A Simple Guide for Non Profits Getting Started on Facebook

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Tina Hoang | Communications Manager - Strutta | @t1nah

CONTENTS

3 13 19

1 2 3
THE 20 SEC. ASSESSING THE SETTING YOUR
FB PAGE AUDIT SITUATION STRATEGY

24 35 39

4 5 6
YOUR FIRST EXAMPLES AND TIPS AND BEST
PROMOTIONS CASE STUDIES PRACTICES

When your Facebook Page is set up
properly, people who are searching for your
products or services ﬁnd you and people
who are interested in what you have to say
like and recommend you.
Check for these 5 things on your Page to
make sure that you’re set up for success.

:02 :03

THE 20 SEC. Do you have a Do you have
FACEBOOK Facebook strong profile &
PAGE AUDIT username? cover photos?
Get a username See the guidelines

:05 :05 :05

Is your basic info
Does your Page Are you telling
complete and
look good? your story?
accurate?
Learn Page basics Timeline details and tips About Milestones

:02 If you don’t have a username on Facebook yet,
create one that is consistent across all of your
Do you have a social media channels (Twitter, YouTube,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, etc) if possible to
Facebook make it super easy for people to ﬁnd you on
username? their favorite social networks.
Note that you need at least 25 fans to get a
username. Secure yours as soon as possible!

facebook.com/strutta username

facebook.com/pages/strutta/14560640014 default

:03

Do you have
strong profile &
cover photos?

These two elements are the ﬁrst things people see when they visit your page so you want
to make a strong impact to compel them to stay on your Page and interact with you.
At a glance, do you get a good sense of what your organization is about?
Use a logo as your proﬁle picture (180 x 180 px) or something that most people would
identify as belonging to your brand and upload a cover photo (851 x 315 px) that
captures the essence of your brand and showcases your community, product, service, or
current promotion.

Make sure your cover photo follows Facebook’s Page
Guidelines! If you don't abide by the guidelines, you run
the risk of getting your Page suspended by Facebook.

Here’s a clever work-around
to Facebook’s rule of no calls
to action in cover photos - use
arrows and other visual cues.

Other don’ts:
• Contact information or
details that should go in
your About section
• Price or purchase
information such as ‘40% oﬀ’

:05

Is your basic info
complete and
accurate?

Make sure your category and details are accurate and don’t forget to include your
website, contact info, hours of operation and links to all of your social channels so
people can discover your page when searching, explore your properties to learn more
about you and connect with you without having to digging around.
People are familiar with Facebook’s layout and often look up organizations on
Facebook to get a quick snapshot what they’re about and to see if they’re active on
other social channels.
Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with people who are interested in your
organization across the entire social web!

:05

Scroll down your Page. Does it look
Does your Page good to you? You don’t have to be a
graphic designer to recognize a
look good? visual appeal.
Are you providing value through
information, education or
entertainment? Are you supporting
links and ideas with photos, videos
and other visual content?
Rich media tends to draw attention
more than simple text. According to
Facebook, posts including a photo
album, a picture or a video generate
about 180%, 120%, and 100% more
engagement than the average post,
respectively.

:05

Are you telling
your story?

Have you added milestones so people can see your organization’s history,
accomplishments and progress?
When was your organization founded? When did you hold your ﬁrst event?
When did you win your last industry award?
Don't overlook this step as these details help to humanize your organization and
bring context to your cause. Add photos if possible to help paint the picture.

Your Facebook Page is now
set up for success and ready
to take on the world!

BEFORE YOU JUMP IN, MAKE SURE YOU...

1. KNOW YOUR STORY
2. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
3. KNOW YOUR SITUATION AND GOALS

1. KNOW YOUR STORY

What is your unique voice and identity? Are you a local volunteer
organization or a global foundation? How can you bring your story to life
in a compelling, authentic, and personal way?

Be true to your organization and develop your social media persona. For
example, see MailChimp’s Voice and Tone guide.

2. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Who are your looking to connect with? How will they want to connect with
you? What content will be important to them: fundraisers or volunteer
events?

Developing accurate user personas is an incredibly important practice.
When you understand your target and look at your organization from their
perspective, you can make stronger decisions in marketing, and create a
much better user experience.

If you need help with this, see Hubspot’s template for creating user
personas.

3. KNOW YOUR SITUATION AND GOALS
Analyze and summarize your current situation on Facebook. What’s
your existing Facebook presence like? What are some stats on the
current activity level and engagement on the Page? What are your
competitors doing? What are your goals, strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats?

Recognizing your current situation, deﬁning and prioritizing your
objectives and setting measurable goals will help you create a strong
Facebook strategy.

COMMON OBJECTIVES EXAMPLE GOALS

1. Drive donations and fundraising efforts $100 in donations from FB this month

2. Generate brand/cause awareness Increase brand mentions by 10% today

3. Grow fan/follower base Get 100 new fans this quarter

4. Drive opt-in to newsletters Get 50 new sign-ups this month

5. Increase engagement and inspire action Get 5 volunteers sign up this week

Learn my community’s favorite local
6. Gain user data and insight newspaper so I can place ads

7. Collect consumer generated content Get 20 photos from community for use
in marketing materials

YOU’RE ON THE RIGHT TRACK

YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE IS SET UP FOR SUCCESS

YOU KNOW YOUR STORY
YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED YOUR AUDIENCE
YOU HAVE DEFINED AND PRIORITIZED YOUR GOALS

Now it’s time to tie it all together with a strategic
action plan. Given your resources, map out a
manageable plan and schedule.

GIVEN YOUR RESOURCES, WHAT LEVEL
OF ENGAGEMENT CAN YOU COMMIT TO?

LEVEL 1: PRESENT BUT REACTIVE

LEVEL 2: ACTIVE, INFORMATIVE & “INFOTAINING”
LEVEL 3: ENGAGING, EDUCATIONAL & ENTERTAINING

Who will manage Facebook? How much time do you
have to spend on social media activities? How often
will you post? What upcoming events and partners can
you tie promotions to?

LEVEL 1: PRESENT BUT REACTIVE
You have set up your Page for success but you don’t have the resources to be
active on Facebook. You appreciate the value of social media and reply quickly to
questions and messages received.
Your community knows that they can connect with you on Facebook as needed.

LEVEL 2: ACTIVE, INFORMATIVE & “INFOTAINING”
You’re set up for success, you know what’s going on in your industry and community
and share selective content on Facebook at least 1 to 2 times per week.
Your community knows that when you share something, it’s worth sharing.

LEVEL 3: ENGAGING, EDUCATIONAL & ENTERTAINING
You’re set up for success and engage daily on Facebook with your community.
You’re an industry leader and you’re all about community connections.
Your community looks to you for the latest news, events, diversions and fun.

Your Facebook strategy should take into
account everything we’ve covered so far and
have a healthy mix of content and promotions.
Create a plan for Facebook within your social
media plan and schedule - and stick to it!

Here’s a sample social media plan template
from Marketo and here’s a sample editorial
calendar from CMI.

Work with a Facebook Preferred Developer like
Strutta for your promotions and apps to make
sure your Page is in the clear.

Facebook’s Facebook's oﬃcial Page guidelines
includes an entire section on what’s OK and not
OK for promotions. If you’re responsible for
strategy or content for a Facebook Page, you
need to be familiar with these guidelines.

Believe it or not, Facebook has a team dedicated
to monitoring and enforcing these policies, and
they are known to suspend Pages that don’t
follow the rules.

GO FOR IT!
No matter what your level of
engagement, we recommend getting
HIGH
your Facebook Page started with always-
on apps like a Welcome Page that links

NT
back to your website, Twitter and VIDEO

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Start with quick, simple promotions with a (RECIPE, ESSAY, ETC)

low barrier to entry to generate interest BASIC FORM “SWEEPSTAKES”
(like a polls and sweepstakes) and
graduate to more complex and involved LOW
promotions (like photo and video
contests) as you grow your audience
and engagement levels.

Create a warm and inviting entry that showcases your best
branded content and draws customers in a Welcome Page.

Whether you want to highlight your products, upcoming events
and promotions, or share your best content, our DIY builder
gives you the freedom to design, edit and launch branded apps
to help you reach your goals. Learn more.

COMMON OBJECTIVES FACEBOOK APP IDEAS
Share a story and Link to your donation
Drive donations and fundraising efforts page on your website

Generate brand/cause awareness Advertise your next event or fundraiser
and link to the RSVP page

Increase engagement and inspire action Create a gallery to celebrate your “Volunteer
of the Week” or share your Twitter feed

Show oﬀ your favorite videos, photos and content from all over
the social web to increase exposure, views and and likes with a
Media Gallery.

You can create a single app for each of your social channels
such as a Pinterest page or an all-in-one gallery that highlights
your top videos, photos and pins. Learn more.

Generate brand/cause awareness Create a Media Gallery to share your latest
Instagram images

Increase engagement and inspire action Create a Media Gallery to showcase your
YouTube videos

Everyone likes a good deal. If you want to boost engagement,
coupons are one of the best ways to drive traﬃc to your site,
generate leads and increase sales.

In an instant, you can reward fans and convert them into paying
customers. Since our coupons have a unique tracking code, you
can easily measure the success of each promotion and test new
oﬀers to enhance response rates. Learn more.

Generate brand/cause awareness Partner with a brand and offer a coupon to
their services or products

Increase engagement and inspire action Offer an exclusive coupon to your Facebook
fans to your next event

Gain user data and insight Collect information in exchange for a
deal or coupon

If you are looking for more insight than what you can gather
from a basic poll, our form is the perfect application.

Collect valuable and useful data on prospective customers,
increase sign-ups and encourage Likes. Learn more.

Drive opt-ins to newsletters Create a newsletter or volunteer
sign up form

Grow fan/follower base Partner with a brand or event and do a
fan-only sweepstakes or giveaway

Collect information in exchange for
Gain user data and insight access to exclusive content

Need feedback on that new logo? Wondering which product
feature you should roll out next? Poll your fans and ﬁnd out
what your community really thinks using our customizable
voting gallery app.

Photos and videos are more engaging than text and a great way
to attract the attention of your fans. Upload content and invite
your audience to vote for their favorites. Learn more.

Have your community vote up ideas for
Generate brand/cause awareness next project or initiative

Increase engagement and inspire action Partner with a brand or event and do a
sweepstakes or giveaway

Gain user data and insight Get to know what your community likes and
dislikes through polls

YOUR NEXT LEVEL PROMOTIONS APPS

LEARN MORE LEARN MORE

33

Log in at strutta.com
to test drive our apps
for free.

Go to Dashboard
to build and manage
your promotions

Go to Settings to
manage your account
and subscription

FIVE HOLE FOR FOOD
This savvy #struttacares organization
used a Mighty Apps Form to host a
sweepstakes and boost engagement on
their Facebook Page.

THOUGHT FOR FOOD
Thought for Food, a program developed
to inspire new ideas and bold
approaches to tackle the world's food
issues, used Strutta's Contest App
house the TFF Challenge 2012 and a
Welcome Page to showcase ﬁnalists on
their Facebook Page.

See more promotion examples and
case studies from non proﬁt organizations

BUILDING YOUR FAN BASE
Grow your audience by making Facebook a core part
of your online and oﬄine presence.

1. START WITH WHO YOU KNOW

2. LEVERAGE YOUR EXISTING ASSETS & CHANNELS

3. CROSS-PROMOTE TO REACH MORE PEOPLE

4. RUN ADS AND SPONSORED STORIES

THE BASICS OF POSTING
• Stick to your voice and persona
• Post succinct messages (100 - 250 characters
see 60%+ more likes, comments and shares)
• Post regularly as per your calendar (Facebook
recommends posting at least once or twice
per week and at optimal times)
• Include a photo album, a picture or a video in
your posts (they generate about 180%, 120%,
and 100% more engagement than the average
post, respectively)

SIX TIPS TO HELP YOU CONNECT + ENGAGE

1 BE PERSONAL AND CONVERSATIONAL
Use a ﬁrst person voice and get your audience involved with open-ended questions

2 SHARE CONTENT WORTH SHARING
Post exclusive and curated content, breaking news, and emotional stories

3 SPREAD THE WORD
Include your Page username (fb.com/username) in your emails, newsletters and marketing collateral

4 USE VISUALS
Photos and videos in status updates to draw attention and increase engagement

5 BE ACTIVE IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Give back to supporters and partners by highlighting their content and tagging them in posts

6 EXTEND FACEBOOK TO YOUR SITE
Provide engaging social experiences on your blog or website and use Facebook’s plugins

LEARN & GROW: METRICS TO MEASURE

Total number of fans

Overall engagement rate

Other page-level, post-level and advertising metrics

What day of the week most people visit?

Which posts were the most engaging?

Benchmark and improve

The great thing about marketing on Facebook (and
social media) is that you can connect with your
community, see results and collect feedback in real-
time. Learn what works and what doesn’t work and
continually improve.

Deploy strategically.
Test immediately.
Adapt quickly.
Have fun!

FACEBOOK RESOURCES FOR NON PROFITS
Facebook
Create a username for your Page
Facebook Page and promotion guidelines
Facebook Help
Non Profits on Facebook
Facebook for Non Profits Guide
Sample social media plan template
Sample editorial calendar

Strutta
Set up your Page for a promotion
Resources and FAQs
Welcome Page Builder Guide
Voting Gallery Builder Guide
Media Gallery Builder Guide
Coupon Builder Guide
Mighty Apps Builder Guide

Examples
10 non profit and charity contest ideas

A Simple Guide for Non Profits Getting Started on Facebook

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A Simple Guide for Non Profits Getting Started on Facebook