At Pleth we work with a wide variety of clients, from Fortune 500 enterprises to Small Businesses. We do our best to stay up on the best ways to market our clients websites to their target audiences.
Lately, I have been working on a couple of projects for some non-profit clients, primarily churches. One of the things that I have been urging these clients to become more active in is social networking. I have even made this same recommendation to many of our private firms and business clients, I feel that strongly about the social networking aspect of the web today.
In doing some marketing research for a non-profit today I ran across this website that has some great resources available such as a “best practices” guide for Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and a few others. This is a great resource and I am sure that I will share this quite a few times with my clients down the road, here’s an excerpt from the Facebook Marketing Guide:
1) Use your organization’s logo as your profile photo.
Facebook Pages are the perfect opportunity to further showcase your logo and build brand recognition. When possible, configure your logo image for your Facebook Page so that it is in the shape of a square or at least a full rectangle. Very narrow logos are unreadable in your fan’s “My Pages” and are severely cropped when you send “Updates” on Facebook. View Example: Hispanic Scholarship Fund.
2) Keep text to a bare minimum.
Your website is where your fan’s will go to read more in-depth information about your organization. On your Facebook Page, keep text to a bare minimum. When editing “Detailed Info” under “Company Overview” enter 1-2 paragraphs about your organization and under “Mission” enter your organization’s mission statement. Don’t use the products section. If you have an online store, list it under the “Website” category. View Example: The Humane Society of the United States.
3) Link to your website, blogs, social networking profiles, etc.
When editing “Detailed Info”, in addition to your website, list links to your organization’s profiles on MySpace, YouTube, Change.org, or blogs that your organization maintains. View Example: ACCION International.
The Change.org App allows you to add “Donate” and “Subscribe to e-Newsletter” buttons, as well any actions your organization has created on Change.org, to your organization’s Facebook Page [View Example: Amnesty International]. If one of your fans on Facebook donates, subscribes, or takes action, you can then download their supporter and donor data through your Nonprofit Admin Account on Change.org [Sign up].
The Causes App allows individuals and nonprofits to fundraise for their favorite causes/nonprofit organizations. Many nonprofits on Facebook already have created numerous Causes [View Example: National Peace Corps Association]. Since Facebook Pages are compatible with Apps, you should add the Causes App to your Facebook Page in order to centralize the Causes that your organization has created in one place on Facebook.
This native App of Facebook essentially allows you to run a blog on your Facebook Page. Like a blog, notes are listed chronologically and allow fans to post comments. In addition, new Notes show up in the Mini-Feed on your page. Be sure the drag your Notes section to left of your page so that the first sentence of your Note can be read. [View Example: The Sierra Club]
7) Add the Profile Box App or the Profile HTML App to insert HTML into your Page.
The Profile Box App is a simple tool that allows you to add images, links, and tables and forms that are written in html to your Facebook Page. This allows you to use Facebook Pages to drive traffic to your website and recruit online activists and donors. Another App that allows you to insert HTML into your Facebook Page is Profile HTML App. [View Example: Harvesters] Don’t know HTML? View this HTML Tutorial.
8) Use your Facebook Page to drive traffic to other social networking sites.
In the era of Web 2.0, at the very least nonprofit organizations should be using Facebook, Change.org, MySpace, and YouTube in their communications and outreach strategies. Using the Profile Box App, add the Web 2.0 icons below to your organization’s Facebook Page and website to drive traffic to your communities on other social networks. [View Example: Carolyn’s Compassionate Children]
9) Add the YouTube Video Box App.
Since YouTube is one of the most visited websites in the world, add the YouTube Video Box App to import and display the videos that your organization has already uploaded to YouTube. This will increase the video views on your YouTube Channel as well as increase your nonprofit rank on YouTube. [View Example: Harvesters]
10) Add the Blog RSS Feed Reader App.
The Blog RSS Feed Reader App allows your organization’s RSS Feed or any other RSS feed to your Facebook Page. The App automatically downloads your most recent blog posts and post them on the right side of your Facebook Page. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your blog or website and your blogs also show up in the News Feed on Facebook.
If your organization does not have its own RSS Feed or organizational blog, you can use the RSS Feed from your MySpace blog. [View Example: DIOSA | Communications]
11) Send out one or two Updates per month.
Just like in e-mail marketing, if you send out too many Updates on Facebook to your fans, your run the risk of crossing that thin line of being that “nonprofit that sends out too many updates”. The option to “Opt Out” is front and center in your fan’s Inbox > Updates and can be done with one simple click. When it comes to online communications, less is more. Just like in e-mail, your fans will opt out less and read your emails more if your organization only sends them out once or twice a month.
The Inbox > Updates is unique on Facebook in that only one Update is displayed no matter how many Updates a nonprofit may have sent out. Still, the total of sent Updates is listed on the right side of your fan’s Inbox > Updates. It doesn’t look good if your organization has 5-10 Updates listed while others are at one or two. Individuals on Facebook don’t check their Updates as often as they do their Inbox, so if they have 5 or 10 waiting it is just too much information to digest. Again, it’s a thin line but one or two is a safe bet.
12) Link to your website(s) in Updates.
Whether is a link to your website or your organization’s MySpace Profile, use Updates to increase traffic to your organization’s website, blog, or social networks. IMPORTANT: Make sure that you have the “http://” in front of the website URL [such as http://www.wildaid.org] so that the link is automatically hyperlinked in your Update so that individuals can visit the website with one simple click.
13) Do not leave your “Cause” donation amount at $0.
Most people are unwilling to be the first to donate to a Cause on Facebook. To get the donations rolling and add crediblilty to your Cause, donate $10, $25 or even $50 to your organizations Cause.
14) Use contests to increase the activity on your Facebook Page.
Using the Facebook Discussion Board, the Notes App, your website, and/or your blog, hold contests asking people to become a fan, post comments on your wall and/org donate to your Cause/Change.org social network within a certain time frame and then reward them with a free membership or gift. [View Example: Catholic Relief Services].
15) Thank your donors with Wall Comments!
Web 2.0 donors are a completely breed. They don’t want your organization to waste time or resources sending print thank you letters. They much prefer that a staff person at your organization post a thank you comment on their Wall! They will appreciate the public acknowledgement.
PLEASE NOTE: This is your only option in thanking your donors if you use Causes since the App does not provide the nonprofit the contact information of your donors.
As I mentioned, this is some great information for Facebook. DIOSA also has some great information available for MySpace and the other social networks out there, it’s definitely worth checking out…
DIOSA | Communications: Web 2.0 Marketing Services
Questions or Comments?