FundScrip Groups + The Social Media Plunge

First of all let me introduce myself! My name is Josyan McGregor and I am the Community and Creative Manager at FundScrip.  I take care of the FundScrip Facebook Fan Page (www.facebook.com/fundscrip), the FundScrip Twitter account (www.twitter.com/fundscrip) as well as the FundScrip Flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/fundscrip-images).

I make sure that FundScrip is on the Social Media radar and that it remains a helpful and friendly fundraising resource for those who need it!

I’ve worked for FundScrip for 2 years now and I have noticed one thing during this time, FundScrip Group Administrators often need more visibility (i.e., more supporters) and this means taking their group/school/team or church to the next level in terms of awareness.

Social Media can be an ideal platform for this type of increased visibility.  It’s a flexible and cost efficient way to communicate, garner word of mouth about your cause and finally it’s where you can find more supporters.

For the record, Social Media isn’t a passing trend, it’s growing and fast…

“According to The Nielsen Company, time spent on social networking sites by internet users worldwide has increased from 3 hours per month to 5.5 hours per month. This is an impressive 82% increase. Nielsen also concluded that people spend the most Internet time overall on social networks and blogs, and that social web sites such as Facebook are now the most common homepages for users. “This Nielsen report establishes social media as a trend that is not only here to stay, but one that is growing at a mind-boggling magnitude,” stated Bloggerwave Director Ulrik Thomsen.”

First things first – What’s a Facebook Page anyways?

Simply put, a Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share information with other Facebook users.  In the case of FundScrip groups, this could be sharing information, news, images and links about your non-profit group, school, church or sports team with other attentive Facebook users.

Okay, but I still don’t know why should I create a Page?

Let’s get this straight, the main objective of setting up a Facebook Page isn’t to communicate with your existing supporters because that’s what the FundScrip Administrator Dashboard is for.  A Facebook page would help you recruit more supporters among your friends & family (and their friends and family).  It could also be an alternative platform for your group to make its appeals for joining your FundScrip Campaign.  Imagine – gaining a wider audience at no cost!

A couple of neat Facebook features

Not only is a Facebook Page is easy to set up, it has features that allow you to upload images, create notes, send messages and more.

One of the best of these features is the updatable Status.  It can be used to ask your members a question, update your members on a particular event or simply to share some good news.

As Social Media implies, being social is crucial part of managing a Facebook Page.  Encouraging conversation and asking questions is a great way to start the ball rolling.  Remember to allow your  members to freely post comments and upload images on your Page Wall. Bedsides, it’s always fun to receive feedback.

5 quick reasons to set up a Page

1 – It’s free!

Did I mention it’s free!

2 – Not savvy – No problem

A Facebook Page is ideal for those who don’t feel internet savvy enough to set up a blog or don’t have time to commit to writing 500 word blog posts every week.

Add to that, most groups don’t have a budget for website development.

Creating a Facebook Fan Page is easy and gets you the best bang for your buck!

3 – Everybody is on it!

Although this may be an slight exaggeration, the latest Facebook statistics show that there were

“… 206.9 million unique visitors and was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month.”

Another important statistic to keep in mind is that as of March 8, 2010 there were 24,352,187 monthly Facebook Causes users.

Conclusion: there is huge potential for your fundraising campaign
to get the attention it deserves!

4 – Exponential visibility for your cause

Do the math:  You tell two friends, then those friends tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on and so on.

5 – Sharing the experience

Don’t feel as though you can take care of the Page on your own?  That’s easy to solve because you can designate any number of members in your group as a Page Administrator.  This allows a person to post messages, links, notes, comment on the Wall, respond to comments and more.  Just make sure that your Facebook Page Admins are as passionate about your fundraising cause as you are!

Face it – sharing the task always makes things easier and the different energies will make your Page more engaging and your audience more likely to participate!

Will ya or won’t ya?

After reading this, you may still think that creating a Facebook Page isn’t for your group and that’s fine.  I suppose I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t try to make you think differently about your fundraising campaigns.

If you decide to go ahead please let me know and in that same vein, if you choose not to set up a Page I’d love to know why.

If your group, school, church or sports team has a Facebook Page let us know what you have learned so far.  Any advice?

Just a quick note before I wrap up

My future posts will concentrate on how Social Media has changed the fundraising landscape.  If you have any suggestions or questions regarding Facebook, Twitter or social media in general, please feel free to contact me.  You can share your questions by leaving a comment below.

A little out of your comfort zone perhaps?

Although you can also send me an email with your question (see below), I would much rather you share your comments and questions openly on the blog or even on our own Facebook Page.  Remember there’s no such thing as a silly question!  That way we can all collaborate on an answer and best of all we benefit from each other’s expertise.  

Josyan
josyan (at) fundscrip (dot) com