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Workshop Facilitator:
Lynne Gilbert -
lgilbert.umw@gmail.com
Webmaster, United Methodist Women
- Western
North Carolina Conference
How many of you have already joined Facebook?
How often do you visit Facebook? Daily?
Weekly? Monthly? Forgotten your Login?
- Very easy to join…I am going to
leave some time at the end for questions…so I
can show you how to get started.
- Just a few quick statistics about
Facebook…
- Over 500 million people are
active users of Facebook…about 130 million of those are
in the United States
- 50% of those active users log in
to Facebook on any given day
- All ages are represented…but in
the past year, the fastest growing demographic group is women
over age 55! People 35 and older represented almost 30% of
users as of January 2010, and the 55+ age group grew in 2009 by
over 900%!
How many have joined the United Methodist Women
Facebook Page?
Over 5,300 people have become fans (you just have to click the “LIKE” button to join). This is one VERY
GOOD way that you can use Facebook for United Methodist Women…join the
United Methodist Women page, and encourage all of your UMW friends,
women in your congregation, and others to join too! Our great
communications staff at the Women’s Division is constantly sharing
information there, and generating neat conversations. One neat thing
about public pages…like the United Methodist Women page…is that you
don’t actually have to be a fan of the page to look at it. The added
benefits of joining include that posts by the page will appear in your
news stream, and…you can participate in the conversation.
- Show how to join the page:
www.facebook.com/umwomen
- Show how information appears in your
news stream after you join
- Show how to suggest the page to your
friends
- Show how to share something on your
profile, or with a particular friend
- Show how to make a comment, or to
“like” something
- BRAND NEW thing by Facebook...Community
Pages. There is one for United Methodist Women that seems to
be aggregating posts about United Methodist Women from all over
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/United-Methodist-Women/113945345284341?ref=ts
How many have joined other Pages or Groups
related to United Methodist Women?
- There are a few conferences and some
districts that have started pages or groups.
- Show how to search for United
Methodist Women pages & groups
How many have joined other Pages or Groups
related to the United Methodist Church?
As an informed United Methodist Woman…you
might also want to stay up to date on news across The United Methodist
Church. Here are just a few great pages that are sharing news,
information & a place for conversation:
Does your United Methodist Women group have a
website?
A public Facebook page is one FREE way
that your United Methodist Women local unit or district
could in essence have a website if you don’t already have one. Just as
a side comment on that…this workshop is about Facebook, but the new
United Methodist Women Online Community at
www.umwonline.net is another way that you can now
do that. But…back to Facebook…you can…
- Share information & news
- Ask questions…engage your members in
conversation
- Share upcoming events…using Facebook
event feature, or by adding something like a Google calendar
http://www.google.com/calendar
- Share links to other websites…like
the NEW United Methodist Women website:
www.unitedmethodistwomen.org
- Share links to documents (like
newsletters, or registration forms) for folks to download (from any
number of free document storage locations)
- Share photos from your events
- Share videos
- Neat online video creation site -
www.animoto.com
(They have a special status for nonprofit organizations that you can
apply for and get a free one year "Pro" account that lets you create
full-length videos. Easy and fun...look near the bottom of
their page for a link to "A
Cause".
- Share longer information using the
Notes feature. The Notes feature has some formatting options.
- Connect your Facebook page to a
Twitter account…so that each time you post something, you are also
generating a “tweet” on Twitter.
http://www.facebook.com/twitter/
- After you have at least 25
members…get a personalized Facebook name for your page. Visit:
http://www.facebook.com/username/
Choose and set it carefully...you cannot change it. If you
have a website or other online media, it is a good idea to be
consistent in the names that you use...so that your members can
easily remember how to find you. For example, Western North
Carolina Conference uses "WNCCUMW"...in our web site domain name,
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube & the new UMW Online Community.
- Add other pages as “Favorite Pages”
to provide suggestions for pages your members might like to join
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Create custom page content using the
FBML application. Application: Static FBML -
http://www.facebook.com/#!/apps/application.php?id=4949752878&ref=ts
If your local unit or district already has a website…a Facebook page can be an additional
way to connect with some of your members, and encourage conversation.
Some of your members out there might look at their Facebook page every
day…but hardly ever visit your website.
Great Resource for the "HOW TO" of starting a Facebook Page:
ChurchCrunch:
www.ChurchCrunch.com
Creating a
Facebook Page for your Ministry/Church
A great 4-part series on starting a Facebook Page for your
church/ministry
A Few
Other Social Media / Facebook Resource Sites:
(There are LOTS of them!)
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