Facebook Pages, Community Pages and Your Nonprofit

Facebook likes to keep you guessing.  Just when you figure out your Facbook News Feed, they completely change it.  Just when you thought you were a "Fan", suddenly you just "like" something.  It's the price we pay for a free service working like mad to stay profitable, provide more value to users, and encourage brands, businesses and orgs to further embrace the platform.  In the last week they have announced a raft of changes that will impact how your non-profit uses Facebook today and in the future.

COMMUNITY PAGES
In case you missed it, Facebook recently announced "Community Pages".  Here's what you need to know

1. Pages = Official brands, businesses, orgs; Community Pages = everything else
   Examples:
   
   •   Pages:  Operation Smile, Equality California, Sierra Club, PETA's Skinned Alive Campaign
   •   Community Pages:  Summer, environment, beating cancer, cooking, My Sister Said If I Get 1 Million Fans She'll Name Her Baby Megatron (poor girl)
     
     
2. Functional differences:  Community pages won't generate stories in your News Feed.  Owners of the page have less control.  Anyone can post on the wall, the info may end up being populated by wikipedia, and, if it becomes popular enough, it may get converted so that it is fully owned/controlled by the community (or at least that's what will happen according to Mashable).

What this means for your nonprofit:  Focus on your official Facebook Page - it's the most important thing your org owns in Facebook and allows you to better communicate with your fans...er, people who "like" you.  However, Facebook is clearly betting that community pages are likely to become a place where people discuss topics of mutual interest.  Nonprofits will want to find, tune in, and contribute to these community streams where appropriate.  In some cases, nonprofits may want to start their own community pages to help kick start the conversation or encourage it's development in a certain way.  For example, an environmental non-profit may want to begin updating "Fight Global Warming" or "Coal".


PROFILE

Facebook is also rolling out some changes to individual profiles connecting them more tightly to Pages and Community Pages.  Soon users will be asked to "opt-in to new connections".  Essentially, Facebook is going to look at your stated interests and "affiliations" and suggest Pages (of both types) that you can link to your profile.  Your likes and interests will then be linked to these pages.  (For more information on how it will look, check out Mashable's coverage.)

What this means for your nonprofit:  This is still a very new feature and adoption by Facebook users on a massive scale is unclear.  What is clear, however, is that Facebook is attempting to make the profile more dynamic and using as a platform to help expose Pages and Community pages to new users.  This could be good for your organization if your supporters have identified themselves with your organization - making it easier for your supporters' friends to find you and see which of their other friends are fans (or, err, likers).  It also means, unfortunately, that you will need to spend more time finding and monitoring Community Pages that relate to what you do.   

Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report Available Now

Have you downloaded your copy of the Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report, recently released by Common Knowledge, NTEN, and ThePort?

Below are a few themes which we cover in more detail in the report:

1. Nonprofits have increased use of commercial social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter); average community size in Twitter rose 627% to 1,792.
2. Most organizations are only dedicating 1/4 to 1/2 of a staff member to social media, yet a small number of nonprofits have dedicated 2 or more individuals.
3. Fundraising / Development departments are increasingly involved in managing social networks.
4. International and Environment / Animal Welfare organizations are most active on Facebook.
5. Although nonprofits' overall use of house networks (private communities built on a nonprofit's own web site) has dropped, average house network size is 50% higher than the average Facebook community size.

Get the free full report for more details.  If you missed our presentation at last week's Nonprofit Technology Conference, Nten will soon be hosting webinars to review the report's findings.

2010 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report Available Tomorrow

 The second annual Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report, a joint project of Nten, Common Knowledge and ThePort, will be available for download on Thu, 4/8/10.  If you’re attending this week’s Nonprofit Technology Conference, plan on attending a presentation on the report results Fri 4/9/10 at 1:30 PM EST.

The report is based on an online survey which ran from Feb. 3, 2010 to Mar. 15, 2010, drawing responses from over a thousand respondents from nonprofit organizations of all sizes and types, covers issues such as:

•  How do nonprofits utilize both commercial (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and house (private) social networks, and how has usage changed from last year?
•  How successful have nonprofits been in fundraising through social networks?
•  Which departments usually manage social networks?
•  How much staffing do nonprofits devote to social networks?
•  What types of organizations have been most successful to date with social networks?

Starting Thursday, download the new report  Some of its findings may surprise you.