Facebook is not known for its simple elegance, and some recent developments might not change that fact. But Facebook developers have added some great features to organizational accounts and Pages. What kind of Page you want to have for your nonprofit or charity is an important early decision to make, but once you have one, you have much greater control over working with your account. For example, you can now schedule posts up to six months in advance (and delete them later − before they go out − if need be). Let’s take a look at those features and how they can be a real boon to your organization.
From John Haydon‘s article at Social.Razoo.com
Perhaps most importantly, you can now set up different administrative privileges for different people in your charity or nonprofit. Someone needs to be Manager and control the whole kit and caboodle, but others can be assigned the opportunity to post new content and respond to comments. Still others can be put in charge only of commenting and responding (See the chart to the right). For a larger staff, that means a unified voice can be a bit easier to achieve on the Page.
The opportunity to ‘Promote’ a specific post by keeping it at the top of your Timeline has been around for a little while. But now you have greater control over what is promoted and for how long. When your charity posts an update in the ‘Sharing’ window, you can set a budget for promoting that post. Facebook analytics help you visualize what that budget will get you in terms of ‘Like’s and ‘Share’s (the budget is for the lifetime of the promotion, not a daily or per-click cost − Did you not know Facebook is looking for ways to monetize its services?). For bigger events, especially fundraisers, the small investment could be well worth it.
Finally, a feature that is super convenient and super easy: scheduling. As you prepare a post for your Timeline, a subtle clock icon appears in the lower left of the posting window. With each choice, you get follow-up choices (from year, to month, to day, to hour, to minute). Here is a simple video showing you how to schedule an update.
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Creativity and/or planning can sometimes roll in bunches. One of the great things about scheduling is that you can prepare a dozen posts about an upcoming event your nonprofit is sponsoring and the creative juices are flowing. Then you can turn to organizing the darn thing, knowing that Facebook will keep reminding people about the approaching festivities. And thanks to the various new Administration roles, you can delegate different responsibilities of your account’s upkeep to different staff members, keeping them fresh and your Facebook’s presence in good order.
