(NexWeb Studios): 4 Facebook Tips for Nonprofit Success – See What Others are Doing

Facebook is an ever growing force in the internet space and it looks like it will be for a while. With 200 Million users (and growing) it’s hard to ague otherwise. Facebook is also a great tool for nonprofits. It’s free, it gives you an immediate way to build a tribe and engage people in online community. Facebook also gives others the ability to share their affinity to you with their friends, family and co-workers. That said, you can’t just throw up a page and expect to be successful. You have to be thoughtful, strategic and knowledgeable.

1. Create a Page not a Group or Cause

Facebook pages give you a ton of great features that Groups and Causes do not. There is a place for each of the Facebook page types, but the generic “Facebook page” is the place to start. Here are a few reasons why:

• You get a friendly URL like http://www.facebook.com/your-nonprofit-name-here
• People can find you via Google. More people can find out about your Nonprofit because your Facebook Page gets indexed and is searchable inside and outside (i.e. Google) of Facebook. Which also means you can boost your search engine rankings (SEO).
• No limit on the number of people who can express their support for your nonprofit by becoming your fan
• Pages Have Access to Users’ Feeds - When Facebook users become a “fan” of your nonprofit page, they will be notified of your status updates every time you make one! Then they can comment, share and/or like your wall posts which then shares it with all their friends – now that’s viral.
• Communicate with your fans regularly just to stay in touch or with special news, offers and information.
• All the great features of Facebook are available - writing on the Wall, uploading photos, and joining discussion groups.
• Add applications to your Page and engage your users with videos (YouTube Box), photos (Flickr Box) reviews, flash content, and more.
• Integrate your blog/web site content via Blog RSS Feed Reader

Examples of Great Nonprofit Facebook Pages:

• Lance Armstrong Foundation
• Stand up 2 Cancer
• Prostate Cancer Foundation – Athletes for a Cure
• Red Cross Fan Page
• One Campaign
• Stanford University
• Athletes for a Cure (read about their social media strategy)

Excited to get started ... Create a page here

2. Participate and be a community like the Lance Armstrong Foundation

Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) is doing a great job participating and building community with their Facebook page. If you take a look at their page you’ll notice that there are hundreds if not thousands of people interacting there (I’ve added an image to the right – notice the red box towards the bottom). It’s not just LAF “shouting out” or broadcasting to their fans. As a matter of fact you’ll notice that the LIVESTRONG representative is talking with the people, sharing things, commenting, liking wall posts and more. They are fully interacting.

So what’s that mean for you?

• Be active daily. Share news, video, photos, stories and what ever else makes sense for your organization.
• Engage with your fans. Comment on their wall posts. Like things they share. Help people connect with others.

3. Get folks to engage with you in more than one way like the ONE Campaign

Check out the ONE Campaign Facebook page. Did you see that? They set up their page to go to a custom tab where they show people how to engage with them beyond Facebook. They do this with compelling imagery, a simple form and the ability to get to their main web site. Very nice!

Why is this important? Because we know that email is still a HUGE way people like to be communicated with. According to the “eNonprofit Benchmarks Study” done by NTEN (shout out to Holly Ross) email is still the “killer app” that reaches the most people. Open rates and click-throughs are holding steady.

We also know that having a ‘home base’ is vital to internet longevity. Facebook is an outpost, but your main web site should provide people with added value and ways to connect with your organization.

4. Stats, stats, stats …

Facebook Pages give you stats!! Awesome, I know. Administrators have the ability to see how well their wall posts and content are engaging people through the recently updated “Insight Portal”. You may be thinking “why do stats matter?”

As I discussed in a recent post (see 4 Keys to Building a Successful Nonprofit Web Site) stats are key to helping you improve your web site or in this case your Facebook page. By understanding your activity and performance, fan response, trends and comparisons, you are better equipped to improve your presence on Facebook. Actually, this data will likely help you improve your overall web efforts! Use the stats to gain valuable insight into what your constituents like, what type of content they interact with the most, what they tend to share with their friends and, maybe most importantly, what they don’t like.

See a sample of what the stats look like here

What is measured you ask?

• User exposure- Actions and overall behavior relating to your Facebook Page.
• Total Interactions - The total interactions metric captures all of the feedback Pages receive from Facebook users. Including media consumption and interactions per post, as well as the number of fans who have hidden you from their stream.
• This number measures the aggregate count of Wall posts, Likes, Discussion posts and comments on any content such as photos, videos, notes or links in the past 7 days.
• The goal of the metric is to provide an updated snapshot into how fans are engaging with your Page’s content.
• Demographic Information - The locale breakdown and demographic information offers you access to detailed data about your fan base in an effective way that isn’t available on any other site.
• Post Quality Score - One of the most important new metrics to pay attention to is your post quality score. That score measures how engaging your posts have been to users in the last 7 days. Posts that generate a high number of interactions (such as comments or Likes) per fan will improve the post quality score. Posts that do not draw interactions from fans will lower the post quality score.

Facebook offers many more great features, but I believe these are critical for nonprofit success on Facebook. If you don’t get these things right chances are you will have less of an impact on the community of people you are trying to engage and impact.

More Resources (I’d go through them in this order):

• Nonprofits on Facebook by Facebook
• Facebook Pages FAQ by Facebook [Update: Added on 5.26.2009]
• Why You Need to have a Strategy before you make a Facebook Fan Page NOW! By Jeremiah Owyang
• Pages, Groups, and Causes: How are they different? by Facebook
• Facebook Groups and Pages – Features, Benefits And Killer Tips by John Haydon
• How To Create A Powerful And Engaging Facebook Page by John Haydon
• How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans by All Facebook
• So You Want a Facebook Fan Page? by Beth Kanter
• How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page by Mari Smith
• Five Lessons Celebrities Can Teach Us About Facebook Fan Pages from Mashable

More on Social Media Strategy for Nonprofits:

• Social Media Strategy: LIVESTRONG and the Summer of Social Good
• Social Media Strategy: United Methodist Church and 10THOUSANDDOORS
• Social Media Strategy: 12for12k Challenge with Danny Brown
• Social Media Strategy: Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
• Social Media Strategy: Athletes for a Cure

Flickr photo credit: metaweb20 by CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

This article was originally posted on NetWits Think Tank at http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=ifINKZOzFmG&b=4487123&content_id={EA4438F2-2529-4379-8A32-16EBD5D5BF90}&notoc=1 by Frank Barry:

Frank is a Managing Consultant at Blackbaud - Internet Solutions. He Blogs at http://www.netwitsthinktank.com, regularly speaks at nonprofit conferences and loves to see how technology helps nonprofits further their mission.

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Website Basics - what you should know!

Website Basics

The Basics

You have a flourishing business ? everything is in its place. You just miss one important piece of marketing: an Internet Presence a website. Like everything in business, getting a website needs planning. Getting an effective website needs even more planning.

Here are some basic things to know and plan:

The WWW

What is the www or the internet? Basically a network of websites from all over the world you can access via your computer for which you need an internet connection and a browser. Internet connections are available from ISPs, and most of the popular browsers are free downloads from the internet. Just like writing/typing an address on a postal envelope, you type the website address in the browser beginning with http://www. and ending with either .com, .net, .org, .biz, .nz, .uk, etc. So if you want to access the microsoft website, you would type http://www.microsoft.com in the browser and hey, presto! You get all the information about microsoft and its products on your browser. Just click on the available links and you are on your way.

Your Website

Your website will be a bunch of pages all linked together via hyperlinks. You can ofcourse have a one-page website or as many pages as you like - depending on the amount of information you want to share with your visitors. Hyperlinks are text or images pointing to another page, just like the heading of this article points to my website.

Your Audience

As the web has grown, so has the types of people who access it and how they access it. As we say, it is impossible to please everybody. It is very difficult to design a website which will be accessible to all. Carefully choose your content and design, keeping in mind who your target audience is and what type of equipment they use. Equipment here means the computer and other hardware and also includes the software used for connecting to the internet and browsing it.

The best way to reach more people is to use pure HTML, and keep the use of scripting languages like JavaScript, Java, and other plug-ins to the minimum. While this may not make your site flashy,stylish or trendy, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your site is accessible to most of the people. Afterall, that is the whole point of this exercise, right?

Designing your website means knowing your audience and their requirements.

Content

Now that introductions are over, lets get down to the core of your website: Content. The most important aspect of any website, content is the one thing that will keep your visitors at your site and keep bringing them back. The content should depend on what you want to let your visitors know - about the company, the products, the services. Keep the content interesting, updating it often for repeat visitors. Often this can mean providing more details about different aspects in your business, like seasonal discounts, etc. Your visitors will visit your site again and again if the content is relevant, and there is something new everytime they visit.

Layout

A well laid out website will be a successful one. Whether you design the site yourself, or outsource the task to a webdesigner like us, first layout your ideas on paper. Choose text, color and graphics carefully, they all contribute to the page load time. Starting with your Home Page, keep it fast-loading, with a good navigational structure. Try to follow the same layout for the whole website. Change the layout only for different sections and not different pages. If the navigation bar is at the top on your HomePage, keep it at the top in all the other main pages. Consistency in layout is very, very important.

These are just some of the basics about building a website. There are many more, some requiring a article all about themselves. Keep visiting, as I plan to write about as many as I can. Ofcourse, you are welcome to email me your suggestions/comments about what you would like to read about in webdevelopment.

YOUR WEBSITE RECEIVES A LOT OF VISITORS, BUT NOT A LOT OF RESULTS: IT’S TIME FOR A RE-DESIGN

Date: July 7,2008

You are receiving thousands of visitors every week. They are qualified visitors, resulting from search queries for precisely services and products that you sell. Only one problem: they are not buying. You have a problem with customer retention on your website. In 90% of cases, this is due to the design of your website. It’s time to re-think your website design.

Online consumers have become increasingly savvy about what a good website should look like. If yours does not fit the criteria then they are going to simply move on. Also there are basic features, such as strong calls to action, which push visitors to take action such as request a quote or contact you. Here are few things that you should pay attention to when re-designing your website:

Modernize. Web design trends are constantly evolving and you need to keep up. Multi-colored text was cool in the late 90’s but is definitely out of the picture today. Same goes for animated GIF’s. Now it is all about subtleties and classy web design. Minimalism has taken center stage along with sleek Flash designs.

Use Buttons. Give visitors something to push. Always provide your visitors with options. “Go here”, “go there”, “take a tour”, “request a quote”, etc. are all important means of keeping visitors on your site and encouraging them to take some sort of action, whether that be to buy or share your products online.

Don’t make them wait. Most visitors do not stay on a web page for longer than 3 seconds. If your page does not load in that time, than there is even less of a chance of visitors sticking around. If your pages look great thanks to loads of Flash effects, but take a long time to load, then consider re-doing your Flash graphics to better optimize them in size and load time.

visit us online : http://www.NexWebStudios.com

DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME

Leave a lasting impression with bold design.

A website may be able to bring you increased sales, but only if the appropriate resources are allocated to its creation. Your website is part of your business plan and should be treated as such. It is not a hobby and should not, in any way, be considered superfluous to a successful company. A website must be designed and programmed with all the same care and expertise that you use when making decisions about your business. It is where your brand extends its online identity and protects it. And it is where new customers are found and where old ones come back to. NexWeb-Studios has a proven track record of providing this high-end service, which you deserve.

SEE REAL RESULTS, GET A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

By

To increase sales, it is not enough to simply have a website. A website must work for your business; it must be a powerful tool that takes advantage of its medium. To learn about your customers, to push them to take action, and to make them spread the word about you, only a professionally-made website will do the job. NexWeb-Studios specializes in making websites that not only look great, but bring results. The online world is a Formula 1 course. If you don´t have the right car, don´t expect to be invited to the race.

Turn visits into conversions with effective calls to action.

It is a great thing to have many customers visiting your website every day, but what really matters is whether you make sales. A customer must take an action on your website to generate money for your business. It can be signing-up for a service, requesting an estimate, or making a purchase, action taken by a visitor will bring you sales. This requires effective use of ‘calls to action,’ which push users to do just that.

A website designed by NexWEb-Studios will turn visitors into customers, capitalizing on your potential and ensuring great results. With our business-minded design and programming we make sure that you do not lose potential leads. We bring our clients results with each of our creations.

Learn the maximum about each visitor with analytical tools.

All your visitors – even the ones who take no action – are valuable. They provide you with information about what is working and what isn´t. At NexWeb-Studios, we develop websites that generate this invaluable information in useful ways that you can use to find new ways to generate great results – without the guessing games.

Leave a lasting impression with bold design.

Your customers should remember the first day they visited your website. The design of your website must be original and give your brand. NexWeb-Studios creates websites that are edgy and fit your image. A professional website made by us is guaranteed make an impression on every one of your visitors.

For More Info Visit Us @ Http://www.NexWebStudios.com