How to set up and manage a Facebook page for your RSLWA sub-branch INTRODUCTION To stay relevant and attract new members, having a Facebook page for your sub-branch is going to be increasingly important. With ANZAC Day 2015 commemorations only a few weeks away, now is a great time to get started. Once you know your way around Facebook, it can provide a cheap, easy, and timely way to communicate with your members, prospective members and your community. Who currently uses Facebook? How do you use it? Who has never visited Facebook before? What are your concerns or questions? Did you know: The 45-54 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on Facebook 40% of people aged 55+ go online at least twice a day 71% of people aged 18-54 go online at least twice a day Checking social media is now the most common thing people do online TYPES OF PAGES Options available: Personal pages for individuals to create a profile and connect with friends. Downside of using this as a profile for your sub branch is that it has a limit on friends and you cant like it as a page. Business/community Pages like a personal profile for your organization. It s about the entity rather than the individual. Easy to update. More options for posting photos, events and links. Can be harder to grow organically. Requires close monitoring Groups open or invite only. Not as controlled. Everyone can post. For sharing common interests. Has a higher degree of personalization. Easy to create conversations. No Facebook insights are available for Groups. Hard to find unless you have been invited to join. Would be good for you to communicate to your existing members but not necessarily beyond that group. 1
Example of a personal page: 2
Example of an Business/Community page: 3
Example of a Group page: 4
GETTING STARTED You will need to have your own personal login to get started. I recommend doing this on a computer rather than on a tablet as it is much more user friendly. If you only have a tablet, you will need to look at Facebook s Help Centre. For each Help answer there is an option to click for Tablets. The Facebook Help Centre for setting up a page is located here: https://www.facebook.com/help/www/255700674532721/ You can view pages without a login but to create one requires an account to be created. Create a login from the home page of Facebook. You can skip the first couple of steps (profile photo etc) if you wish. Have you searched for your organisation name on Facebook? You may find there is some kind of listing already. Claiming a page: Follow the prompts to verify with a phone number, email address or business documents. If nothing already exists, click back to your HOME page. You will see in the left under PAGES there is a Create Page link. If you already have an existing account you will still find this link on the same page of your personal profile. 5
Select Company, Organisation or Institution: You will be prompted to choose a category. For an RSL sub branch, Community Organisation is probably the best option. In the Company Name box, type in the most obvious name of your subbranch the way most people would know you and keep it simple. Ie Bedford-Morley RSL rather than Bedford Morley Sub Branch of Returned and Services League of WA For the sake of this exercise, I ve set up a made-up sub branch Yallingup RSL: You can go back and amend any of this information later on, it isn t set in stone. 6
Profile photo - best to use your logo or similar. It needs to be a square format. Location - add in all the areas relevant if you start typing it should recognize the area and make it possible for you to select. Separate with commas. 7
Then your page is ready to start populating! Add a cover photo. Click on Add a Cover at the top of the page. Ideally it should be an image that represents the organization and is a landscape style image. You can change this on a regular basis if you wish. You probably need to UPLOAD the photo if you don't select one already in your page s Facebook albums. You can move it around to fit if it is generally the right dimensions. 8
Add contact information. You will be prompted to do this. Otherwise it can be accessed via the ABOUT button where you work through each of the listings. An important one to get right is the Facebook Web Address. You can create an address for the page, which is easy for people to find in a search and to use on your communications material. It is important to get this right as you can only change it once after it has been set. The more information you can add to the ABOUT - PAGE INFO page the better in terms of future searches for your page. Adding photos Click on the Photos link under the main cover image. You can create albums of images, which will appear on your timeline. do this, just click the Add photos button. To You can select single or multiple photos from your computer and add them. If you add a number at the same time they will form an album, which you can name and date and this will then sit on your timeline. You can add or remove images at any time. To remove an image, click the photo, hover your mouse over the top right corner of the image or click into it. Select delete this photo. Each photo you add on your timeline in new posts will be stored on your photos page. If you change your cover photos or your profile photos these will sit in separate albums. 9
The next step is to start populating the page with posts. These are the items that appear on people s timelines when they like the page. To create a post, you simply type into this box: You can add a photo or video to the post by clicking the camera icon or Photo/Video. The other 2 icons at the bottom allow you to add an emoticon (happy/sad face) or a location. These are not as crucial. You can also add a link from a website page or YouTube video clip to a post. Eg if you see an article in an online news site you would like to share you can simply copy and paste the web page address from your browser. Once copied into your post, and if you are online, the article should appear as a link with an image: Once the linked story and image appears, you can remove the written link and replace it with an intro and post: 10
Posts can be scheduled so you do not have to send them at the time you are posting. This is simple. Next to the blue POST box on a new post box, click the arrow pointed down. You will see this box: Select the time and date you would like it to post. Once scheduled it will show as a scheduled post link. By clicking on see post you will see it in a separate window and can edit it if need be. You can also add events and milestones via a new post ie the date the Sub Branch was set up or any special anniversaries by clicking the Event, Milestone button on a new post: Creating an event just click the Event, Milestone button in a new post: Once created, people can join the event and interact. 11
Your page should now be looking a bit more interesting. 12
HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO LIKE & INTERACT WITH THE PAGE Once you are satisfied the page is looking busy, you can start inviting people to like your page and there are a few ways to do this. Invite your friends. To invite your friends to like your Page, you must be using Facebook as yourself and not as your Page. If you're currently using Facebook as your Page: o Click in the top-right corner of Facebook o Select your name below Use Facebook as: Once you're using Facebook as yourself, you can invite your friends to like your Page. From your Page: o Click Invite friends to like this Page on the left side of your Page's Timeline o Click Search All Friends to select a list or type a friend's name in the search box o Click Invite next to the friends you want to invite Like other pages. To do this it is easiest to switch your profile from your personal account to the Page account. To use Facebook as the Page you manage: o Click in the top-right corner of Facebook o Select your Page below Use Facebook as: All actions that you take while using Facebook as your Page will appear on Facebook as coming from your Page. For example, if Jane comments on a photo while she's using Facebook as her Page "Jane s Pet Shop," then the comment will appear from Jane s Pet Shop, not from Jane herself. Other parts of Facebook will also behave differently: o News Feed will show updates from other Pages that you or the people who help manage your Page have liked while using Facebook as the Page o Your notifications will be about activity on your Page, not your personal profile o To go back to using Facebook as yourself, repeat the instructions above and select your name. While in the Page profile you can search for like-minded pages to follow. These might be pages from your local shire, RSL WA, other local service organisations, local businesses that support you, Lotterwest and other funding bodies etc. Once you are on the page you want to like, simply click the Like button as you would for a personal page. One easy thing to do is to find a like-minded page and check out their Likes. See image on the right. You can then like a bunch of pages at the same time. 13
Cross-promote. If you have close contacts managing other pages, ask them to promote your new page on theirs to their followers or similar. Ask people to share your page with their friends. People can share a Page with their friends by clicking Share on the bottom right of the Page's cover photo. (more info on this here: https://www.facebook.com/help/202643666446137) Promote your page. This is the one Facebook loves us to do as it requires payment! I would recommend only doing this if you have tried all other avenues and have not had success in gaining the Likes and engagement you desire. Away from Facebook. Include your Facebook page address on all of your communications material email signatures, website, flyers, signage, newsletters etc. Add a Facebook button on your website if you have one. NAVIGATING YOUR WAY AROUND YOUR PAGE & MONITORING There are a number of ways you can monitor what is happening on your page. You will receive notifications on your personal account when people interact with your page either by sending you messages (meaning only admins see them, not other people who like the page); when they like a post or photo, and when they comment on or share a post. You can keep on top of these easily. There is a panel on the right of your page that shows this: 14
To see more detail, click on the Notifications tab at the top of the page. You will see a complete list of all recent interactions with the page. If people comment on your posts you have the ability to reply and/or like their comments. By clicking on the Page Insights tab you can check the performance of the page. Under the Settings tab you will find a list of preferred settings. For now, you could keep these as standard and come back to them when you have the page up and running. Some of the options are designed more for large brands who may not want to have people posting on their page or for organisations that might need to set a maximum age (ie alcohol companies). Adding Page Administrators people to help you manage the page: Click settings (located next to Help in top right corner of page) In the left column, select Page Roles You will see your own profile listed. You can add another person here by typing in their name (if you are Facebook friends already use this option) or by adding their email address. Make sure this is the email address they use for their personal Facebook login. Pages app If you are a Page administrator and a regular smart phone or tablet user, there is a great app called Pages, which makes it easier to manage your page remotely. It is free to download. 15
WHAT TO POST AND CONTENT IDEAS The more relevant, engaging and interesting your posts are, the more engagement you will have with your page fans. Here are some ideas: Upcoming events you are involved with Relevant news and current affairs Topical things happening in your region Sharing posts from other Pages and people. (how to share: on the post you would like to share, click the Share button, and at the top change from your timeline to the page you want to post to. You can also add a comment. Historic or moving cultural images Member milestones Charity or community work undertaken by the sub-branch HINTS, TIPS AND TRICKS Think about what the objectives are for your Page before commencing Keep personal views, profanity and overtly political comments off the organisation s page and save them for your own page. When mentioning pages you follow or people who like your page, mention the words of their page name in your updates to tag them (add the @ sign in front of their page name and it should appear as a link to click on). Try to keep posts short. If you want to tell a longer story, consider linking the post to a page on your website. Aim to post regularly 3-4 times a week or more is good. If posting several times a day you may run the risk of overwhelming people. Images are king. Try and include images with almost every post, as Facebook is a visual medium and followers respond well to pictures. Respond to questions and comments in a timely way. People expect quick responses it s a 2-way conversation. Don't post pictures of print media clips as it breaches copyright (unless you have express permission from the author or editor). Instead find an online link and use that. You can make changes to a post once it has been posted. Just click on the top right corner of the post and select edit post (see image right). Prepared by Janine Pittaway Bright Communications E jpittaway@brightcommunications.com.au P: 0418911796 16