Facebook is a huge deal to us here at JustGiving. We know that thousands of you use it to fundraise every day, so we've put together a list of our top 10 tips to make sure you're getting the most out of your account!
1. Status updates are so easy.
They are the bread and butter of Facebook – telling your network what you’re up to. As a fundraiser you should be posting an update fairly regularly, and it should *always* have your JustGiving page attached to it. Maybe you’ve had a big donation, or gone for a particularly hardcore training session - it could be anything. Tell us. We want to know.
2. Dress Your Profile with Notes
Posting notes is an effective way of regularly sharing your page. If you upload a new photo to your Justgiving page, edit your personal message, or hit a fundraising milestone, post it as a note.
3. Post Photos
Make sure you try and capture as much of your story on camera as possible and regularly upload photos, tagging yourself and anyone else in them as necessary. Photos look MASSIVE on profiles now, so get snapping.
4. Create a Video... Seriously.
The barriers to creating videos have lowered so much, there’s literally no excuse to not to upload a clip about what you’re doing. Phones do video. My camera does video. I’m pretty sure the toaster will do video soon enough. Video is an extraordinarily powerful medium to get stories and concepts across to people quickly.
5. Events
If you’re actually doing an official event, like a marathon for example, then search for it and see if it’s listed on Facebook. If it is, add yourself to it. If you’re doing your own thing and you want others to take part, then you can build your own event on Facebook and send it to your friends.
6. Groups vs. Pages
You should definitely build a group. Invite everyone to it and get some forum discussions going, don’t let it stagnate. The other good thing about Groups is, they act as the bridge to other Facebookers who you might not be friends with. They can be a very powerful networking tool, especially around fundraising. We’ve seen some really interesting examples with campaigns aligning themselves around their Facebook group.
Do a search for ‘justgiving’ on facebook and have a look through some of the groups. There are some really great examples in there. Just don’t throw a house party or anything. Things could get messy...
7. Facebook Mail
The internal messaging system in Facebook is really, really powerful. It’s a lot more effective than standard email because it threads messages properly and integrates well with your registered email address too.
8. Network with your charity
Ah yes. The benefactor! Quite a few charities have an official (or sometimes unofficial) presence on Facebook. Find it. Connect with them. Share your tips and stories with the fundraising team so they can pass on the goodness to others.
9. Don’t forget to say thanks
Wall-post a thankyou note when somebody sponsors you. It acts as a thanks AND a reminder to others in the newsfeed that they need to sponsor you because other people are. Double trouble.
When your activity is over don’t forget to thank people collectively and individually. Let them know in as much detail as you can how much of a difference everyone has made together through your activity.
10. A few other things to think about in no particular order
- think about the intensity of your Facebook promotion. Try and find the balance of keeping it regular without becoming overbearing.
- lots of other sites have very tight integrations with Facebook. Which of those sites can help spread your story? Is it worth using them?
- Have a long, hard look at your privacy settings. The more closed things are, the harder it is to get the message out beyond the inner circle of your friends.