Making the most of Facebook

2 April 2015
By Carissa Paramita
Imagine an audience of 2.4 million people. That’s how many New Zealanders were on Facebook in 2014. How do you grab their attention? Or better yet, how do you get started on Facebook?

This is where Making the most of Facebook comes in. It’s a practical tool for non-profit organisations starting to use Facebook – or already on Facebook but wanting to build an audience.
This guide, prepared by Arts Access Aotearoa, includes more about Facebook demographics in New Zealand and why Facebook is still the best platform for a community-based arts organisation or creative space to build the character of their brand.

It offers straightforward and practical tips on what to post on your Facebook page, and it gives ideas for content. You can also find the link to a useful online tool to make photo collages for your cover photo.

As for the length of posts, do longer posts work better than shorter ones? Making the most of Facebook answers this question by providing a graph showing the relation between length of posts with engagement. You’ll also get a better idea of when to post and how often you should post on your Facebook page.

Dealing with negative comments

Making the most of Facebook: a guide for community arts organisation also deals with the question of what to do when you are faced with negative comments on your page.

“Removing a negative comment can be a tricky task and it needs to be handled carefully,” it states.

And the question that’s in every page administrator’s mind: “How to build my audience?” Being on Facebook is not as simple as posting content, getting likes, comments and shares, and then assuming you’ll get heard.

It takes effort to break through the noise. But luckily, you don’t have to break the bank to make the most of Facebook.

Carissa Paramita is a volunteer with Arts Access Aotearoa. She wrote this guide with former volunteer Caitlin McNaughton.

Making the most of Facebook(WORD)

Making the most of Facebook (PDF)