Some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard so-called experts give to nonprofit organizations is this:
“You really ought to put all your time and effort into Facebook—that’s where everyone is. There are 100-plus million people on Facebook, so you should spend all your time and money there.”
That is absolutely not true.
Let me say first, I have nothing against Facebook. Quite the contrary. For some organizations, Facebook is a great resource. If your nonprofit has a vocal and active community of people talking about your cause and dialoging about issues, then Facebook may be a good place for you. In fact, earlier this year Facebook published a white paper for nonprofits on how to be more engaging on their site, which included several great suggestions—it’s worth a read. An organization with a vocal community of supporters could find a lot of success there.
But that’s only true for about 20% of the nonprofits on the planet. The other 80% of us don’t necessarily fall in that camp. We have equally important issues that we’re working on, but we may not have a very vocal audience with a lot of dialogue and discussion. For us to post a question on our Facebook Page and just be met with the sound of crickets chirping—that’s kind of defeating.
