After a while you might find you need to concentrate a bit more on engagement with stakeholders as well as individuals on Facebook and this is the point at which, as an Incredible Edible group, a Facebook page will be a great idea.
For an explanation of the difference between a Facebook page and a group, see this article . Facebook pages were designed for businesses but they are great too for organisations who want to engage in a more meaningful way with other organisations and businesses in their area.
It’s not difficult to set up a Facebook Page. In fact Facebook will walk you through it. With a page you can like other organisations that you work alongside, or share an ethos with and tag them in your posts if you think you are posting about something they might be interested in. So for example, if a business has given you a small pot of funds to go towards a particular project, you can tag them in your post about that project and send people who are looking at your posts towards their page, supporting them through that positive social media use.
The most useful tool
The most useful tool on a page is ‘insights ability’ through the analytics information provided. This makes it possible to see the age range and timings that people are looking at your page, making it possible to use the ‘schedule’ option to post to your page at the time you know most people are looking at it. So for example, if you know most of the people who look at your page do so between 7 and 9 in the evening, you can schedule posts to go out to them at that time in the evening. There is still a need to engage with any comments, but there is no immediate rush and the scheduling option gives you the ability to post a week’s worth of event information at once.
Communicate with your facebook group
When you set up your page, make it clear in your Facebook group that you are not abandoning them and that the Facebook group will still be there for chat and discussion. Don’t be tempted to just share posts between the group and your page – they have different audiences and purposes so post to meet these needs. The important thing about getting engagement on a Facebook page is to post regularly, to share posts by others and to use it to take part in campaigns by using the campaign tags. Sharing campaign information on local and national campaigns can really help to support engagement.
