A guest post by John Haydon of Inbound Zombie.
If you’re like most non-profit marketers, you’re trying to use Facebook to raise awareness and donations. You’ve set up an account, tried to grow your number of connections, and posted some content for people to comment on. In the first month or two, your fan base grew steadily. You were excited, and your board was excited. But now, getting the results you originally hoped for isn’t quite as easy.
Fan growth has flattened, your post quality has dropped, and board members are asking, “What’s going on with Facebook?” The good news is that you’re not alone—the Facebook honeymoon ends at some point for everyone. Now is the perfect time to review the critical steps for success on Facebook.
1. Have a Plan.
Be very clear about goals, expectations, and roles. The clearer you can paint your “picture of success” on Facebook, the more likely it will manifest.
2. Ask Yourself, “What’s Your Thing?”
Rebecca Leaman wrote a post about a one-page social media plan created by Jay Baer. The plan requires marketing to ask, “What’s your thing?” What is the single thing about your nonprofit that is truly defining and interesting? When you ask your supporters why they support your organization—the reason in their hearts—what’s their answer?
3. Create a Page—Not a Profile.
Profiles are for people; Pages are for orgs. Not a Community Page—those are for experiences, like eating Nutella with a tablespoon. Not a Group. Groups are for your constituents to organize around an idea.
4. Create a Custom Landing Tab.
Once you’ve created a Page, make it stand out with a custom welcome tab. Pages that have custom welcome tabs have a higher new fan conversion rate than Pages that don’t.
5. Less Is More.
Not using the Discussions tab? Remove it from the tabs by editing the application settings. Same goes for the Events tab and the Reviews tab. You can always turn them back on.
6. Leverage Your Avatar.
Facebook provides up to 600 × 200 pixels of space for your main image. Use that real estate to your advantage. Try including a call to action like the Brain Aneurysm Foundation did. Or outline action steps in your current campaign like Oceana did.
7. Get the Word Out.
Leverage your assets. For example, if you have a large email list, send them a well-written email with reasons for joining your Page. Or if you have an active Ning community, create an event in Ning that promotes a discussion on the new Page Wall.
8. Use Your Page as a Platform for Dialogue.
Don’t use it just as a place to put useless stuff.
9. Measure, Rinse, Repeat.
You will only get better at Facebook if you know what works and what doesn’t. Facebook Pages include a few reports that will show you how good your content is, if you’re posting too frequently, and how much they’re sharing. Also, use Google Analytics to measure traffic from Facebook to your website.
10. Create a Facebook Skunkworks.
Put together a small task force in your organization to reflect on Facebook results, discuss how to improve, and brainstorm novel uses of Facebook. Include a few Page connections in this group as well. Talk to each other face to face—not by email.
John Haydon is chief heretic and pyrotechnician of Inbound Zombie.
Tags: analytics, Facebook, Social Media, Strategy and Tactics
Great post, John. I especially like #1, without which nonprofits won’t know what to measure and what success looks like.
Great article – Thanks so much for sharing!!
Nice read !. My takeaway is point 3 and 6 !.
[...] 10 Steps to Facebook Success for Your Non-Profit Organization | MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog. [...]
Elaine, Juxta and Dhana – Glad you like it. These are all pretty basic, but who can have too much of the basics.
FYI the new Facebook fanpage design (starting March 10) only allows 540X180 for the avatar.
[...] 10 Steps to Facebook Success for Your Non-Profit Organization Fan growth has flattened, your post quality has dropped, and board members are asking, “What’s going on with Facebook?” The good news is that you’re not alone—the Facebook honeymoon ends at some point for everyone. Now is the perfect time to review the critical steps for success on Facebook. (via @MarketingProfs) [...]
Insightful post, John. For all marketers utilizing Facebook to meet business objectives, having content that spurs conversation (#8), as well as measuring results and adjusting the approach based on those results (#10) are crucial to achieving success. You’re right, the “honeymoon” will inevitably fade, and that’s a good time to revisit FB efforts to make sure they are effectively engaging the target audience and increasing brand awareness and loyalty.
Thanks! Mind if I add a few?
11) Don’t just message, market (which means you should be measuring. See 9, 14 & 15).
12) You get out what you put in. Just because a tool is free doesn’t mean it’s best used in the hands of an intern.
13) Also, don’t confuse comfort with the tool as being able to use it correctly. I know plenty of toddler who love hammers but I would hire them to build a house, let alone a brand.
13) Every page status update should include an image. FB will then add the Share link when that update shows up in fans’ News stream. This might also apply to sharing links as well.
14) Sign up for bit.ly (or similar) so you can watch your clicks.
15) Tag you links (before you shorten them), even those not going back to your site. This pairs well with #14.
BTW, IMHO your list is not exclusive to NPOs.
If I have one not-so-critical it’s #4. That’s only because there are so many others ways for people to Like a page that they might never actually visit it. #4 might not be worth the effort for some.
Love #3! I’m seeing SO many nonprofits who’ve created a Facebook profile in their rush to jump on the social media bandwagon. Its made just because someone told a board member or the executive director they “needed to be on Facebook.”
I work for a nonprofit, serve on several nonprofit boards, and do quit a bit of pro-bono marketing/social media work for area nonprofits and in the majority of these organizations, (mainly smaller nonprofits without full time marketing staff) the staff or board honestly don’t realize that they need a page for their organization instead of a profile. One organization in particular had accumulated close to 4,000 friends as a person when I came in to help them. Switching their page from a person to a page was a long process, but in the end it worked much better for them.