Facebook is a huge deal to us here at Firstgiving. It provides about 10% of all our incoming traffic, and thousands of people are using it to fundraise every day. And it’s getting bigger.

It’s a good time to share our knowledge of the platform as it is, and how you can use it to tell your fundraising story

1. Status Updates

Status updates are so easy. It’s the bread and butter of Facebook - telling your network what you’re up to.

Maybe you’ve had a big donation, or gone training, it could be anything. Tell us. We wanna know.

Update. Be rigorous and organized about it. Three times a week is acceptable. After all, you’ve got something to promote that can be a discussion point. It’s a surefire way to be omnipresent on your friend’s newsfeeds so there’s no possible way they won’t  know what you’re up to. Maybe enlist a couple of your closest friends to share your page URL on their status too.

The golden rule is don’t just post the URL all on its own. Link-baiting alone is kind of annoying and we’ve all seen it (and they’re normally linking to ‘hilarious’ YouTube videos).

2. Post Photos

The Facebook photo app is pretty cool. The one thing that really elevates it over other photo apps is the ability to tag people. Make sure you try and capture as much of your story on camera and regularly upload photos, tagging yourself and anyone else in them as necessary. Also, make sure your profile pic is related to what you’re up to.

3. Do Video. 

There’s almost no excuse to not make a video of what you’re doing. Cameras do video. My phone does video. I’m pretty sure the toaster will do video soon enough. You’ve got a few options with Facebook video:

• use the Facebook video app. This is great for short videos, especially if your friends are in it. It has the same tagging functionality as the Photos app, so can spread through newsfeeds effectively.
• use a dedicated video site like YouTube or Vimeo. Both YouTube and Vimeo have pretty awesome Facebook integration. If you’re already using them then make sure you share the videos in your newsfeed or you can use the dedicated applications.

4. Events

If you’re actually doing an official event, like a marathon for example, then search for it and see if it’s listed on Facebook. If it is, add yourself to it.

If you’re doing your own thing and you want others to take part, then you can build your own event on Facebook and send it to your friends.

5. Groups

You should definitely build a group. Invite everyone to it. Those who actually join are the ones who you can lean on a bit harder. Get some forum discussions going, don’t let it stagnate. The other good thing about Groups is they act as the bridge to other Facebookers who you might not be friends with.

Just do a search for ‘firstgiving’ on facebook and have a look through some of the groups. There are some great examples in there.

6. Facebook Mail

The internal messaging system in Facebook is really, really powerful. It’s really good. It’s a lot more effective than standard email because it threads messages properly and integrates well with your registered email address too.

So this tip is an easy one. Use it.

Nine times out of ten it works better than your normal email. It works great for group, too!

Don’t underestimate the power of writing to people individually. It will yield much better results than sending the same message to everyone.

Plus you get to track it all from the comfort of your Facebook account.

7. Don’t forget to say thanks

Say thanks.

Wall-post a thank you note when somebody sponsors you. It acts as a thanks and a reminder to others in the newsfeed that they need to sponsor you because other people are. 

When your activity is over don’t forget to thank people collectively and individually. Let them know in as much detail as you can how much of a difference everyone has made together through your activity. It’s the end of the story. Make sure it gets told.

Do you have a tip to share?
Leave a comment below.