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

Facebook’s news feed algorithm will soon put a damper on external links to memes and instead suggest related articles and resurface updates or high-quality content with new comments.

All of these changes are intended to drive more traffic to Facebook, highlight relevant content to the users, and deepen engagement on high-performing posts.

Let’s go over each one of these changes, and then talk about what it means to you.

Links to memes will take a back seat to high-quality content

1Links to memes like grumpy cat, philosoraptor or overly attached girlfriend will soon take a back seat to high-quality content.

The reason for this tweak is that Facebook found that “people prefer links to high quality articles about current events, their favorite sports team, or shared interests, to the latest meme.”

This means that high quality articles will be slightly more prominent news feeds, and meme photos will be less prominent.

It’s important to note that this news feed enhancement will only affect links – not videos, text updates or photos you post to your Page.

So if you post a picture of Grumpy Cat on your Facebook Page, you should be fine.

To do: Start developing ways to create high-quality content that you own. If you don’t have a blog for your nonprofit, consider starting one.

Facebook will suggest other high-quality articles

2Facebook will also start suggesting other articles users should read based on the most recently viewed article. After a user clicks on a link, they’ll see up to three related articles directly below the post in the news feed (as shown in Facebook’s example below).

Stories with new comments will get a bump

3Story bumping is when a high-quality post resurfaces in a user’s news feed.

For example, let’s say that you post an amazing article, but I miss it because I’m at an event. Facebook places that article higher up in the news feed so that I’ll notice it the next time I log in.

Now Facebook will also consider new comments when bumping up a story. This means that people will see posts with new comments returning to their feed.

To do: Make an effort to reply to commenters in ways that create lively commentary.

What does this mean for you?

If the core of your content marketing strategy has been to engage Facebook users with useful and relevant links, and you practice good community management, then you have nothing to worry about.

However, if your strategy includes piggybacking trending memes, you may want to rethink your approach. And if your reach drops after this new change in the news feed, remember that there a lot of ways you can boost reach organically. Here are 13.

Regardless of how much Facebook changes its algorithm, useful content will always prevail in the news feed. That’s because a large part of Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm depends on how much users like, comment on, and share your content.

If it’s useful, relevant and interesting, it will get more exposure!

So keep calm and create awesome content!

What do you think?

Related

• Facebook Tweaks Newsfeed to Feature More High Quality Content (Johnhaydon.com)

• Facebook tips, tutorials and articles (Socialbrite)

• 15 ways to enhance your Facebook influence (Socialbrite)

• 6 simple steps to create a Facebook page that just works (Socialbrite)

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Create lists to share others’ updates

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, content marketers, educators, Web publishers, journalists, Facebook administrators.

One of the biggest challenges nonprofits have is finding content that will resonate with their community.

A little known but powerful way to curate content is with Facebook interest lists. (Here are Facebook articles about the topic.)

Interest lists, if you don’t know, are lists of pages that Facebook users can create and access from their sidebar, shown at top. It can consist of a nonprofit organization, a cause, a person’s public page or something else.

Below are four steps for using Facebook interest lists to curate high-quality content:

Use graph search to find relevant pages

1Before you start creating interest lists, ask this question: What Facebook pages do my fans actually like? This is where Facebook Graph Search comes in handy.

Below are six Facebook Graph search strings you can use right now (watch this video tutorial on using Graph Search).

1. Pages liked by people who like [your page]
2. Pages liked by women who like [your page]
3. Pages liked by men who like [your page]
4. Fans of [your page] and [another page]
5. Restaurants in [your city] visited by people who like [your page]
6. Pages liked by people who live in [your city] and like [your page]

Use Facebook Insights to prioritize your searches

2If you’re busy, like most professionals, you’ll want to just stick with the three most important searches.

Hop over to your Page Insights. Pay specific attention to the people who engage with your content (shown below).

Are women the majority of your engaged fans? Where are the top places they live? Answering these questions will help you prioritize the Graph Searches mentioned in step one.

Create interest lists of pages liked by your Facebook fans

3Once you know the pages that your fans like, create an interest list.

1. Go to this page on Facebook to create your list (facebook.com/addlist)
2. Click the Create Interest button at the top of the page.
3. In the pop-up window, add one of the pages from your search and click Next.
4. Name your list after your Graph Search criteria and make it private (shown below) or public.

Share content from these pages

4Once you create your interest lists, get to know the pages. Make time to regularly scan your lists for engaging content.

When you find a post on another page with higher than average engagement – and is relevant to your audience – share it on your page (shown below).

Unfortunately, you can’t schedule shares, so you’ll have to share these posts when your fans are on Facebook.

Quick tip: To keep this approach top of mind, add it as a task to your content calendar.

Go beyond Facebook

Don’t limit this curated content to Facebook.

For example, if you find an engaging video you think will perform well on Facebook, embed the video in a blog post. Or post it on Twitter. The point here is that your Facebook fans reflect your audience across all channels, not just Facebook.

Have you used interest lists like this? Or some other way?

The post How to use Facebook interest lists for content marketing appeared first on Socialbrite.

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

The difference between a Facebook update that gets results, and one that doesn’t is the content. After all, Facebook users primarily share content they find useful and interesting.

But knowing this and actually doing this takes more that just “posting awesome content” – an overused mantra that’s not too helpful.

There are several steps that need to happen before, during and after a post is published:

Listen to your community first

1Every species on this planet has thrived by listening first. But for some reason, human beings tend not to listen first when engaging on social media.

When you listen first, you get important information such as current topics most interesting topics, news, etc. Insights allows you to see which updates your community is engaged with most.

You can also use Graph Search to discover a lot of cool things about your Facebook fans. For example, see the search result at top of pages liked by people who like the Sierra Club.

Be clear about objectives

2We all know that objectives should be smart, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely, but relevance is often overlooked in this formula.

• You want more Facebook fans? Why?
• What does that have to do with your organization’s mission?
• What value we do offer in exchange for the increased Fanbase?

These are questions you should be asking way before Facebook comes into the picture.

Create and curate useful content

3Most nonprofits make the mistake of posting content that’s mostly self-serving. A post about your latest event is not that useful. Neither is the link to your donate now page.

Remember, you are competing with friends the for attention in the newsfeed. The only way to stand out is to be useful.

For example, the Humane Society of Indianapolis shares dog care tips and training tips (see below), instead of only info about dogs for adoption. Being indispensable (useful) to adoptees, increases chances that adoptees will share their updates with their friends (through liking, commenting, and sharing).

Click the infographic to seeing it full size.

Optimize and publish your post

4In general, photos get the most engagement on Facebook and links get the least engagement. But this doesn’t mean that you should be publishing only photos to your Facebook page.

Carefully consider the best way to publish your content, based on your objectives and what will be useful to your community.

For example, instead of posting a link to an article about dog tips, create a simple infograph listing those tips. Posting this image instead of a link, in this case, immediately increases the chance it will be shared with friends.

It’s also best to publish a mix of text updates, photos, and videos on your page so you don’t exclude fans who prefer other types of content.

Monitor immediate engagement

5Most of the engagement on Facebook update happen within the first couple of hours. During this period of time you want to have your community management hat ready in hand. Responding quickly demonstrates your commitment to the community.

Remember, Facebook users want to be heard. They want to know that your organization is listening and cares about what they have to say. Facebook is an awesome place to demonstrate this!

Use GPS to adjust strategy

6Within the first few hours after an update has been published on your Facebook page, you’ll get a sense of how open “viral” it is. If you see that people are liking, commenting, and sharing the update more than previous updates, consider adjusting your strategy to give it more exposure.

Promote post with other channels

7One way to get your updates more exposure is to use other channels, like Twitter, Pinterest, email, and your website.

For example, if the the dog shelter mentioned earlier finds a lot of engagement around the infographic, they can embed that update within a blog post (blog posts tend to have much longer periods of engagement than Facebook updates). This approach will increase the exposure for that Facebook update, while at the same time providing the shelter with a blog post idea that’s already been vetted by the community.

For organizations that use Pinterest, a good practice is to re-post hi-performing Facebook Page photos on a Pinterest board, linking back to the original photo on their Facebook page.

Use Facebook ads

8Facebook ads are like salt and pepper, and your content is the meal. Ads are best used to enhance what you’re already doing right.

Facebook ads can be used in a number of ways to lengthen the exposure on specific updates. As a general rule it’s good to focus on updates that have already performed well (lots of likes, comments, and shares).

Don’t forget about other pages

This is a “good karma” strategy that relies on people’s desire to reciprocate. Here’s how it works: Partners and similar nonprofits want to get results with Facebook too. Selectively reposting their updates makes you look like a hero and increases the likelihood that they’ll reciprocate.

What can you add?

The post 8 ways to expand your Facebook page reach appeared first on Socialbrite.

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, journalists, marketing professionals, Facebook administrators.

Facebook recently updated its news feed algorithm to feature organic content that’s more relevant to each user.

The news feed is where the vast majority of the action happens. So your organization should take steps to make sure you’re showing up in the new feeds of your fans.

Some of the factors that Facebook is using to decide which posts to display include:

• Content that is timely and relevant
• Content from a source the user trusts
• Content the user is likely to recommend to her friends
• Content that isn’t trying to game the news feed (for example, asking for people to like the content)
• Content the user wouldn’t view as a low-quality meme
• Content the user wouldn’t complain about seeing

Based on these criteria, Facebook built what it says is “a new system to detect content defined as high quality” using factors such as:

• The completeness of the page’s About tab
• How much the page fan base overlaps with the fan base of other high-quality pages

What does this mean for your organization’s Facebook account?

Facebook is trying to display more high-quality content from reputable Facebook pages and filter out content from pages seeking to game the news feed.

This change in the news feed means going back to square one and asking yourself:

• Is this content relevant to the cause?
• Is this content timely, useful and interesting to our community?
• Would our community share this content with their friends?

The bottom line here is that there is no trick to getting ahead in Facebook’s news feed other than truly serving your community with valuable content. I think this will always be the case regardless of how much Facebook changes the news feed algorithm.

What do you think?

Related on Socialbrite

• 5 ways to dominate Facebook’s new news feed

• 15 ways to enhance your Facebook influence

• How nonprofits can take charge of Facebook’s news feed

• 13 ways to boost your Facebook Page reach

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Sincerity & technology help express gratitude to supporters

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

It’s easy to think about thanking your Facebook fans as something that’s nice to do – if you have the time and are in the mood. But saying thanks is a vital part of your success on Facebook, and everywhere else.

How do you thank your Facebook fans in ways that are sincere and meaningful? Below are five ways to say thanks that they’ll notice.

With cover photos

1Check out the Facebook cover Dogs Trust created to thank their supports. You can also switch things up by thanking specific fans in a cover photo and even tell them why you appreciate them (a la charity:water)!

With video

2Nothing conveys sincerity more than video. And iPhones and Androids make videos more easy to create than ever.

One of my favorite apps is the video camera from i4software. This app allows you to create hi-def videos at 1280 x 720 resolution with your iPhone.

A few tips to make your video more personal:

• Look directly into the camera lens but imagine that you’re looking into the eyes of a specific donor.
• Talk about your supporters – not you or your organization. Tell them what they’ve done by supporting your organization.
• Shoot in a room well lit with natural light if possible.

With Facebook ads

3Facebook ads allow you to target specific donor segments. For example, you could run a campaign that displays an ad thanking first time donors (in addition to sending them a thank you email and/or calling them on the phone. Read this post for more on targeting emails with Facebook ads.

With a hand-written card

4If you’ve acquired emails and donors from your Facebook Page, you have the ability to create a list of names and addresses. This gets easier and more meaningful with tools like Profile Builder from Small Act.

Take an hour each week to send a hand-written card to a few people who’ve commented on some of your latest Page updates. You might even take a screen grab of the post and include it in your note of thanks!

With your heart

5Bottom line with any of these approaches is the sincerity of the gesture. Always go back to this prime point regardless of how fancy you get with tactics and sparkly gifts.

Finally, check out Amy Eisenstein’s Sample Stewardship Plan to help make thanking your donors a reality.

How are you thanking your Facebook fans?

The post Five creative ways to thank your Facebook fans appeared first on Socialbrite.

How to make text updates as effective as photos

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

It seems like all the “experts” tell us is to post photos on our Facebook page to get more likes, comments and shares.

Text updates aren’t as sexy, but they can be equally as effective.

Why bother posting text updates on your Facebook page?

Why should you care about posting text updates when the research says photos work best?

There are at least two reasons:

1. Research is always biased. All studies about how content performs on Facebook is based on aggregate data from thousands of Facebook users, and never a true benchmark for your unique community. It’s like comparing apples with a huge bag of fruit.
2. Posting diverse content helps you engage more users simply because people have diverse preferences for content type and content topics.

Here are three specific ways you can boost the number of comments on your text updates:

Ask closed questions

1Closed questions take advantage of the brain’s built-in auto complete feature.

Instead of sucking up RAM formulating an answer to an open question, your brain simply has to spit out a “yes” or“no,” “true” or “false” or some other choice between two predetermined answers. Research also shows that closed questions work better on Facebook then open questions.

Be hyper-specific

2The more specific your question is, the more likely it will receive comments. The reason why is because people don’t have to do a lot of homework to come up with an answer.

For example, asking people what their favorite species of bat is will get more responses then asking people what their favorite animal is. Even more specific (and more fun) is asking if what species of bat would they’d be if they could be one!

Do their homework

3Make it easier for people to answer questions by pre-fixing the question with the type of question being asked. For example, write “QUICK POLL:” before you ask a poll question (like the example above). This instantly prompts the brain with what’s required to participate (“A poll question? I can do that!”).

Friends first on Facebook

It’s not that people are lazy, it’s that they’re distracted and busy. The key is to make the hurdles low enough so that more people can participate in your community. And greater participation leads to increased viral reach, increased affinity (a factor that influences EdgeRank) and increased fan growth.

How have you been using text updates? Share your wisdom below!

The post 3 ways to boost Facebook engagement with text updates appeared first on Socialbrite.

Facebook just added threaded comments to page updates, which now lets people reply to specific comments within a page update.

This means that you can create a richer discussion experience on your page, which will increase reach and engagement.

Watch the quick one-minute video above, which explains how it’s done.

The post How to add threaded comments to your Facebook page appeared first on Socialbrite.

Make scarce marketing dollars go further with targeted, tested ads

Editor’s note: We’ve combined John Haydon’s 3-minute video tutorial above on how to use Facebook Insights to target Facebook ads more effectively with the following guest post that dissects the different kinds of Facebook ads.

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, marketing pros, Facebook administrators, anyone with a Facebook page.

Guest post by Taryn Degnan

If you build it, they will come … but what if they don’t? What if you’ve done everything to build a strong Facebook community, consistently post quality content and do your very best to engage with users, but you (or, in some cases, your executive director or CEO) still want more?

With limited to no budget, you have the opportunity to grow your community organically and develop meaningful relationships with your fans, bringing them closer to your organization’s mission with each Facebook post. But with recent changes to Facebook Pages and the newsfeed algorithm that now prevents parts of your audience from seeing everything you share, nonprofits big and small are turning to Facebook ads for as little as $1 per day to ensure eyeballs and engagement. 

With so many options at our fingertips, I recently took the time to really understand how it all works. If you’re interested in considering the options, too, I hope my research helps guide you to make the best decision for your organization.

Choose a mélange of ads that work best for your organization

1There are pros and cons to all three of these, but Facebook offers one of the most targeted advertising opportunities out there today. It simply comes down to who you want to target, and how much you are willing to pay to place a bid:

Facebook ads allow you to combine a photo or logo and 90 text characters to promote a page, app, event or external website to people who may or may not yet be connected to your cause – your choice. Ads appear on the right hand side of the Facebook news feed.

Sponsored Posts display posts in the newsfeeds of existing fans who might not have otherwise seen them. They are ideal for increasing visibility of event invitations, questions, photos or important news in a targeted fashion.

Sponsored Likes invite users to like causes that their friends are already connected to, using the power of social context to consistently outperform regular Facebook ads with a 46% higher click through rate, a 20% lower cost per click, and an 18% lower cost per fan according to Inside Facebook.  And it makes sense: According to Facebook Marketing, 92% of people trust the word of mouth of family and friends, as opposed to only 47% who trust television, radio and newspaper.

Make every penny count

2If your goal is audience growth, maximize your dollars by paying only for ads that people click on (CPC) as opposed to paying per one thousand people who will potentially see your ad (CPM).  More specifically, maximize your investment by getting people to click through directly to where you want them to be. If you have a stronger daily presence and richer content on Facebook than on your website, you might want to ask users to like your page instead of directing them to an external link.

Determine your ideal audience

3As opposed to Google Ad Words, Facebook gives you the power to identify users that fit your demographic to a tee. Are you a resource center for parents of children with Autism in Los Angeles, and looking to engage with college educated, stay-at-home parents? You can create an ad that targets those exact users – and even narrow it down further by alma mater!

Test, track, modify

4You are in full control of what you put into ads and what you can expectedly get out of them. Elana Leoni, Social Media Marketing Manager at Edutopia, recently told me, “When I first started playing around with promoted posts, I invested $15 per post and I was seeing an average of 2,500 paid impressions, 650 social impressions, 5.65% click-through rate (CTR), $.25 cost per click (CPC), and $.01 cost per impression (CPI). I was satisfied with this data and I decided to continue investing more per post. With my investments of $75 or more per post I was seeing an average of 42,000 paid impressions, 38,000 social impressions, 2.5% CTR, $.08 CPC, and $.002 CPI. Even though my click-throughs were decreasing with this higher level of investment, my impressions were skyrocketing!” Keeping a close eye on your campaigns and making changes when necessary will help you reach your goal.

Knowledge is power

5Facebook has substantial insight into its 1 billion users, so to get the best results possible, determine not only the demographic you want to market to, but what you want to get out of your actions. “With back-to-school season in full swing (our busiest season), we’re trying to be a part of the conversation on Facebook about education even more, so we’re promoting at least five posts per week to our audience,” says Leoni. This is a great example of meeting people where they are, and providing value to your audience at a time when it makes sense for them.

Above all else, authenticity always wins

6As nonprofits, we have an incredible storytelling advantage — to share meaningful, mission-minded content that inspires people to react, engage and share authentically. Try reaching your Facebook engagement goals by using the power of photos, testimonials and stories to communicate your message before you dive into investing dollars and resources that might not make perfect sense (or cents!) for your organization.

Now, let’s hear it from you. Have you experimented with Facebook ads?  What have you learned from the experience? Share your thoughts and ideas to help us all.

Taryn Degnan is the Manager of Social Media and Online Community at Common Sense Media. You can find Taryn on Twitter at @tarynidana. This article (without John’s video) originally appeared at Beth’s Blog.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

The post 6 things nonprofits should know about Facebook ads appeared first on Socialbrite.

]]> https://www.socialbrite.org/2013/02/26/what-nonprofits-should-know-about-facebook-ads/feed/ 2 https://www.socialbrite.org/2013/02/25/boost-engagement-and-likes-on-facebook/ Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:11:38 +0000 http://www.socialbrite.org/?p=22628 Social media can be a very effective fundraising and volunteer-recruiting aid for nonprofits with limited resources. Find out how your organization can leverage the power of Facebook to rally sponsors, supporters and volunteers.

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3 ways nonprofits can boost their social interaction

Guest post by Jim Belosic

For nonprofits, money and resources are often tight, but social media is free to use and can be a very effective fundraising and volunteer-recruiting aid.

Facebook in particular is one of the most powerful online resources a nonprofit organization can use. Those who choose to fully leverage the platform are at major advantage because it’s the perfect place to rally together sponsors, supporters and volunteers.

Facebook apps can be created for little to no cost by using third-party applications. Third party applications — which is what we make at ShortStack — also save organizations a lot of time and stress.

To boost engagement and Likes for your nonprofit’s page, here are three effective and simple ways to use Facebook apps.

Use an app to inspire volunteering

As many nonprofits know, there are lots of people who are motivated to help. They just need an invitation, some encouragement and some direction.

To recruit time donations, try creating an app to display volunteer information, directions, volunteer site locations, and most importantly, sharing features so people can invite their friends and family on Facebook to volunteer with them.

A Facebook app like this can also be designed to collect volunteer information. Have an entry form for app visitors to submit their email addresses so that your nonprofit can send them volunteer information later via email.

Always remember that volunteering makes people feel good and it can be a lot of fun! Your Facebook app should communicate that.

Ask sponsors to match your nonprofit’s efforts

If you’re a nonprofit, set a goal and ask sponsors to match a target dollar amount.

To use Facebook to raise your nonprofit’s portion of the donation, try creating a simple contest app. The user who shares your nonprofit’s app with the largest number of Facebook friends wins a donation made in their name to your organization.

Your nonprofit can even take a cue from the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Movember efforts. Use your app to inspire users to take your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts into their own hands.

Encourage sponsors to use a Like-Drive

What’s more powerful than having the backing of your sponsor? The answer: having the backing of your sponsor’s community

Team up with your sponsor to host a Facebook app on your sponsor’s Facebook Page. Use the app to either display information about your nonprofit or use it as an opportunity to pull from your sponsor’s community to enhance your fundraising efforts.

Last year ShortStack created an app using the Like-Drive template to help a family in need. The Like-Drive template is special because it allowed us to drive and track new Page Likes while earning money for a really important cause. For every new Facebook Like we earned, we donated a dollar.

What boosts engagement with your Facebook Page?

Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service custom app design tool used to create apps for Facebook Pages, websites and mobile web browsing. ShortStack provides the tools for small businesses, graphic designers, agencies and nonprofits to create apps with contests, forms, newsletters and more.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported.

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]]> https://www.socialbrite.org/2012/09/19/steps-to-create-a-facebook-page-that-works/ https://www.socialbrite.org/2012/09/19/steps-to-create-a-facebook-page-that-works/#comments Wed, 19 Sep 2012 13:01:23 +0000 http://www.socialbrite.org/?p=21764 We know that Facebook is crushing it, and that  nonprofits and schools have an incredible opportunity to use the platform to deepen relationships with supporters, families, students and alumni. But is your nonprofit or school getting the most out of the platform? Are you using Facebook to its full potential?

The post 6 simple steps to create a Facebook page that just works appeared first on Socialbrite.

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Tips for leveraging the power of Facebook at your nonprofit or school

Target audience: Nonprofits, universities, colleges, associations (including alumni associations), cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, Web publishers — and anyone with a Facebook page.

Guest post by Frank Barry
Director, Professional Services, Blackbaud

We already know that Facebook is crushing it, and that schools have an incredible opportunity to use the platform to deepen relationships with families, students and alumni. But is your school or nonprofit getting the most out of the platform? Are you using Facebook to its full potential?

Based on what I’ve seen I’d say there’s a high likelihood that you’re not.

But there is hope!

Among the countless schools I found using Facebook poorly, there were plenty of shining examples of schools doing a great job of utilizing Facebook to build lasting relationships with families, students and alumni (both university and K-12).

Here are some of the key findings and takeaways from my recent presentation on how schools can leverage Facebook.. Keep in mind that these tips also apply to any nonprofits trying to effectively use Facebook as part of their online strategy.

Make the most of your cover photo

1Your Facebook cover photo is prime real estate. It’s the thing that people will see first when they visit you on Facebook. Treat it like you would that area on your main website – you have two seconds to grab the attention you’re looking for.

When thinking through your Facebook cover photo, make sure you keep your brand in mind, but try to also show off your culture, history, mission and values. You might also try having a little fun with your cover photo. Here’s a few ways you could go about communicating these things:

• Show off your campus
• Highlight what you’re known for
• Include your students
• Show off landmarks
• Give parents an idea of the community they’ll be joining
• Promote key alumni
• Go off campus

Make sure the photo is high quality and sized correctly (851px x 315px).

Spice up your ‘About’ page

 

2One of the first things a new visitor will do on your Facebook page is check out your profile, even if it’s only a quick glance at the small box located right under your profile picture. Make sure you take full advantage of this area.

Here are a few tips to ensure your Facebook about section is filled out in a way that makes it useful to those who check it out:

• Tell your story (keep it short, but get the main points accross)
• Add your mission statement
• Make sure to include all your contact info (email, phone, etc.)
• Enter your address with map
• Include links to your website and other social networks
• Include calls to action just like you might on your website
• Add milestones

Tell your story by filling in your history and milestones

3Milestones give you the ability to tell people more about your history. Most schools (and nonprofits) have a long history of helping the community through impacting the people they serve. With that in mind, do your best to tell the world about the work you’re doing.

If you haven’t yet, think of at least five milestones that help tell your story then hop over to Facebook and fill them in. Use photos as much as possible.

Here are a few quick ideas to get the creative juices flowing:

• Date when school was founded
• Significant accomplishments, awards, recognitions, etc.
• Famous or well-known individuals/students
• Launch of new programs, colleges/schools, community work, etc.
• Significant sporting events
• Graduations
• New deans, principals, presidents, etc.
• Significant community outreach/serices/programs

Set up a few apps (the Facebook call to action)

4Apps (the icons you see above highlighted in the red box) are Facebook’s version of a call to action. Nonprofits (and schools) understand how to use calls-to-action in their appeals and other forms of asking their supporters to mobilize. Think about these “apps” in a similar way. Use them to get your Facebook fans to take the actions you want them to take.

Apps are also a great place to continue reinforcing your brand (see how well LIVESTRONG has done it in the image above?). You have the ability to use your own icons so you’re only limited by your imagination.

What types of things could you do here?

• Quick links to key resources
• News / Important info for students/families
• Social media policy
• Special offers, discounts, prizes, etc.
• Custom pages focused on what you know parents/students want
• Donate, subscribe, register, volunteer buttons

Make sure the photo is high quality and sized correctly (111px x 74px).

Get the most out of your posts

5Before you can engage your nonprofit’s or school’s supporters, students, teachers, families or alumni on Facebook, you have to build a relationship with them (on Facebook). This means that you can’t simply rely on them being fans, you have to get them to engage with your posts on a regular basis.

If your supporters don’t engage with you regularly, then even when you do post to your Facebook wall they won’t see what you’ve posted.

So how do you create more engagement?

• Pin posts you want people to see for a while. Pinning posts allows you to keep your more important message at the top of your Facebook page for seven days.
• Highlight your best posts. Highlighting posts give you the opportunity to make certain things stand out more than others on your Facebook page.
• Promote posts that need to reach the masses. Promoting posts gives you the opportunity to reach a much larger portion of your Facebook fan base. You can easily see a 50 percent increase.

There are a lot more factors that matter when it comes to creating engaged fans on Facebook. Check out 22 Ways to Stay Connected with Your School’s Alumni on Facebook for more on this topic.

Pay attention to your fans (a lot)!

6Getting your nonprofit’s or school’s Facebook fans to create content in the form of pictures, videos, status updates, questions, etc. and sharing on your Facebook page is arguably the top thing you should focus on when trying to build an effective presence on Facebook.

Facebook made that slightly more challenging with the introduction of Timeline. For brands (nonprofits, schools, etc.), Timeline makes it such that fan-initiated engagement and content takes a back seat to brand-initiated engagement and content. This means Facebook no longer puts fan posts directly into your wall now that they’ve rolled out Timeline to everyone.

If a fan posts something directly to your Facebook page (i.e., not in response via a Like, comment or share to something you’ve posted), it will show up in a small box that lives below the “number of people who like this” section in the right column. That means you need to actively monitor what your fans are doing on your page and, when appropriate, highlight their content.

Here’s how to highlight fan content: Go to the Admin bar at top of your page (you need to be logged in as an adminisrator for this). Then hit the Edit page button and Use Activity Log. You will see a screen similar to the one shown below.

Dig through the activity log to find posts from your fans that you want to highlight. Once you find something, you can select the little circle located to the right of the activity, click on it, and select Highlight on Page.

Bam! You’ve just made one lucky fan very happy!

Frank Barry works for Blackbaud, the largest tech company in the world exclusively serving nonprofits. He blogs about social media for social good and loves connecting with new folks in the industry. Say hello on Twitter: @franswaa. This post originally appeared on the NTEN blog and is republished with permission.

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