A primer for those just beginning to use Facebook for their organizations

1. Tips for Facebook
Day of Social Media Giving
Touro Law School
October 19, 2010
Ilene Schuss

2. Do I need a Facebook Page or
a Group?
 Most notably, Groups have the advantage of
being more interactive than Pages.
 Groups also allow you to ban offending
members.
 Use a Page to automatically push information
out to people and to prevent others from
posting content.

3. Setting up your Group or Page
 When choosing administrators, pick
someone who will keep content fresh & up
to date.
 If possible, pick someone you trust as back-
up administrators. All admins can edit the
Group, remove members, remove other
admins, change Group info, etc.

4. Setting up your Group or Page
 Include a simple mission statement or description, e.g.:
“This group is for Suffolk Residents with a Disability”
 Include a link to your webpage.
 Link your website to your Facebook Group with a disclaimer that
you're not responsible for content posted by others.
 Include some language about acceptable behavior, e.g.:
 Is advertising permitted?
 What’s the criteria for membership?
 Exercise discretion when inviting members
 Facebook now uses an "opt out" membership for new Groups.
 A softer approach: use emails to invite people to join.

5. Creating Events:
 Clarify Event details & timing for inviting members
before creating these. Once created, Facebook
automatically invites all members of the Group.
 Do not send follow-up reminders for an Event
more than once a week.
 It’s usually recommended to hide the list of those
declining.
 Don’t expect a high number of people who RSVP
to actually attend unless they contact you directly.
 Maybes usually are no-shows.

6. Notifications:
 All or selected members of an Event / Group are notified when:
 An administrator selects to “Message all Members.”
 The administrator creates a new Event.
 Any of the following change: the Group’s name or title; an Event’s
date or time.
 An event administrator selects to “Message Guests” or those by
selected RSVP categories.
These generate external emails and internal Facebook messages.
 Users can turn off these email and message notifications, but
few do this.
 Facebook does not notify members when a Group’s description
or news changes. Critical news is best communicated via
email to get the word out quickly.
 Pages automatically post updates to the member’s account.

7. Running your Group or Page:
 Posted comments, videos and images should be
monitored by the Page administrators for
relevance and appropriate language. Offending
content should be promptly removed.
 Updated content give a reason for members to
keep visiting.
 Discussion threads (now called docs) engage
members and to make it easier to find things vs.
just posting to the group's wall
 Encourage members to notify the administrator
should there be any unwanted contact. This can
include banning offenders, with or w/o warning.

8. Thank you for your
time!
ilenes@hotmail.com