I have always been a little skeptical about Facebook as a business tool, but I do admit that I’ve seen a few small business fan pages that have sparked my interest lately.
Facebook Causes is a tool that has done nothing for GoodDogz.org other than raise $155 about 2 years ago. So, I went into NTEN’s “Ask the Expert” call yesterday with Facebook’s Joe Green with my hackles up. I was interested to find out why Causes wasn’t working for us…and I wasn’t alone. Beth Kanter beat me to the punch with this fantastic post with her take on the call – Four Things I Learned from NTEN Ask Expert With Joe Green from Causes (and one thing I didn’t) – which does a great job summing up the mish-mash of topics Joe discussed. (Beth – you rock.) She has also included a ton of great links to Cause resources.
I also have a few other take always as well that I want to share.
Facebook is not magic. I know that you know that and I know that I know that, but I think that I tend to forget. The “if you build it they will come” mentality doesn’t work on Facebook (or anywhere for that matter), so you have to give people a reason to visit your Cause (or Group or Fan Page).
Have a goal. Again, we know it but sometimes we forget to practice it. My problem in the NPO world is that my goal is typically raising money. But Joe mentioned that goals can be any form like simply getting people to join your cause. I think that if you jump in head first with the idea that you’re going to make thousands of dollars with a blanket fundraising campaign, you’re going to be disappointed.
Facebook has a bunch of resources for nonprofits. Who knew? I had no idea that these existed until today. I’ll preface this by saying that many answers to caller questions circled back to one of these two programs. Here’s what FB has to say about their different NPO programs.:
Nonprofit Partner Program – “Becoming a partner organization will allow you to build and customize your profile, increase your organization’s rankings in search results, and track causes that benefit your organization.”
Causes Exchange - This is the support hub for Facebook Causes. Am I the only person that had no idea that this existed? Maybe so. If you have a Cause that’s stagnating, I would start your renovations here.
Coming soon – New Cause tools. Apparently, there is a lot of Cause functionality “in the lab”. If all of these add-ons come to fruition, Causes could turn out to be a pretty powerful tool for NPOs. I’ll reserve my opinion for their imminent release.
With these new revelations about Facebook Causes, I’m searching for an intern that loves dogs and Facebook to take over the management of all of our Facebook properties. I’d like to see how far we can actually take our organization on Facebook and dispel my own skepticism. If you know someone who is interested, please send them my way!
