The slides of the presentation delivered by Chris Henderson. External Comms Officer of Haringey Green Party, at Association of Green Councillors (AGC) Conference at Liverpool's KIND Centre on 13th July 2014.

1. Making the most of Facebook –
for candidates and councillors
Chris Henderson
Association of Green Councillors Conference
KIND Centre, Liverpool
Sunday 13th July 2014

2. Your present situation

3. Outline
• Why have a Facebook page?
• Doubts and downsides
• Getting started
• Linking your page to your other media
• Doing Facebook in a hurry
• Types of post on Facebook
• What works well on Facebook?
• How to build a following
• Keeping on top of the response you get

4. Why have a Facebook page?
• 24 million Facebook users in UK
• Particularly reaches the younger generation
– least likely to be engaged with
conventional media (TV news, newsletters through
doors, as well as newspapers)
• Users choose what they want to see – 'news
feed' an eclectic mix that isn't sectionalised
like a newspaper or broadcast bulletin
• Engaging people where they are – no
intrusion

5. Why have a Facebook page? (2)
• Easier/quicker to post regularly compared to a
blog/website
• Don't need activists or a budget to get your
messages out
• Set your own personal agenda
• No journalist filter
• Appearing in touch with modern world,
helping dispel negative stereotypes of Greens
• Engaging and energising existing supporters

6. Doubts and downsides
• What if I'm not that good/confident at it?
• Posting does take time... But doesn't have to
take significant time
• How do you reach 'real people' and not just
other Green activists?
• Facebook posts don't appear in Google search
results... they're as good as 'gone' in 2-3 days

7. Getting started
• Make sure you create the right type of page!
• Don't attempt to use a 'personal' Facebook
page as a candidate/councillor page
 i.e. you need to set up your personal Facebook account first
(do sort out personal privacy settings, padlock icon in top
right-hand corner)

8. 'Create page' from left-hand menu then...

9. Getting started (2)
e.g. 'John Smith, Green councillor
- Pagford West'
'John Smith for Pagford West'

10. Getting started (3)
Will always need to switch from your
personal account to your
candidate/councillor page
each time you log in

11. Linking your blog posts
automatically into Facebook
From WordPress into Facebook
• Go to Settings → Sharing in your blog’s
Dashboard. You’ll see six types of social
networking sites under the Publicize heading
at the top of the screen. To connect to any
service, click the Connect button and follow
the prompts.

12. Doing Facebook in a hurry
• Using the smartphone app – on the fly
• Near-instant 'sharing' of photos from your
smartphone
• Original content vs 'sharing':
 Sharing from local community orgs
 Sharing from other GPEW pages
• Asking allies to 'mention' or PM you with
content to share
• Looking for social media volunteers in your
branch (including graphic designers)

13. Types of post on Facebook
 Basic text post
 Photos
 Memes – see GPEW national website
 News item links / Other weblinks
 Events [try to get help with invitations]
 Questions [inviting comments] – rapid vox
pops
 Spin-off campaign pages

14. What works well on Facebook?
• Facebook algorithms: posts that draw a good
active response will be shown to more users
• This is transparent – you are shown how
many users have seen your post... You can
learn from your own trial and error
• Inviting readers to “like and share”

15. What works well on Facebook? (2)
• Be topical... e.g. try to post about the
morning's news story the same morning
• Visual content... can you make your post
visual?

17. What works well on Facebook? (2)
• Pithy, deft, satirical... Remember what
Facebook's primary purposes are

18. What works well on Facebook? (3)
• Use hashtags where possible at the end of
the text of your post
• e.g. #VoteGreen2015, #Tottenham
• If in doubt about what hashtag to use,
search for it first to see if others are using it
• Effective use will increase reach

19. Building a following
 Chicken and egg: once you have a following,
you can get your posts 'shared' by your
followers with their Facebook friends – slowly
some of these friends will start to follow you
 ...But you have to get started somewhere! If
you're stuck with a minimal following, sadly
you are mostly wasting your time

20. How to build a following
 Cross-promote your page in other media, e.g:
Ward newsletter
 Email signature
 Candidate and branch websites
 Member/supporter emails
 Twitter
 Don't forget your own Facebook friends
 Get help from your branch and/or region's
Facebook page
 ...including 'sharing' your good posts

21. How to build a following (2)
Interact with and support other relevant
Facebook pages.
 'Like' pages of community organisations,
then...
 'Like', comment and/or share selected posts
of theirs you want to support – this will get
noticed!

22. How to build a following (3)
 Post sparingly on pages of other community
organisations
[Not always possible “as” your
candidate/councillor page...
you may need to do it using your personal
account but you can copy-and-paste a link from
your candidate/councillor FB page...
not a problem provided you have your personal
privacy settings sorted]

23. Keeping on top of the
response you get to your
Facebook posts
 Clicking 'like' on positive comments on your
posts
 Replying to comments on your posts
 Replying to direct messages on Facebook


24.  Use the notifications tab
 Following up with particularly keen
followers?

25. That's about it...
 Not rocket science!!
 If still in doubt, have a look at pages of other
Green activists
 Up for discussion: How can GPEW activists
support each other to get better at social
media?
 Questions? Problems? E-mail:
chris.henderson@haringeygreens.org.uk

26. Questions and
discussion