Facebook Overview
Facebook is great for personal use, and connecting with friends and family.
You can share photos and videos easily
Live streaming is possible
Supported Media Types: Gifs, Images, Videos. Videos can be auto-subtitled and horizontal imagery is optimal.
Facebook Pages
Pages are places on Facebook where businesses, brands and organisations can connect with their fans, members or customers. When someone likes or follows a Page on Facebook, they can start seeing updates from that Page in their Feed.
Top tips when using pages:
Consider who you’re trying to reach and the demographics of these groups - what type of content would appeal to these groups?
Tailor your content accordingly.
Provide a space for information that people are unable to access elsewhere - give them a reason to like your Facebook page and engage with your content there.
Think about your cover photo and profile photo
Cover photos are more prominent, so it needs to be particularly eye-catching
Include an image or another form of media with every post. Not only does ‘the algorithm’ dislike text-only posts (meaning they’re less likely to be shown on people’s feeds), people are less likely to engage with text-only posts, and they take up less space on a screen.
Be concise - use less than 100 words, otherwise people are unlikely to read it.
Think about thumb-stopping power: people spend just 1.7 seconds scrolling on a mobile, 2.5 seconds on a desktop, so generally you have 1.7 seconds to capture someone’s attention
You need to do something which will make them stop scrolling - use an image, the title of an event, something funny or surprising, etc.
Facebook Groups
Groups are a place to communicate about shared interests with certain people.
These are one of the most effective ways to reach people! This is for a number of reasons:
The Facebook algorithm likes ‘community’ and will prioritise these sorts of posts to show up on a news feed
You can use groups to create events and invite all of your group members to them easily - members get automatic reminders about the event
They are an additional channel to reach people
You can reach up to 11x more people than you may do otherwise
Anyone that is a member of the group can post
You can easily invite other Facebook users to join the group
Admins can monitor what is posted
You can gain a reach that would be difficult to achieve organically
Can stimulate discussion
Can create a designated group for the society or post into other groups e.g. Uni of York Freshers group
20 Top Tips for Using Facebook
20 Top Tips for Using Facebook
Think about what an individual post is designed to do.
Have a clear trajectory for each post and include a ‘call to action’ (i.e. the thing that you are asking people to do, and the link to do it).
Make sure the post is clear, easy to read and eye-catching - break up each post using bullet points, emojis, spaces, capital letters and bold where applicable.
Content should be appropriate and relevant to members or potential members of your club at York. It should offer them value.
Provide people with information they won’t get anywhere else, or be the first to post some key content i.e. ‘break local news’.
Highlight what you’re doing in the university community, using photos and pictures.
Avoid ‘engagement bait’- i.e. don’t say ‘share if you agree’, the algorithm doesn’t like this!
Certain topics get more attention - be willing to learn what these are and use it to your advantage.
The algorithm likes short videos, just a few seconds long
85% of users watch videos without sound, remember to subtitle!
Tag appropriate others to help each other out, including sabbs and YUSU pages.
Use simple or explained terminology - get someone to read the post who has no connection to the student group, do they understand the post?
Publicise your successes - show people how great your group is and how they’re missing out by not getting involved.
Use Facebook to create events- when someone clicks going or interested, it shows up on others peoples feed. Make sure to have an eye-catching cover photo for the event!
Create a group chat of people willing to share the society’s posts. Every time you post on the page/group, share the post in the group chat and ask people to share the original post on their personal accounts.
Posting automatically from Instagram can reduce workload - make sure to add links, image descriptions and tags afterwards. Don’t forget to change the audience to public.
The best time to post on Facebook is usually early afternoon or evening.
Comment and like the society’s posts using your personal accounts to boost engagement. Also comment and tag friends in the posts.
More likes isn’t always better - it can be useful to evaluate the levels of interaction on your posts, but the key measure of success is looking at the engagement level with your activities/other goals of your social media.
Be prepared to learn what works.
Post frequently and consistently!
Questions?
Jasmine Pledger, Student Citizenship and Employability Development Coordinator - volunteering@yorksu.org