Sharing & Connecting For Service-Learning With Facebook

Learn and Serve America’s National Service-Learning Clearinghouse

Why use Facebook? Facebook has more than 200 million active

users, and over 100 million users who log on to facebook at least once each day (Facebook, 2009) www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

A growing number of students and youth are engaging with each other through social networking, and meeting them where they are is a way to stay relevant

Facebook is a free & easy way to help you expand your reach and engage participants and supporters in a new way

What can Facebook help me do?

stay in touch with participants, supporters, partners in your community

make new connections with friends-to-be inside or outside your community

organize, promote, and manage events

What can Facebook help me do?, cont.

promote your latest news, successes

raise public awareness of service-learning

support your learning community

….all with little technical expertise

Types of pages on Facebook

Profiles: personal page for individuals

Fan Page: Fan pages are usually created to represent an organization or institution and are visible to the public

Groups: Groups can be created around any topic, and are open to invited members only

Can I just use my Profile

Page?

No. Facebook’s terms of service clearly state that you may not use a profile page on behalf of any group or entity.

Facebook Groups vs. Fan Pages

Both allow you to:

announce meetings & events

plan events

post photos, videos

connect students, faculty, and community partners/members

have discussions with members

Facebook Groups - Pros

Pros:

easy to set up

easy recruitment: allow you to send bulk messages to friends inviting them to join

updates go to member inboxes, which many users are more likely to check

members can easily engage with each other through discussion forums

Facebook Groups - Cons

Cons:

not indexed, can only be found through an internal Facebook search

limit to 5,000 fans

no visitor statistics

Facebook Pages – Pros

Pros:

indexed, so that users outside of Facebook can find your page

public, can be viewed even if you’re not a Facebook member

provides visitor statistics

allows an unlimited number of fans

 

Facebook Pages - Cons.

Cons:

recruitment is limited to marketing, not direct invitation

messages sent to fans go to their notification bar instead of their inbox, which may be more easily ignored

changes to pages don’t show up in newsfeeds

fewer options for engaging with fans

How To Create a Facebook Group Create a personal Profile Page (you will need this

to be a group admin.)

From Settings (top Right) choose ‘Application Settings’, then Groups, then ‘Create a New Group’

Choose a relevant title and description for your group

Invite existing Facebook friends or email contacts to join the group

Update regularly! Keep your content fresh and engaging!

Facebook Groups – Tips & Tricks

There are different types of Groups: global, closed, and secret. A global group means anyone can join, a closed groups means that the administrator needs to first approve anyone who has applied to join, and a secret group means that individuals must be invited to join. Consider which type would be best for your Group.

What are administrators & officers? An administrator has control over the content and membership of your group. Consider having more than one administrator to help share the duties. Officers have no 'power', but their name and title are displayed on the page. This could be useful to provide information about your service-learning center's staff, for example.

One of the great things about groups is that you can send a message to all of your members at once. To do this, simply go to the group's page and click "message all members" beneath the group photo.

Facebook Groups – Tips & Tricks, cont.

Uploading photos is one great way to add content and interest to your page. You can upload any .jpg, .gif, .bmp, or .png file that is 15MB or under. You can then write a caption for the photo and 'tag' it to indicate members in the photo.

You can use your Facebook group to plan and market events. Right below your group photo you will see a link that says "Create Related Event". This leads you to the event creation page where you can simply follow the directions and start inviting your members.

Want to delete your group? Facebook will delete your group automatically once there are no members, so simply remove all members as well as yourself and the group will be deleted.

More Information

A Beginner's Guide to Facebook - TechSouphttp://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7430.cfm

Facebook Help: www.facebook.com/help

libertys@etr.org