Facebook is the most widely used social media platform in the world and is therefore an essential for any type of nonprofit organisation who wants to reach a wide audience.
Whether your cause is local or global, virtually everyone has a Facebook account, so it is the perfect way to build awareness as people can share your posts, giving it further reach for no extra cost.
COMMUNICATION
There is lots of capacity for two-way communication, which is essential for community centred enterprises who are looking to connect with people.
You can get feedback and interaction from comments or even include links to Facebook Messenger which facilitates more private conversations for people looking for advice or information.
Event pages on Facebook are also perfect for charity groups, workshops or fundraisers. They can be made open to the public or on an invite-only basis and they are a perfect way to convey clear information such as dates and times, as well as to gauge interest in an event.
ADVERTISING
If you have the budget for paid advertising, Facebook’s service is the most advanced of all the socials, allowing you to target exactly who sees your advert by a multitude of factors such as age, gender, location and even relationship status.
This means that you can be more certain that the demographic who will benefit the most from your nonprofit or campaign are most likely to see it.
MULTIMEDIA
Facebook also has the capacity for different media such as videos and photos as well as texts. It has been shown that posts including images get the most interaction across social medias and that visual information is most likely to be memorable.
Using images and videos alongside text are an important way to draw attention and to more clearly illustrate what your organisation is about.
PEAK TIMES
As with every platform, the peak times when people are engaging with posts from nonprofits are during the working week, with specific peaks on Wednesday and Friday morning and with Saturday and Sunday showing a drop in engagement.¹
Although algorithms and patterns are constantly changing, these data can be useful in showing the best times to schedule posts if an aim of your online marketing is to reach as many people as possible.
For more information, see our other posts on How to use Social Media for your Nonprofit, as well as how to use Twitter and Instagram for your Nonprofit
References:
Elizabeth Arens, ‘The Best Times to Post on Social Media in 2020’, March 2020, (https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/).
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