
17. Try conditional sharing. Post a compelling photo related your cause and ask people to share if they’ve been affected by the same issue.
18. Learn from the best. Post a similar updates to one of the top ones from your competitors.
19. Steal success. Oscar Wilde said, “talent borrows, genius steals.” An example Jeremy from The Dundee Hills Winegrowers Association shared is the someecards ecards site. If you see one that is already getting a ton of likes and shares, go ahead and post it as your own (with proper credit).

Bonus: Here are 16 ideas to get more comments on your Facebook page using text.

Do you have a creative example of a Facebook update that worked for your nonprofit’s Facebook page? Don’t be shy — share your example below!

Related

• 16 ways to get more comments on your Facebook Page (Socialbrite)

• 27 ways to increase engagement on your Facebook page (Socialbrite)

• Facebook tools and tutorials (Socialbrite)

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Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, social enterprises, cause organizations, NGOs, brands, businesses, Web publishers, educators, general public.

If your organization’s Facebook Page no longer has the growth and activity it did when you first launched it, you’re not alone. Many nonprofits have experienced the similar flat-lining due to shifting priorities, turnover or ineffective strategies.

The good news is that you can start fresh with a few proven strategies to revive your Page:

Use a Like Box

1This is what you might call low-hanging fruit. Adding a Like Box to your website might just be one of the easiest and most effective ways to create more attention for your Facebook Page. Likes gained though a Like Box can also be tracked via Insights.

Promote your Page in emails

2Hopefully you haven’t been neglecting your email list in addition to your Facebook Page. Assuming you haven’t, make a habit of linking to your Page in the sidebar or footer of your emails, and also in mentions of your Page in the email body.

Promote your Page’s stories in emails

3Another powerful way to integrate your email marketing with your Facebook Page is to regularly highlight specific discussions on your Page wall that you think your subscribers will find useful. You can get the permalink to any update by clicking on the date (as shown below).

Post diverse kinds of content

4Like you, your Facebook Page fans have certain preferences for the content they like to engage with and share. Some love photos, others love links. Posting a wider variety of story types will eventually get you in more news feeds. And never underestimate the power of simple questions.

Allow Facebook users to post diverse content

5One thing that impedes engagement is when you don’t allow Facebook users to post their own content on your Page. You can update these settings under the “Manage Permissions” admin tab (shown below). And if you’re concerned about offensive comments, you can always block specific types of comments and posts on your Page.

Revisit past conversations

6When you reply to comments in an existing thread, anyone who has commented on or liked that update receives a notification via email, drawing those users back into the comment thread and perhaps renewing their interest in the Page. Start with the updates that have the highest virality and go from there.

Think like a person

7One thing that might be hurting your Page is unknowingly harboring old marketing paradigms. Facebook is not a website. It’s not a direct mail. It’s a community. It’s people. Facebook users spend most of their time interacting with friends on Facebook, so the more you can come across as a friend, the more likely they’ll respond.

Show appreciation

8One way you can express appreciation is to state it simply: “We have the best Facebook fans on the planet!” (Notice how many comments you’ll get after that update). I’ve tested this on several Pages and it’s always one of the top Page stories within a 30-day period.

Work with your social fundraisers

9If you use a tool like Razoo to empower your biggest fans to fundraise, find a way to bring them to the Page. They already love what you do. Give them more of what they love on your Facebook Page!

Concentrate on core fans

10A powerful way to have this group help you get a huge boost in fans is to coordinate with them to use the “Recommend this page” feature. Tell them that you’re struggling with your Facebook Page and ask them to all use this feature on a specific time and date. Ask them to recommend your Page to at least 10 friends, which will be specific and doable for most of them.

Detonate like and comment bombs

11Using crowdsourced content from your core fans, have them like or comment on specific stories as soon as they’re published. This will give your EdgeRank the boost it so desperately needs, which will be followed by organic engagement.

Conduct a Wall chat

12 One of the best ways to inject your Page with a jolt of engagement is to conduct a scheduled chat on the Page that you promote using other channels. Think hashtag chats but on Facebook. All you need to do is schedule a date and time that a specific topic will be discussed on the Page, and then have a topic expert available to moderate the discussion as an admin.

Hold a post-event Q&A

13Another way to create a concentration of engagement on your Page is to conduct Q&A following an event. CharityhHowTo does this for all of its free webinars, and it’s been their No. 1 way of acquiring new fans and boosting EdgeRank.

Use Facebook ads

14You can use sponsored story ads to create more reach for specific Page stories. These ads, called Page Post Ads, allow you to pick one of your latest stories and display it in the form of an ad seen by all of your fans (as shown below). Obviously this tactic sidesteps EdgeRank, which is good if you’re still trying to figure out what content works best for your fans.

Use your cell phone

15Chances are making enough time to engage with fans is a constant struggle. Fortunately, there are a few ways you can update your Page from a mobile device:

1. From a smart phone – If you have a smartphone, you can use one of six different apps developed by Facebook. You can’t view Insights, or configure your Page settings, but you can post updates and reply to comments.
2. From an email – You can also email a status update or photo to your Facebook Page by following the steps in this blog post.
3. From a test message – Finally, you can update your Page via SMS. To activate text messaging for your Page, log in to your Page, click on the “Mobile” tab and follow the instructions (as shown below).

Post diverse topics

16 A common mistake many Page administrators make is that they publish content only directly related to their cause. What they don’t realize is that even the most rabid fan wants to talk about other topics. For example, a breast cancer organization should talk about topics that are interesting to women and not just breast cancer survivors. After all, survivors are also women, mothers and possibly leaders in their local community.

Get some Insight

17Use your Page insights to quickly find the posts with the highest engagement. Insights helps you determine how you can improve your content strategy, and how your efforts are translated into new donors, and volunteers. Check out the free videos on the Nonprofit Facebook Guy’s Page (yep, that’s me).

What else can you add?

The post 17 ways to revive your organization’s Facebook Page appeared first on Socialbrite.

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, social media managers, individuals.

Although Facebook has changed what liking a Page means to users, acquiring Facebook fans will always be an important part of any nonprofit Facebook strategy.

Fortunately, Facebook’s platform includes many opportunities for Facebook users to like a Page. Below are 12 ways Facebook users can like your Page:

1 From a new Facebook user registration.
People who are registering for Facebook can like your Page in the registration wizard.

2 From creating a Page.
When you create a Page, liking it is now part of the process.

3 Admin registration.
People can like your Page when you add them as admins.

4 Invite friends feature.
Admins can use the “Invite Friends” feature to ask their friends to like your Page (as shown at top).

5 On the Page.
People who like your Page from the Page itself.

6 Sponsored stories.
People can like your Page in a sponsored story ad.

7Recommendation.
Someone can recommend your Page when they like it.

8 From a mobile device.
People can like your Page directly from a iPhone or other mobile device.

9Pages can like Pages.
In addition to profiles, other Pages can like your Page.

10From a profile edit.
Facebook users can add your page to their “likes” if they edit their profile.

11From a Facebook search.
People who liked your Page from Facebook’s search results.

12From a like box or like button.
People can like your Page from an external site using these Facebook social plugins.

Use Facebook Insights to track all of your like sources

In Facebook’s new Page Insight Fans report, you can view how many likes you’ve received for a specific date range, and where those likes came from:

Were you aware of all these “like” sources?

The post 12 ways Facebook users can ‘like’ your nonprofit Facebook Page appeared first on Socialbrite.