Making Friends with Facebook for Project Dissemination

Stephen D. Luke, Ed.D.
Director, National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities
(NDC/NICHCY)
http://www.nichcy.org
http://www.facebook.com/nichcy
http://www.twitter.com/drnichcy
Brought to you by NDC/NICHCY and the TA&D Dissemination Community of Practice

National Dissemination Center: Facebook & Dissemination
Overview
This presentation is viewable, shareable, embeddable, and downloadable at:
http://www.slideshare.net/DrNICHCY/making-friends-with-facebook-for-project-dissemination

Overview
Similarly, our much more detailed and comprehensive Making the Deal: A Guide
To Using Facebook in Dissemination is available at:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30717520/A-Guide-to-Using-Facebook-in-Dissemination

Overview
This presentation is viewable, shareable, embeddable, and downloadable at:
http://www.slideshare.net/DrNICHCY/making-friends-with-facebook-for-project-dissemination

Overview
Why Use ?
How to set up a Fanpagefor your organization
Examples of Effective Use
Establishing Boundaries/Policies
Analytics: Measuring Results
You’re turn

National Dissemination Center – VA PRC 2009
Why Use ?

Why Use Facebook?
“Yeah, so why
use ...”

Why Use Facebook?
flickr.com/photos/-cavin-
For starters, look at all the people there!

Why Use Facebook?
Over 400 million people
In fact...

Why Use Facebook?
... half of whom login
everyday.

Why Use Facebook?
(How many people come to
your website everyday?)

Why Use Facebook?
The average user visits
4 times per day!

Why Use Facebook?
“OK. Yep. Those are some pretty
big numbers. But what do they mean exactly?”

Why Use Facebook?
Well, for one thing it means
that has become the most
popularwebsite in the U.S.

Why Use Facebook?
(Yep. Bigger than
)

Why Use Facebook?
“And? Aren’t these people just
getting their social on?”

Why Use Facebook?
True. Many users are using
to connect with friends and family.
But they’re doing a lot more…

They’re sharing…

Why Use Facebook?
More than 5 billion pieces of
content (web links, news stories,
blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.)
shared each week!

Why Use Facebook?
In fact,
just recently overtook
as the top source of
traffic to major news and
entertainment websites.

Why Use Facebook?
Wouldn’t you like it if they shared
information about you?

How to Build a
Page.

How to Build a Facebook Page
OK, we’re going to assume you’re one of the 400 million users who‘ve already created a personal
account. If not, our Making the Deal:
A Guide For Using Facebook in Dissemination
walks you through the steps. You’ll need to have created a personal account before you’re able to create a “Page” for your organization.

“OK, I’m a bit freaked out. Won’t the
visitors to my organization’s
Page be able to see personal
information I’m only comfortable
sharing with friends and family?

They’re sharing…

You’re right to be concerned about privacy, but
gives you the control over who can
see what. It’s worth the effort to educate yourself about privacy on Facebook, it’ll help you to, well, save face. Our Guide to Using Facebookcontains some detailed information on this topic as well. But be assured, creating and managing a
Page does not expose your personal info to anyone (not even your name).

In order to create a Page browse to:http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages
Clicking on “Prepare” will take you to a page of suggestions
for how to get yourself ready and organized to
create your project page.

The “Prepare” page will give you some guidance on things to think about as you get ready to create your Page.

The “Step By Step” page is just that, and provides further guidance on the moving through the Page creation process.

You get the idea. does a good job of walking you through the process but if you’d like more guidance, there’s plenty to be found. Here are some we like:
HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page
Just the basics.
http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/facebook-pages-guide/
How to Successfully Create a Facebook Fan Page
Just the basics.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5648448_successfully-createfacebook-fan.html
FacebookFan Page—Step by Step
Good detail and guidance.
http://www.searchengineoptimizationportland.com/blog/2010/03/facebook-fan-page-step-by-step/
Knowledge Base: How do I create a Facebook Fan Page/Public
Profile?
Nice clear screen shots, with labels.
http://help.wildfireapp.com/faqs/tutorials/facebook-fanpage-public-profile

Once you’re done, you’ll have something like this:
You’ll likely want to add your logo – you can do so by mousing over the question mark and clicking on “Change Picture.”
You can also add a short summary about your organization
Note that nowhere on this Page do you find reference to you or your personal profile.

You’ll find a number of ways to tweak your Page’s appearance and fucntion:
You’ll also want to take note of the “Settings” which when clicked, will bring up this screen. You can see that you have various levels of control including what authority you give to your fans to post comments, photos, videos, and links. On NICHCY’s Page we provide full authority to fans to maximize their engagement.

Examples of
Effective Use.

Have some information you’d like to share either from your own site or elsewhere?

Search for other relevant Fan Pages and Groups. For example,
Here we’ve begun a search for “disability.” You’ll note that a number of disability-related organizations are suggested before you even click the “Search” button. Once you do click “Search” you’ll see a long list of results broken down by “People,” “Pages,” “Groups,” etc.

“Like” People, Pages, and Groups that appear of significant relevance to your work and interests.
It is important to note that when you “Like” something on
, you are doing so from the context of your personal account, not your organization’s Fan page. For this reason, many people will create a separate personal account solely for use with work or business. There is great power in this, from both as professional development standpoint as well as from the standpoint of “expertizing” yourself.
More on this….

Here’s a snapshot of my personal page I set up for use for my work at NICHCY. Note that the People, Pages, and Groups that I “Like”
appear directly in my “News Feed.” This provides me a customized stream of information that I can then choose to “Comment,” “Like,” or “Share” directly from my personal account. Alternatively, if there’s info of relevance to NICHCY’s audience, I’ll post to our Fan page.

Know of other organizations you’d like to make your fans aware of? Add them to your Page’s favorites…

Once you start adding other Pages to your favorites, they’ll begin to populate the “Favorites” block on your main page:

Some of our Favorites:

Add to your Page’s functionality by including “Apps”:
You can add Apps to your page by clicking “Edit Page” (it’s right under your logo), and then scrolling down to choose “Browse More” under “Applications” heading.
New apps are added all the time so be sure to check back often.

One application worth considering is the “Poll” App:
The “Poll” App allows you to embed a user poll right on your Facebook Page. The sky’s the limit on the types of questions you can ask.

Another very useful App is “FBML” which stands for Facebook Markup Language and provides a great deal of flexibility:
NICHCY used the FBML App to embedd a link to our large scale survey.
FBML is also used to create a sign-up form for our electronic newsletter.

You might find that your “fan” base takes a while to grow. It did for us, and we wondered how well this effort would pay off. Well, we’re now at 2,000 “Fans” and here are a number of things that have helped:
Have a persistent link on your project’s home page.
Highlight your Facebook presence in your newsletter.
Include the link to your Page in your email signature.
Mention your Page during conference presentations.
Post links to information from related organizations on your Page

Establishing Boundaries & Policies.

Establishing Boundaries & Policies
Now that you’ve established your organization’s presence on you might be asking about the time commitment. Good question, especially considering many people find themselves spending more time than they realize engaged with the platform.
Again, we provide some useful tips and guidance in our downloadable Facebook Guide –we’ll pass along a few here…

Decide whether you will spend 15 minutes, half an houror an hour (a day)—and stick to it. Block it out in your daily planner—just as you would an important meeting. And when your time is up; stop

Consider using one of the freely available 3rd party tools that can help you better manage your time in social media. Tools such as HootSuite and Sendible can be invaluable. Through them you can sift through your email inbox on Monday morning, capture a few nuggets to share, and schedule them to appear as relevant updates on Facebook throughout the week.
Facebook Fan Page

It is also worth noting that if you allow users to post comments and links to your Page, you may find that you’re not comfortable with some of the content they contribute. As administrator you have authority to delete whatever you’d like. It may be best to provide a clear policy so that your users will know what’s appropriate to post and what’s not. There’s also a fair amount of guidance in this area, one of particular note has been offered by Disability.gov:
http://www.disability.gov/home/press_room/disability.gov_social_media/disability.gov_social_media_user_agreement

Analytics:
Measuring Results

Measurement of Social Media use is still far from being an exact art, but still there are a number of useful data points to take a look at to assess your investment…

One simple measure is to count your “fans.”
If you find a Page you like, go ahead and click the “Like” button. You’ll be added to the Page as a “Fan,” and you’ll automatically receive updates when the new posts are added.

Another way is to look at your Page’s “Insights.”

also sends weekly updates to your email address which provides useful information such as number of visits to your Page.

Of course, one of your objectives for establishing your
Page in the first place may have been to increase traffic to your organization’s website. This is easy to measure, simply look at your sites analytics to see how many visits came from .
(NICHCY’s traffic from has increased by over 200% over the past year. Similarly, since we posted our enews sign-up on our Page, subscribers have increased by more than 30%)

You can also ask yourself if your Page has enabled you to reachnew audiences.
(NICHCY has found that 20% of “fans” learned about us because they noticed one of their “friends” had become a fan.

And hey, because is so social, you can ask your fans directly about their experience using your Page. We did, and this is some of what we learned…

“I work for an SEA and when I see something worth sharing with colleagues or LEAs I'll forward it.”
“I had frequently visited the website to share information with my students
(I am a university professor). Now seeing you on FB reminds me of the website.”
“After reading articles and research, I often read reactions to assess how I can improve and incorporate best practice ideas to meet the needs of the students in my district. By bringing back what I have read to my district, I am able to work with colleagues to make change. For example, I have created a digital workgroup with resources discovered through social media. OCALI.org and the autism internet modules.”
“I work at CPAC, the CT PTI and I use various FB resources to stay current and informed.”

“I have shared several of your stories with others whom I thought would be interested. I think this is a fantastic way to spread information. We are doing it for the RERCs on Telerehabilitation, Spinal Cord Injury and Wheelchair Transportation Safety. It is amazing how much information the disability community can share through social media. Keep up the good work!”
“We have three PTI grants . We constantly use the info from NICHCY and other disability-related organizations and individuals on various social media sites to help people with disabilities and their families. NICHCY's twitter page is why I joined twitter - it completely transformed my thinking of how to use social media. With so many organizations, groups, and just folks linking together in various ways, the amount and quality of info that we are able to share with families has skyrocketed - and we had plenty of good info before. Thanks for the great work and keep it up!”
“I have shared the information with parents of children with disabilities on my organization's social media outlets”

Your Turn…

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS – NDC/NICHCY Staff
Kyrie Dragoo
Sarah Escowitz
Lisa Kupper
Indira Medina
Richard Sawyer

THANK YOU!
Stephen D. Luke, Ed.D.
sluke@aed.org
http://www.facebook.com/nichcy
http://twitter.com/DrNICHCYhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenluke

Selected References:
1 Facebook. (2010). Press room: Statistics. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
2 Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg [Creator of Facebook ©]. (2010). Retrieved April 26, 2010 from http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=75573705518
3 ImpactMedia SEO Blog. (2010, March 17). Facebook leapfrogs Google in US internet market share. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/blog/internetnews/facebook-leapfrogs-google-in-us-market-share-0517/
4 Ingram, M. (2010, February 15). Facebook driving more trafficthan Google. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from the gigaom website:http://www.impactmedia.co.uk/blog/internet-news/facebook-leapfrogs-google-in-us-market-share-0517/
5 Facebook. (2010). Press room: Statistics. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
6 Ortutay, B., & Liedtke, M. (2010, April 21). Facebook widensreach to tailor broader web. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from the MSNBC website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36699929/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
7 Reagan, G. (2009, July 13). The evolution of Facebook’s missionstatement. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from the New York Observer website: http://www.observer.com/2009/media/evolution-facebooks-mission-statement
8 Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). (1996b). Improving the usefulness of disability research: A toolboxof dissemination strategies (Guides To Improving Practice, No. 2). Austin, T: Author. Available online at: http://www.researchutilization.org/matrix/resources/improve2/
9 Facebook. (2010). More Facebook mobile products. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.facebook.com/mobile/
10 Baker, S. (2009, May 8). Starting a corporate social network?Don’t. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/may2009/ca2009058_371160.htm?chan=careers_special+report+--+social+media+2009_special+report+--+social+media+2009

Selected References (cont.):
11 Pattison, K. (2009, November 11). Market your business withFacebook. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from The New York Times Small Business Guide website: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/business/smallbusiness/12guide.html
12 Glen. (2009, May 22). Where is the web going and whatwill consumers want? Retrieved March 8, 2010 from the Future Medium website: http://blog.futuremedium.com.au/2009/05/where-is-the-web-going/
13 McConnell, B. (2008). The long lost art of listening. Retrieved March 8, 2010 from the Collabnet website: http://blogs.open.collab.net/oncollabnet/2009/11/the-long-lost-artof-listening.html
14 Martin, G. (n.d.). How do Facebook & Twitter help me sellmore widgets? Retrieved March 8, 2010 from the Collabnet website: http://blogs.open.collab.net/oncollabnet/2009/05/how-do-facebook-twitter-help-me-sell-more-widgets.html
15 Smith, J. (2010, January 4). December data on Facebook’sUS growth by age and gender: Beyond 100 million. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from the Inside Facebook website: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/01/04/december-data-onfacebook%E2%80%99s-us-growth-by-age-and-gender-beyond-100-million/
16 National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research. (2001, January). Developing an effective disseminationplan. Austin, TX: Author. Available online at: http://www.researchutilization.org/matrix/resources/dedp/
17 Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). (1996b). Improving the usefulness of disability research: A toolboxof dissemination strategies (Guides To Improving Practice, No. 2). Austin, TX: Author.
18 Parr, B. (2010, February 16). Facebook is the web’s ultimatetimesink [stats]. Retrieved March 26, 2010, from the Mashable website: http://mashable.com/2010/02/16/facebooknielsen-stats/
19 International Telecommunications Union (ITC). (2010). Measuring the information society 2010 (p. 104). Retrieved March 10, 2010 from the ITC website: http://www.itu.int/ITUD/ict/publications/idi/2010/Material/MIS_2010_without%20annex%204-e.pdf
20 International Telecommunications Union (ITC). (2008, June 26). Mobile internet users to top 1.7 billion by 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from the ITC website: http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/newslog/Mobile+Internet+Users+To+Top+17+Billion+By+2013.aspx

Making Friends with Facebook for Project Dissemination

by Stephen Luke, Ed.D.

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