New report on how nonprofits use Facebook

Did you know that you can successfully manage your non profit’s Facebook page in as little as 2.5 hours a week? This is just one of the helpful findings from Idealware’s just released survey of how nonprofits are using Facebook. I got the chance to attend their webinar last week which reviewed the results and surfaced some really interesting trends that you should know about if you manage your nonprofit’s Facebook page.

The first and most shocking statistic shared was that 64% of organizations have not set goals for their Facebook page. Not surprisingly later in the data you find that the 36% who did set goals are also having more success on Facebook. Do you fall into the 64% without goals? If so here are some potential goals for your Facebook page:

Increase traffic to your webpage (this is something Idealist found a lot of groups had success with)

Create conversations between your supporters and your organization

Share actions and encourage people to take them, such as advocacy

Highlight unique content that your supporters are likely to share

In terms of time management I was really happy to see that managing your nonprofit’s Facebook page for only 2.5 hours a week would yield significant results. In fact between 2.5 hours and four hours is the most beneficial and there isn’t a significant increase in benefit if you exceed four hours of management a week. Does this seem like a reasonable amount of time for you?

In their webinar the folks from Idealist talked a lot about how the lower the commitment of action you ask for the more likely you are to be successful. For example, you’re a lot more likely to get people to say they will attend an event via Facebook as opposed to making a donation. Check out Groundwire’s article on engagment & their helpful pyramid for ideas.

Of course everyone wants to know if they can  raise money on Facebook. This survey seems to confirm the conventional wisdom that Facebook is great for cultivating current and potential donors but not for directly raising funds. They gave the example of Alex’s Lemonade Stand which has over 226,000 supporters on Facebook Causes and yet has only raised $25,000 via the application. Continue to think about Facebook as a tool for relationship building and cultivation and avoid setting goals and metrics for it based on dollars in the door.

Speaking of building relationships they did ask a couple questions in the survey to determine if Facebook helped nonprofits to build relationships with their existing supporters. What was interesting is that 80% reported they were having some or substantial success in enhancing their current relationships but only 42% reported that they were having some or substantial success in understanding their constituents. In the webinar Andrea from Idealware attributed this to nonprofits still seeing Facebook as a newsfeed as opposed to a chance to ask people about what they care about. Are you caught in this loop? Consider utilizing Facebook Questions to ask your supporters what they care about. Or just post more questions or fill in the blank (e.g. I am most passionate about ending homelessness becuase ______) status updates.

You can download the report here.