Hi Rebecca - this is definitely a step NP's should be taking.  As soon as Facebook Pages came available I created one for my local Make Poverty History group for west-end Toronto.  Check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Make-Poverty-History-Etobicoke/10105987380

I'd be honoured if you'd become a 'fan' too ;)

Thanks for all your great posts.

I'd be interested in seeing how Facebook groups vs. business pages work for small nonprofits. My gut is that creating a group would be more personal, but I could be way off. thoughts?

@Michelle, consider me your latest fan! You've done a great job with that page, in selecting useful applications and posting a variety of content that create a sense of community and the impression of an active and vital nonprofit. Well done.

@Morgan, I've been wrestling with that question myself. It would depend in part on the nature of the organization, and what you want to accomplish, don't you think?

There are a few key differences: Groups can only be seen by people with a Facebook account, for example, whereas Pages can be seen by anyone. Also, anyone on FB can set up a Group around any topic, whereas Pages can only be set up by an "official representative" of the nonprofit or business: I suspect this distinction may become increasingly important as time goes along.

A thought just occurred to me: what if an organization were to set up a Page as an introduction/entry point for publicity and recruitment, and then set up various Groups around your current campaigns and initiatives?

Thank you for this; it's something I hadn't thought of before, but I have a page up now (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bilingual-Schooling-for-Tela-Atlantida- BiSTA/22365069971). I recruit teachers and raise the money to fly them to Tela, Honduras to teach, and to pay their wages while they're there.

I'm just getting started with the page--and with the non-profit itself, really, so if you have any suggestions about how to shift into a higher gear, I'd love to hear them. I'm the only person working for the non-profit--owner, president, secretary and everything else, all rolled into one, and for good measure, I stay home and look after our 1 year old girl, too.

The good thing is that I only need to raise about $12-15,000 a year (American), but the bad thing is I don't know the first thing about raising money...

Glad to have been of help to you, Upshur. If there's some topic in particular that interests you, try the Search function at the top of our sidebar to find more information - or feel free to suggest a topic for a future blog post!

The organization I work for, Church World Service, is just getting its feet wet with Web 2. Initially we made a CWS Facebook group, and now we've created a CWS page because of the additional flexibility you have with a page. We are not having much success getting people to migrate from one to the other - any ideas on what has worked for you? We've posted a message on the Group's wall, but don't want to badger people either - Kay

That's an interesting question, Kay... By "migrate" I assume you mean that you'd like to move people over from Group to Page and gradually stop using the Group? Because there's no reason not to use both, I suppose - with closely related content and lots of cross-linking. I guess my first question would be, if your supporters are adhering to Group, why? Why are they reluctant to 'meet' you on the Page instead? I'd think it must be because something about the Group format is working for them... possibly something as simple as familiarity and comfort level, as Pages are quite a new feature and less commonly seen?

Thanks Rebecca, it may be the comfort level, it is really hard to tell. I am new to Facebook myself and luckily we have some Facebook-experienced staff contributing to our pages. If we use both, we need to update both, but that also means more coverage for us as well.  

@ Morgan & Rebecca: Pages, Groups, and now also Causes are becoming more and more popular.  It would be great to see a side-by-side comparison on the three and their utility.

This is a great beginners guide for starting a page, especially to help with the less intuitive part of selecting Non-profit from Brand/Product.  

However, I would love to see this augmented with another article on best practices, guides for content, do's and don'ts - you get the idea.  Obviously every org has different needs and different content, and we want to inspire creativity and new ideas, but, a guide on content would probably help people get the ball rolling and make it seem less daunting a task.

Thanks again for starting the conversation!

@ Rebecca & Kay: One thought on groups vs. pages - from the user-end, a group is a lot less of a committment, many will join groups without even visiting the group page.  

My org - at this point - is not suited for Fb marketing, and I have no idea if you can track readership of Group messages, but if you can, I am very curious what the open rates are.  I, for one, have joined so many groups because I believe in the ideology of the cause, even though I'm not able to be active in all of them.  It's at a point where I hardly open many of the messages, but I wouldn't leave them as I want to show my support for the org's mission.

These are just my 2 cents on why you may not see a portion of the group interested in taking action (even if it's just to visit your page, or to visit your group page and then click a link to the other page).  There is a definite advantage to being able to Invite people to a group - can you Invite people to become fans?

Kevin, wow, you've brought up a lot of "food for thought" here - thanks!  

Your experience of joining Groups to show support for their cause, without necessarily intending to be active in them all, is a very familiar one... and no doubt a lot of people do the same. From time to time, for example, we'll hear a local news story about a small community group which "already has X-number of supporters on Facebook" - clearly used by the news media as a sign of the group's success or popularity. So I wonder, does this mean that joining a Facebook Group is roughly the equivalent of signing a petition?  But no, it's got to be more than that, right? Groups are an on-going avenue of communication for a nonprofit: a way to get a message directly out to people who have opted-in to receive that message...

Clearly there's a lot to think about and explore with Facebook, and it can be overwhelming. But equally clearly, social media / networking is here to stay and can be a powerful tool for nonprofits. Kevin, your suggestions for a side-by-side features comparison and a best practices content guide to help "get the ball rolling" are very helpful: thanks so much for joining in the conversation!

"So I wonder, does this mean that joining a Facebook Group is roughly the equivalent of signing a petition?  But no, it's got to be more than that, right? Groups are an on-going avenue of communication for a nonprofit: a way to get a message directly out to people who have opted-in to receive that message..."

Rebecca, I think this quote is right on.  For some, hopefully many, being in a group is just like being on a listserv - or somewhere between being on a listserv and just signing a petition.  

Hopefully many people do read and stay abreast of the news that the organization provides.  However, there may be quite a few people who don't read all the messages, but they feel connected to the cause.  Like being greeted on the street for a quick signature, there's also less effort required on the user-end, as again, they can be easily invited to join (as opposed to joining after reading an email/Fb message, or visiting a website).

Also, I forgot to mention that in addition to Fan pages, Groups, and Causes, I've heard some chatter about organizations creating their own Fb applications.  I haven't come across any yet, but I'd be interested in seeing an example and also having those included in the comparison as well.

To take the step even rather, I wonder if there's any easy to read/implement guides comparing all of the Fb utilities, as well as Myspace, LinkedIn, and other web 2.0 platforms.  There's just so many, it can be hard for an organization to even know where to start of what will work best for their audience.

Thanks again for creating a dialog and providing resources for organizations looking to get started in Fb organizing/marketing.

I like the 'listserv' analogy, Kevin: it feels like there is a strong parallel there, and it could be argued that anything that keeps people feeling connected to your cause is doing good work even if it goes no further. The thing that makes Facebook an intriguing avenue for nonprofits, of course, is that the potential for greater engagement is build right in - and ever-evolving as new applications are developed. I too would be interested in seeing what apps have been created by organizations - and will certainly be keeping an eye open. I hope you or others will drop a note here if you come across an example! Meanwhile, my list of Facebook-related topics to explore has just grown considerably longer! It is great fun (as well as useful) to share ideas and pool knowledge like this, isn't it? :)

Question: Can you change a person-type page into a business-type page? Some time ago we thought we'd get clever and create a non-profit page before Facebook allowed you to do this. Now there's a great way to do this and I was wondering if I can convert my existing page or if I have to start from scratch.

Hi Giselle: Your original personal profile will be needed as 'web admin' for the Facebook Page for your non-profit - you'll see, if you start to create a Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php) you'll be prompted to login to Facebook on the second sceen of the process.

I would like to form an organization to promote and preserve the photographic legacy I am creating for my estate.  Perhaps a 'Foundation' is the more appropriate method?

Curtis, you might want to float that question by an estate planner or lawyer: so much depends on your jurisdiction as well as ultimate goals.

Hi there,

My non-profit published a page and all seemed to go well but we've since hit some snags.

There seems to be a great lack of applications designed to work properly on Pages e.g. Justgiving and Flickr. In fact, attempting to install the flickr application caused us lots of problems.

There doesn't seem to be a clear way for non-profits to contact existing supporters on Facebook and let them know about the organization's official Page. You cannot message people, you cannot join groups either.

Social Ads seems to be the only way to do this through Facebook itself, or to connect with supporters offline.

For a non-profit without an 'ad' budget, how is it possible to use Facebook Pages to connect with existing supporters?

We are considering closing our page as we feel so constrained by the lack of options available to us.

Jen, you've hit on a fairly common frustration here, I think. Most of the apps that are used on Facebook are actually developed by someone other than Fb (e.g. Flickr) so it can take a while to catch up when something new - like Pages - are introduced.

As for promoting your Page... Facebook is based on person-to-person connections, so the whole setup reflects that fundamental. Thus, while a Page cannot join a Group, the page Admin (individual) can. Think of Fb in terms of individual supporters of your group reaching out to their friends. When someone becomes a 'fan' of your Page, for example, the icon/link for your Page appears on their personal profile and that is one more "way in" for prospective new supporters.

From what you're saying about your needs, it sounds like it might make sense for your organization to have both a Group and a Page - The more "entry points" to your nonprofit, after all, the more ways there are for people to find you!  

In short, I wouldn't be too quick to abandon your Page: To have it costs you nothing, it is content that can be indexed by search engines, and - this is a big point - it is viewable by people who are not yet members of Facebook.

Rebecca,

Thanks for the reply.

We've struggled to work out how we can engage with individuals and have checked the Page Insider's Guide. It seems the page can only upload content, update fans, purchase ads and create events.

Everything else has to be done by personal accounts, i.e. using staff members' individual online identities.

We searched and their are tons of groups and events set up for our organization by individuals, but contacting those groups and individuals to let them know about our official page... How can we do this without being accused of 'spamming'?

We have decided to keep our page going but are now fully aware of the limitations of the facility, and question its ability to allow genuine 2 way communication between non profit and supporter.

That's how I see it, too, Jen. As it stands, the Facebook Page feature is just not optimized for two-way communication - that's where the Groups come in to perform, whereas Pages act more like a little bulletin board or 'sampler' for your organization. And another way to lead visitors to your main website, one hopes!

I do believe, however, that a Page is worthwile because it is public, while anything else you can do on Facebook is restricted to viewing by Facebook members only.

Different tools for different purposes, like interlocking pieces of the overall web-outreach puzzle?

@ Kay - you can ask Facebook to migrate your org's group members to nonprofit page fans.  My org did it two weeks ago.  Facebook also migrates some of the group content, like wall posts, to the page.

Check out "I have a Facebook Group. Can it be converted into a Page?" at

http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=175

Great tip, Allison - thanks for sharing this!

@Rebecca - Thanks for the info, that's a fab solution. We'll get on it right away!

@Allison - Great tip

Jen, I'm glad that seems like a workable solution for you. Please drop a link here sometime, if you like, and share what you're doing with your organization on Facebook?

Rebecca, I loved the comment you left on Darren's blog! I'm going to quote you when I do a post on engagement. Were you at BlogHer 08? If so, I'm sorry I missed you!

Robyn, thanks: do drop a note when your post goes up - 'engagement'/community is a topic with endless depths to explore, and I look forward to reading your thoughts on it.  No, I didn't get to the BlogHer conference, unfortunately: from all reports, it sounds like it was an exciting idea-exchange.

I’m working to set up a Facebook presence and am torn between starting with a group or a page.  I work for a non-profit center based out of a university.  We want to target students for some things and the general public for others.  The particular issue we have is with events.  We have some for students only and we’d like to restrict those to within our network.  Alternately, we’d like to make everyone aware of the public ones.  Right now it seems as if it  is better to have a group for our campus presence and a page for our regional presence.  I think it would be great if the page could operate like a stand alone account in that it sould be able to create groups (that could belong to a specific network) and events.  People who join would be fans of the page and if they fall into a specific network, they could choose to join that as well.  It is just too tedious to post things twice on disconnected areas and users don’t feel the need to join both a group and a page.  The page should ultimately run (or host) all  groups and events but if the event is created at the group level it wouldn’t be visible by outsiders looking at the page.  If and event is created at the page level, people looking at the page and those with group access could view it.  If anyone knows if this is possible, please let me know.  

I also agree with Jen that the applications are a problem.  We have other organizations that we want to ‘link’ to and if we can’t join their group or be their ‘friend’ we end up posting a link to their website.  That draws people away from Facebook when the org might already have a Fb presence.  I doesn’t make sense to me.  

Any thoughts?

Lauren, off the top of my head, I'm wondering if Facebook is really the ideal place to centre your online activity? A presence, yes - especially for your audience demographi, it's practically a necessity. But there may be better solutions for what you're trying to accomplish...

I'm going to have to give this some more thought - and hope that some of our savvy readers can pitch in with ideas!

As for posting things twice on disconnected areas, RSS may be your friend there?

@ Rachel - First, thanks for starting this topic, I think the people who have posted have all brought up some interesting questions to be asked, or points to be made about Pages.

I work for a non-profit called Tamarack and have created a Page as well. Feel free to visit it at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tamarack-An-Institute-for-Community-Engagement/7782724463.

I think it is very important for those who are just starting a Page to determine the language and the message that they want to use. An organization may be involved in many complex issues and have a variety of things to offer, but FB isn't the place to go into detail about this. Keep it simple, finding an overall focus or theme about the organization is key to forming a presence on Facebook!

@ Lauren - I think your idea of a stand-alone page is great. It would definitely benefit larger organizations who have smaller and different networks to adhere to.

Your current issue is one that is tough to work around and I don't think there is one solid solution for you given what Facebook currently provides. The other option would be to have a website where you can manage your events the way you want it. But you lose the direct promotion you would get from using Facebook.

Perhaps the hassle of managing two different groups/pages on FB is worth it for the promotion... or until your stand-alone idea is realized.

I developed other pages under my personal profile and would like to delete those in favour of having just my NP page - but I can't seem to find a delete page button anywhere? I have also cleaned up my personal profile image and changed the privacy buttons so that only my "friends" can see my profile or my "friends" to avoid any misunderstanding or embarrassment as a representative of my org :)

Hi Rebecca--We've just set up a page for Ahimsa House, dedicated to helping the human and animal victims of domestic violence reach safety together. Our page is at http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Ahimsa-House/21828713403 ...your directions were very easy to follow, and I thank you for addressing this topic in your blog!

My question is similar to Janelle's--how do you keep your own personal profile separate from your NP page? My association doesn't want to set up a general page yet; we just want to set up a fan club page for a certain public health initiative. I am the one who will be creating/managing the page but I don't want it associated with my personal page--or with any one individual. Is it possible to create a new facebook account with just webmaster as the owner?

This is the initiative we want to promote: http://www.listentoyourbuds.com . We want to build a FB page that showcases the campaign and also to serve as the platform for housing information/videos about an upcoming series of concerts that will benefit this cause. I did set up a page on MySpace www.myspace.com/listentoyourbuds but it just looks too commercial and I'm finding it next to impossible to add music (you can apparently only add songs from their featured artists and can't upload your own mp3s?) and video. I just think FB might be a bit more professional and easier to manage as far as the content we want to promote.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

@Janelle, what you'd have to do is remove yourself as a fan of those pages. Login to your account and go to each page that you don't want to be associated with anymore, and look for the link way down at the bottom of the page that says "Remove me from fans". Click it, and that will keep the page from showing on your Profile.

@Maggie, that solution should work for you, too, I believe - if I'm understanding your situation clearly. To make changes to the page, there has to be *someone* who's profile is associated with it, but you can certainly remove yourself from showing as a fan; that will stop the page from being listed on your profile at all, however, which may or may not be what you want?

@Maya, you've made a good-looking page there! So glad that you found this information helpful in setting it up. :)

Thanks Rebecca--I created our page. Now I we just need to get some information to add! ;)

Good to hear, Maggie! As for adding information to your page, now that you've got it set up... Facebook Applications for Your Non-Profit Page might give you a few ideas.

Thanks Rebecca--I appreciate it!

Maggie, when you're ready to go public, will you drop a link so we can have a look at your page? -- it's a great way to learn, seeing what others are doing!

Facebook is fast becoming a popular way to publicize an organization's event, invite guests, and track who plans to attend. Facebook Events may be just what your group needs -- but could you be shutting out some of the people who might support your event?

We’ve talked before about how nonprofits are using Facebook to connect with their supporters online,

Hi.  I just created a Facebook page for my organization but I wish I had found this page first!  I've only been on Facebook for a few weeks but I read as much as I could find about creating a Page before setting one up.  Still, I apparently made a big mistake and could not find where to say we were a "non-profit."  I selected "other" and know we are listed as a business.  Is there any way to edit this status to non-profit without deleting the whole page and starting over again?? (I can't find a way but hopefully you know of one)  I've spend hours uploading events and photos and would hate to have to start over but will if I need to.   Thanks for any tips!!

Mary, I'm so sorry to tell you this -- but no, at present there is no way to change the category of your Facebook Page. You will need to delete the Page and start over, just as you thought.  (Let's hope that this will change in future: I suspect that the ability to change Page categories would be a popular feature!)

Thanks Rebecca - I did delete the page and start over.  Just an hour or so of wasted time but it could've been a lot worse.

Now, I'm having a problem loading photos.  When I go to create and album and load photos, FB wants me to download a "plug-in," which I did but still can't upload a photo.  Does anyone know anything about this or something I'm simply doing wrong.  I feel like I'm pretty tech savy but there are so many little glitches with FB.  ??

This blog has been very interesting to read and very helpful.  Thank you!

Mary, I haven't forgotten your question - still looking for an answer, but I haven't yet been able to replicate that photo-upload error.

Glitches with Facebook... yes. I just spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to remove an application! Not always "user friendly," we might say! Combined with what seems to be a fairly strong resistance (especially among long-time users) to the "new Facebook" interface, and the many competing social networks that are popping up daily, it will be interesting to see how Fb responds to hold onto its share and keep its members happy.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I couldn't figure out where the "nonprofit" selection was hiding. You are a live saver!

Taryn