Finally, we start our series on the different social media platforms and their viability to spread the word or prospects for your organization. We’ll see which platform cancels us for being “real” about them per post. Of course, that is sadly a concern as like it or not it’s their space and we’re borrowing the world (I’m well aware that we just said that backward but it’s more appropriate). So where Google is the 800-pound gorilla of search, so too is Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram, and Whatsapp) the 800-pound gorilla of social media as most roads lead through them.
To cut to the chase here, Facebook (and Instagram for that matter) are awful when it comes to “organic posting”. That is if you just post something about your organization, many of your followers won’t even see it unless you pay for ads. Meta has tightened the screws significantly in the past several months and it applies across the board even for non-promotion posts. Those posts could include a generic request for recommendations or the latest video about your dog or cat or kid. The obvious way around this is to pay for ads, which is only practical if you have a reason such as advertising your business or nonprofit. The ability to “boost” a post helps as it’s “poor-man’s advertising” and for some items this works well such as something you have for sale as a one-off.
Facebook has its strong points though and they can be very useful. For example, their Business Pages work well if you don’t have a website of your own or don’t always need one. They get more use than LinkedIn’s equivelent by far, but like a conventional business, you have to advertise them by inviting people or, advertising. A second bright spot are the Facebook Groups which are not only great for some prospecting (carefully though) but are also good to find organizations or people with whom you have a common need, software, or learning. Groups in Facebook are also a place to build a community of your own for your organization, product, service, or community you serve.
Like it or not, Facebook is still the place to spread the word on much of social media about your organization and what you offer. Though not everyone has Facebook anymore, many people still do and Facebook has managed to become a “blue-collar social media” which means people from all walks of life and levels can and do, use it because they’ve made it easy. For help getting started on Facebook just look us up.