How Self-Advocacy Organizations Can Make the Most of Facebook By Emily Ladau, Communications Consultant For the Northeast Advocates Together (NEAT) Project

Facebook Basics  Strong cross-community, cross-generational presence  Largest demographic: older generations, but younger generation is highly present  Primary uses: Sharing photos and articles, announcing events, posting organizational news and updates

 Profile: A personal account, not for organizations -“Friends”  Page: A public way for organizations to connect with people -“Likes”  Group: A forum that people can join  Event: A way to invite people to something that is happening Facebook Basics

 Facebook Pages can only be created by a person who has a personal profile.  The creator of a page is an “Administrator.”  Pages can have multiple Administrators or people who can somehow edit the page.  Only people who have permission to do so can update a page. Facebook Basics

How to Create a Facebook Page Click “Create Page” on sidebar of homepage Select “Company, Organization or Institution. Fill in Details, and Click “Get Started”

How Multiple People Can Have Control of a Page Click “Settings” in the top right corner of the Facebook page.

How Multiple People Can Have Control of a Page Click “Page Roles” in the menu on the left side of the page and if you are an Administrator of the page, you can add other people to have varying levels of control over the page as well by typing in their names or addresses.

How to Create a Facebook Event  On your page, you can create events for your organization  Tip: Always add a cover photo

Sample Facebook Page Post

How to Engage People on Facebook  Ideal Posting Frequency: Once every other day/once per day Content Types to Share:  Links  Self-advocacy events and news announcements  Photos and Videos – both from your organization and from other sources  Motivational/Powerful Quotes or Quote Graphics  Ask questions for followers to answer  Self-advocate or community member submissions (questions, stories, etc.)

Best Practices for Sharing on Facebook  Keep text of post brief and to the point. One- or two-line updates actually often catch more attention than longer ones.  Use longer posts sparingly. Limit length of quotes if you quote an article.  Avoid posting links without text to explain it.  Ask questions and encourage conversation. -Examples: “What would you have done in this situation?” “Do you agree with this article?”  Include relevant hashtags  Occasionally include calls-to-action like “Click to read… or “Please share.”

Best Practices for Getting Page “Likes”  Share links directly from posts on other Facebook pages  Ensure people/pages are properly tagged  Respond to all comments  Include link to Facebook page in updates  Announce that Facebook page exists during self-advocacy events  Post content that is relevant to themes for different months -Examples: September is National Emergency Preparedness Month, October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

How to Share Directly from Other Pages or Sources If you want to share something another page or person posted, click “Share” at the bottom of their post.

Sharing Directly from Other Pages In the drop-down menu that appears, click “Share” again, NOT “Share Now.”

Sharing Directly from Other Pages A box will appear where you can type something to accompany what you share. When you are ready to share, click the button that says “On your own timeline” in the top left.

Sharing Directly from Other Pages A drop-down menu will appear. Select “On a Page you manage.” As long as you only manage the page for your self-advocacy organization, that will be the option that comes up.

Sharing Directly from Other Pages Make sure it says you are posting as your self-advocacy page. Then click “Share Link” at the bottom of the window and the post will be shared instantly!

How to Tag Other Pages In the status box, type symbol and then begin to type the name of the page you want to tag. It should come up in a menu. When it does, click the option to tag!

What is a Hashtag?  A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash or pound sign (#) that identifies to Facebook that you’re talking about a certain subject.  Hashtags are clickable and searchable.  Hashtags can be used to gain traction and attention for posts.  Do not hashtag every word or random words in posts. #donothashtaglikethis #do #not #hashtag #like #this  Example of a popular hashtag: #ADA25

Social Media Accessibility  Always include text descriptions of images by describing an image you post -What is the image? Who is in it? What colors? What does the text on the image say?  Include captions or find captioned audio content  Consider using trigger warnings on content with difficult subject matters  Use plain language

How to Schedule Posts on a Facebook Page Set up post as you would any status. Click the triangle next to the “Publish” button and then click “Schedule.”

Post Scheduling Choose a date and time when you want to schedule the post and click “Schedule.”

Post Scheduling You now have a scheduled post on Facebook!

Post Scheduling Click “See posts” on your Facebook Page to view your schedule of posts.

Using Facebook Will Help Your Self-Advocacy Organization Thrive!