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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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!

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

And 4 other big changes to Facebook pages that nonprofits will love

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

Facebook recently pushed out five big feature changes to Facebook pages that will help admins more easily manage their pages, plan content and get more airtime for updates in the news feed.

Page post scheduling

1Facebook rolled out a new feature to pages that allows administrators to schedule updates for a future date and time. You can schedule a post up to six months in advance in 10-minute intervals, from your page’s sharing tool by following the instructions in the video at top.

Facebook page administrator roles

2Facebook pages now offer five different flavors of admin roles. This is huge, especially for organizations that have various different people accessing administrative rights with in a single Facebook page. Some of these people might need access only to view Facebook Insights, while others need admin access to post content and respond to comments.

The five roles are described in the table below.

Promoted posts

3Promoted posts are an easy and inexpensive way to ensure that more of your Facebook fans are seeing your page updates. Previously, the only option for smaller Facebook pages was to purchase sponsored stories through Facebook’s ad tool, which required a number of steps. Now, Facebook admissions can simply choose the number of users they want to reach from a drop-down menu underneath a recently published post.

Facebook Pages Manager

4Facebook Pages Manager is an iPhone app that allows page administrators the ability to post updates, manage posts from Facebook users, and even view high-level Insights data from their smartphone. This is a huge leap forward from using the standard Facebook iPhone app.

With Facebook Page Manager (for iTunes) you can:

– View multiple Pages you admin
– View high-level Page Insights (as shown below)
– View post-level Insights (Reach and Talking About This)
– View Page notifications and new fans
– Filter Timeline views to Posts by Page or Posts by Others
– Manage Administrators
– and more

Post-level insights

5Facebook Pages also have Insights data and charts at the post-level. This new data can be found directly under each post.

What do you think of these new features?

Head to Razoo for the full post.

Related

• What time of day should you post to your Facebook page?

• Post Planner: A branded publishing app for Facebook

The post How to schedule an update on your Facebook page appeared first on Socialbrite.

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

Facebook ads are an incredibly powerful tool to promote your Facebook Page or your Facebook Page updates, whether you’re a nonprofit, social enterprise or business.

But only if you use Facebook advertising as part of an overall strategy to:

• Grow your Facebook Page fan base
• Increase engagement with your current fans
• Expand engagement to friends of your fans
• Promote a specific campaign like a fundraising or advocacy campaign

And it doesn’t have to cost much at all.

This video will show you how to:

• Get started with Facebook’s ad tool
• Decide whether to promote your page or a post
• Configure how your ad will appear

• Target fans and non-fans, and why
• Select a date range to run your ad
• Create a budget cap for your campaign

Here it is, 9 minutes long. Take a look when you have a bit of time:

The post How to promote your Facebook page with Facebook ads appeared first on Socialbrite.

Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, cause organizations, brands, businesses, Web publishers — anyone with a Facebook Page.

Editor’s note: Facebook is switching over all nonprofit and business pages to the new Timeline format this Friday, March 30. Because so many organizations haven’t yet made the move, or are still figuring out the best approach, we’re devoting this week to help you get ready to make the transition smartly. Contact Socialbrite if you need help.

In this series:
• Monday: 7 tips & cheat sheets to help you implement the new Timeline
• Tuesday: How to shape your nonprofit’s message in Timeline
• Thursday: What story should you tell in Facebook Timeline?

Like it or not, if you administer at least one Facebook Page, you’ll need to face the music Friday when the new Timeline format will go live on all nonprofit, brand and business pages.

I actually opted to switch my business Page over to the new Timeline when it was offered to me, and overall, I like the format a lot. But many people don’t feel the same.

Comfortable with a format that worked for brands

The thing is, we were comfortable with the old format. It allowed brands to set up default landing pages, so when a new visitor arrived at their pages, they would be prompted to first “like” that page in order to access discounts and other promotions.

Companies loved this feature because it allowed them to convert visitors into fans without much work or paid advertising on their part.

It’s not fun being made to get up out of a comfortable armchair, is it? Seventy percent of people polled on Sodahead voted against the new Timeline.

Businesses have been so furious that they will not be given the option to keep the old page design that some threatened, in discussions on posts such as this one, to stop using Facebook entirely. But if you’re like most companies, deleting your Facebook Page isn’t really an option. The network has become so ubiquitous that customers have come to expect companies to have a Facebook presence.

And with over 845 million active users on Facebook, most companies can’t afford not to be on Facebook.

Tips on maximizing the new Timeline

My friends at Hy.ly are dedicated to solving small business problems. So they’ve just released a new eBook titled “Facebook Timeline for Conversions & ROI.” It’s free. I’ve had a look at it and I really like it (and tell me what you think of the design as well when you read it. I think it’s pretty nifty).

It’s not very long, and it gives you some really practical advice on not freaking out over the new Timeline, but making it work for you. Here are three of their tips:

Recover lost traffic

1Immediately after your Page is converted to the Timeline, you will probably notice a drop in traffic, especially if you were using default landing tabs. This is one of the most significant changes for brand pages, since landing tabs were a common social media marketing tactic.

However, according to TechCrunch, only 10 percent of page app traffic was driven by default landing pages, while the remaining 90 percent came from published links and ads.

What to do: Use your views and apps area to drive engagement, and remember that you can also use your Timeline posts to steer users to the apps you want them to engage with.

Create conversions using customized apps

2Apps are growing from 520 pixels wide to 810 pixels wide, which is in line with Timeline’s overall increased emphasis on visuals.

What to do: Use this to your advantage. Customize your apps to use all of the newly available space when running a contest, making an announcement or crafting your custom App. There’s more on this in the eBook, but the image below should give you a hint.

Star posts and ‘milestones’ to build your brand

3“Starred” posts and “milestones” allow you to showcase your company’s successes and growth. They’re a terrific way to tell your story, so use them to share awards, major events and new product releases with your visitors.

And even though you know you can’t control what your customers say about you, you can control what appears on your Timeline by going back over your old stories and deleting anything that is irrelevant, embarrassing, or obsolete. (See our Socialbrite post How to clean up your Facebook Timeline.)

What to do: Use the star icon to highlight a story and assign it more value on your Timeline. Starred stories will take up more space than unstarred stories, so use them to draw the kind of attention you’d like.

There’s much more of this in the ebook. So if the new Facebook Pages are still giving you kittens, hop on over to grab the ebook and start planning your changes now. I’m pretty sure it will help you; I learned a few new things from it.

Please let me know what you think and happy Facebooking!

Many thanks to Munish Gandhi and the Hy.ly team for sharing the ebook with me as well as providing all the images for this post

Related articles

• How to clean up your Facebook Timeline (Socialbrite)
• Facebook Timeline: Is Your Page Ready for the Change? (panopticonlinemarketing.com)
• Can I ignore the Facebook Timeline deadline for pages? (debsanswers.wordpress.com)
• Is your Business Page Ready for the Facebook Timeline Switch? (homebiz.bukiki.com)
• 15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page (gabrielcatalano.com)

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