While a website displays what your organization makes or does, social media communicates what it is making or doing right now.
A dynamic Facebook page is a perfect complement to an informative website. The website and the Facebook page can promote each other, giving your audience access to your information in their choice of “flavours.”
Some organizations use a Facebook-only communications strategy as a low-cost initial means of creating awareness, and add a website when their enterprise calls for it.
Facebook, a blogging site, is the most popular in the current array of social media choices. Twitter is used for short status messages, and can be useful for organizations with a dynamic community presence involving events. Instagram is a photo-sharing medium – useful for artists … and scientists!
Online forums are another avenue to comprehensive internet exposure. If information sharing is part of your organization’s mission, a forum may work for you. Keep in mind that the best forums are moderated by individuals representing the organization, and this requires a time commitment.
Some customers maintain their own Facebook pages once set up, and some engage my company for ongoing maintenance.
Below are Facebook pages I’ve set up for various businesses and initiatives.
KAKABEKA FARMERS’ MARKET
This page, launched in 2014, has been a useful adjunct to this market’s advertising. When the page was launched, the customer invested in a short course of paid Facebook ads (“boosted posts”) to promote the page to members of the local community. Volunteers at the market now maintain the Facebook page.
The more individuals “Like” a Facebook page, the more people will see its new content when they log in to Facebook.
LONDON POWER/POWER PRESS
London Power designs custom consumer electronics items, and sells a line of books on electronic design via its publishing arm, Power Press Publishing. These products are sold worldwide.
Most “posts” on this Facebook page link into the London Power website for content. This draws customers to the website and online catalogue.
BEARHAVEN
BearHaven is an ecological market garden in rural Thunder Bay, Ontario, that sells its fruit & vegetables locally.
Facebook can be a powerful advertising force on both an international and local scale. Staff at BearHaven place new posts and photos on this Facebook page regularly during the growing season. BearHaven also uses occasional low-cost paid Facebook ads to reach local customers who may not be aware of its offerings.