Beginning Stats: 35 Facebook Likes, 342 Followers on Twitter

Goals: Increase social media presence, improve website, and start social media fundraising.

We met Flying Point Foundation as a result of the webinar we did with FirstGiving on Best Practices in Social Media Fundraising. They were already doing a number of things very well, such as:

• The donate button and form on their website is well designed and works well.
• They changed their name to a more searchable version before reaching 100 Likes. You may not be able to change your Facebook Page name after 100 Likes.
• They have great photos on website and Facebook of the children and families they are helping
• They are investing in the future by attending webinars, reading articles, and seeking help (in this case, from us).

After reviewing Flying Point for Autism’s Website, Twitter page, and Facebook page – and talking for an hour – we made some suggestions to help them meet their goals.

For Facebook:

• Add a simple, unobtrusive donate tab app.
• Find a great banner image for the Timeline format (Timeline “went live” a few days after our call)
• Redesign with Timeline in mind.  With examples.
• Like and Tag other pages. For example, “@Awe in Autism can you spread the word about our scholarship?” (turns into a link to their page, they see a notice, and the post also shows up on their wall (usually).
• Invite people to Like your page – parents, volunteers, partners, etc. Facebook offers features for this to Page Admins.
• Try making a simple, short video and posting it to Facebook.
• Link to FB page in the footer of most emails.
• Don’t worry about Twitter for now – focus on growing and establishing one online community first, and Facebook is probably more valuable given your mission and demographics.
• Consider Facebook Ads to get new Likes. You can target by locality, demographics, and interest in other pages and topics.
• Let people sign up for newsletter from Facebook

For the Website:

• Keep homepage as simple as possible. If Goodsearch doesn’t provide much value throughout the year, remove it to minimize distractions.
• There doesn’t seem to be a ton of activity on Facebook Causes at the moment, so change the link on your homepage to your regular Facebook page.
• Add Like Button, Like Box, or Facepile plugins from Facebook.

General:

• Who are 5-10 similar organizations? Ask them to be partners and/or learn from what they are doing on social media. E.g. Awe in Autism, Surfers Healing, Best Buddies
• Start working on relationships with relevant media, local radio, local NPR.
• Connect with local student groups and newspapers.
• Use Facebook Causes for special things like “Birthday” wishes.
• If not yet in the habit, set calendar reminders to review Facebook page insights, invite new people, send out emails to your supporters.

Let’s follow up in a few months and see what happened!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Consulting & Services. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.