States, Centers, & Chapters > Chapter Resources

You may have heard of the social networking site1, Facebook (www.facebook.com), but did you know that non-profits, including Audubon Chapters, are using it to create awareness about their campaigns and to connect with their community? Some Chapters without a web site choose to use Facebook as their only online presence; other Chapters with web sites use Facebook as an additional outreach tool.

Facebook is a free, powerful social networking service that allows users to post online profiles² (including photos, activities, school or work information, etc.) and then connect with long-time friends, or make new ones who share the same interests. What began as an online opportunity for students to find one another has transformed into a social network for people of every age.

Become comfortable using Facebook on your own with a personal account before launching into activism or outreach through it. Simply create your account at www.facebook.com, submit information for your profile and upload photos. Then use Facebook’s search feature to find friends³ who are already on Facebook or send personal invitations to those who are not. When you send an invitation, the other person can choose to accept or ignore the request. Once you are connected with a friend, you will have access to their profile where you can comment on their photos or updates or post messages to them directly. Facebook is a dynamic environment where you can choose to post new information and photos on any page at any time. Every time you log in, you will see a news feed⁴ with updates from your friends and any fan pages⁵ or groups⁶ to which you belong. Facebook also keeps you updated via email—notifying you when you have a new friend request, message or comment.

Be careful about privacy

When setting up your individual Facebook account, make sure you look at the privacy settings and set them at a level at which you are comfortable. You should also be careful about what personal information (like your home address) you post on your profile. Have fun but be safe!

Facebook groups and fan pages

Personal profiles in Facebook are for registered users only. Non-profits can create “fan pages” which are an official representation of their organization on Facebook. Through fan pages, organizations can send updates to their fans7, which can be a convenient way to build a database of interested users.

In comparison, anyone can create a group on Facebook. Usually people only become fans of pages if they are already familiar with the organization, so fan pages are less useful as an outreach tool to new people, though they can still be a useful communication tool. Your Chapter can have only one fan page, but it can have several groups (e.g., if you want to promote different projects). You can also directly send emails to members of a group, which makes it more useful than a Facebook page for communication. Make sure you put a link to your Chapter’s website on both Facebook fan pages and groups.

When building up the number of people in your group or fan page, invite all of your Facebook friends to join. Because it is a social networking site, when people see that their friends are joining a group or a fan page, they are more likely to join it themselves.

Choosing a group title

People usually join a Facebook group on a whim, so the group’s title is crucial in getting people to join. If you are trying to reach out to people who are unfamiliar with your Chapter, it is better to have the title of your group be about a campaign or a Chapter project instead of the name of your Chapter. For example, if your Chapter is working to pass a state ballot initiative, you could create a group called “Vote Yes on Issue ______!” As a more general outreach tool, you could create a group dedicated to posting bird photos from within your region and title it “Cool birds of __________ County!” Remember, you can create more than one group, so it is okay to have different groups for different purposes.

Glossary

1. A social networking site/service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. These websites are interactive—e.g., people can communicate with one another, post text, images and videos, conduct polls, and make comments on other people’s postings.

2. A person or organization can create an online profile, containing information such as age, gender, birth date, relationship status, location, interests, and more. You may post as little or as much information as you like and include a photo that will appear on your Facebook page and when you post a message or comment on other Facebook user pages.

3. Hereafter, the term “friend” refers to people you connect with through Facebook.

4. A news feed in Facebook allows you to view your friends’ or groups’ latest postings as soon as they are published—all on your Facebook home page—without having to visit each individual friend’s or group’s Facebook page.

5. Fan pages represent a real public figure, artist, brand or organization, and may only be created by an official representative of that entity. Unlike groups6, Facebook fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus searchable by anyone on the Web. People can express their support by adding themselves as a fan7, posting commentary, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. The organization with the fan page can send updates and announcements to its fans. When someone joins a fan page, this affiliation is posted for all of their subscriber friends to see (e.g., “Sarah Smith became a fan of National Audubon Society”), along with a link to the fan page. Organizations with fan pages can send invitations to fans; obtain fan page visitor statistics, post photos and videos, and much more.

6. A group can be created by any Facebook user on any topic for the purpose of sharing opinions and interest with others in that subject. Groups are generally used for hosting an active discussion and attracting quick attention. When someone joins a group, the affiliation is posted (e.g., “Sarah Smith joined the group Auduboners for Restoration of Purple Martin Habitat”) and linked to the group’s Facebook page. As with fan pages, group members can participate in discussions, view posted events, and upload photos and videos.

7. Fans are registered Facebook users who have joined an organization’s fan page.

Read Part II: Setting up Facebook Fan Pages and Groups >>