This is the third session from Worldways Social Marketing, a #ZTraining on Facebook given to the Colorado Nonprofit Association. Mark Marosits and Andrea Hill gave the entry level presentation. There were a lot of questions during this session so it was hard to get through all of the content.
The thing that ties us together that anyone can publish anything. That also means there’s a lot more competition. So how do we get others to share our message?
Why Facebook? It makes things very easy to share. If your audience is out there, then it makes sense. And most audiences are on Facebook. THere are four core concepts:
1) Liking is everything
2) People like and trust other people
3) Information flows in a stream
4) Follower numbers are a measurement, but not a final objective. Don’t get caught up on the numbers.
Liking is important because it feeds stories into other people’s streams. And liking creates more liking, creating more and more potential for friends of friends to see information. This is important because recommendations from others are the most trusted source of information according to Nielsen (90%).
Information flows on the stream in Facebook. Post things at appropriate times to affect your audience. Weekends and nights have different people online compared to business days. Information is seen in fragments, and may not be seen at all. Keep that in mind.
Followers do not equal donors or volunteers. IF the followers are relevant followers, they help reach the right people – more ears help.
Facebook Pages
Some things you can do with Facebook – have people click through, or use Facebook as a micro-site for a short-term campaign. Your page can become the all inclusive center-point for your social activity.
People like people, so give your posts personality. Respond and engage with posters, tag your name onto an organizational post (see Chipotle page). Have roles assigned to staffers so redundancy is built.
Keep in mind Facebook is not meant to be deep. Use descriptive information to get people to click through. People like people, especially themselves. That’s why giving them the opportunity to sound off via questions is critical. Always post a question with a link.
Facebook Insights has invaluable information. Use it to measure your efforts, from the value of click throughs to demographics.
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