<p>I would suggest starting off with a post a week at most and after some time look at the analyts and see what’s happening. Too many posts and you’re likely to be “unfriended.” You can have a “bunch” of Facebook administrators who post, just make sure they don’t all post at the same time LOL…turn them loose with the promise they will tell you before they post. </p>
<p>Don’t think of social as the end all be all…it’s just a tool in the arsenal and has much overlap with PR…it’s strongly women and growing rapidly among over 30 year old women… ten years ago who would you have sent press releases to and what would you have said…this type of PR activity is low hanging fruit for a facebook page.</p>
<p>Some really great suggestions here. The organization in which I volunteer is maintaining its Facebook presence (as well as a weekly blog!) by creating an unpaid internship for a couple of high achieving high school students. These girls are looking to meet their community service requirements in a way that is fun and interesting from their perspective so it’s a win-win for them and the organization.</p>
<p>We brought some much younger (28-35 y.o.) members onto our board this past year, and it has been interesting getting their input on this issue. They were in pretty strong agreement that what we needed to start with was a base public relations effort, and that facebook and other social media was a later issue. (Our n.p. has mostly been built from bequests through the years, but we’re trying to reach out to other members of the community with an expanded fundraising presence.) One of these directors is director of marketing for a popular local brewery, and he uses social media very, very heavily for their business, so I was surprised. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he was right – we don’t have a clearly defined message and haven’t done the base work we need to do to have a clear presence.</p>
<p>Really appreciate all these insights! Thanks & please keep them coming. I think it CAN be a tool, but it is only ONE piece and we also need to work on the rest before we start with this.</p>