Facebook originated as a social networking site specifically for college students that thrived on viral peer pressure. In recent years, however, the pressure to join Facebook has crossed into corporate America. Facebook now allows businesses to communicate news, promotions and events, and allows non-profit organizations to fundraise via the fan page.
Let’s start with the basics. A fan page is similar to a personal Facebook profile, but it’s optimized for mass communication between an organization and its fans. Through the fan page, administrators can send messages and updates to all fans. Facebook also has a notes feature organizations can use to create postings on their profile, similar to a blog.
To help organizations track their progress, Facebook has created an “Insights†page. Insights allow administrators to track interactions with fans, including the number of likes, comments and wall posts. Insights also offers a “Fans Over Time†graph that tracks the rise and fall of fan activity over an extended period of time.
In addition to communication, Facebook allows organizations to create events and invite all of its fans. There is an interactive RSVP function that shows who will and will not attend the event. It also allows organizations to send messages to the different RSVP groups separately.
For non-profit organizations, there is a “Causes†application that allows organizations to highlight its mission and position, and include a registered 501(c) 3 non-profit beneficiary and fundraise directly through its fan page.
More and more Xstatic clients are making good use of inexpensive social media tools like Facebook to interact and raise awareness among target audiences. You can too!