Why Use Facebook for your Non Profit? Good question, well here are some facts that might get your attention.

• Facebook is one of the largest social media sites on the web:
• More than 200 million active users
• More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
• More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is 35 and older

And their users are very active:

• Average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 4 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day
• More than 30 million users update their statuses daily
• More than 6 million users become fans of Pages each day

(want some more demographics on users, check out Nick O’Neil’s Demographic Page)

So may want to take serious consideration about getting your NGO involved and engaged in this new media.

In this post I address two skill levels on Facebook for Non Profits: 

(Facebook 101) Basic for Non Profits and a more in depth part of the post (Facebook 102) Advanced for NGO’s for which I have Beth Kanter to thank for her deep and extensive coverage of the topic.

So if you already are an experienced Facebook user skip Facebook 101 and go to Facebook 102

Facebook 101 : How to get started on Facebook

These nine points are meant to be a starting point for you to get your nonprofit on Facebook and into the social networking world.

1. Sign up and create a Facebook Account

To get started, go to Facebook.com, click “Register” and fill out a short online registration form. Once you’re signed up, you’ll need to have a profile to share information and photos about your organization with others. What to include in your organization’s profile? Photos, links to your website and videos can all be added.

2. Find friends and connect with your community

Now that you have a Facebook account, connecting to people in your community is easy. Start by using the search feature to find friends who are already using Facebook and request to be their friend. You can add just about anyone you can think of including your members, supporters, volunteers, staff and even your board members. Don’t worry if you don’t have a big list right away. Once you have two or more contacts, you’ll be able to expand your social network by locating mutual friends and contacting them.

3. Send and receive messages

Facebook offers a message board feature called “The Wall” that displays member profile pages. You can use it to post all kinds of messages to your network.

4. Create a group for your organization or event

Just like every other social networking site, you can create and join groups on Facebook. And there’s a growing number of groups dedicated to social change. Why create a group? Creating groups allows you to share information about pretty much anything. You can create groups for your organization or event to make announcements, join discussion groups or even to share pictures. There are two kinds of groups on Facebook – open and closed groups. So be sure to create open groups so that people can find it and your members can invite others to join.

5. Upload and share pictures

One of Facebook’s most popular features has been the ability to upload and share pictures. Facebook also offers an unlimited quota with their only restriction being a 60-photos-per-album limit. The process is very simple. Start by creating an album which you can then assign limitations to (e.g. visible to my members only) and upload photos within them. The album is then put into your profile, and other users can see and comment on them. You can also “tag” your photos with the names of people you mention and share the photos via a web link or by e-mail. What’s more is that you can order prints online!

Read the rest of the article at Jeffbullas blog (click here)