If you’ve ever asked me a question through email or direct message on Facebook or Instagram, you know I always reply with an answer. Hopefully that answer gets you on the right track with any social media challenges you’re working through. I’ve compiled a batch of those questions and I’m going to answer them in this episode. All of these questions relate to Facebook, so here we go!

I’m new to Facebook. Should I friend people with my personal account and if I do, would I be friending them to my organization’s page or to my personal account that is bare – I don’t even have a profile picture?

OK – so first things first, if you have a Facebook page for your organization, you have to have a personal Facebook page set up first. This lets you interact with people as you, or you can interact with them as your page. How do you know which one you’re interacting as? Check out the little comments box below a post – the little icon that shows your profile picture on the right side of the comment box will reflect which page – your personal, or your organization – you’re interacting as. Now, as far as adding people as friends – you can only add friends as you from your personal page. You can’t add friends as your organization’s page. 

Get the free step-by-step guide: How to Interact as Your Page

You can, however, invite your personal Facebook friends to like your organization’s page. This is how: if you go to your organization’s page, you’ll see there’s a box on the right side that will have all of your friends with an “Invite” button. If you click “Invite,” it will send that person an invitation to like your page. 

If you want to add more of your real-life friends as Facebook friends, simply search for their name in the search bar at the top of Facebook. It’s there all the time, so you don’t have to worry about locating that search bar.

Another way to grow your organization’s Facebook following is this: take the link for your organization’s new page in the address bar (Facebook.com/__your org’s username ) copy the link and paste it in an email to your real-life friends and supporters and ask them to follow your organization on Facebook.

If you haven’t yet given your organization’s Facebook page a user name, simply go to your organization’s page, click on “About” in the left side menu, find the Username section, and click edit. This will let you add a username and then going forward, this will be your page’s Facebook address that you can send to all your friends: Facebook.com/__your org’s username__.

I’m not getting many post views should I boost it?  

If you feel like your followers aren’t seeing your posts, you can always encourage them to change their Facebook settings so that they do see your organization’s new posts. I just went over this with my mom last week because she wasn’t seeing any posts from a page she follows, but she wanted to see the page’s new posts whenever they were published.

Feel free to copy and paste these instructions and send them to all your friends!

“See First” Instructions:

1. Log into Facebook on a computer (not a phone)
2. Go to the page you want to “See First” in your feed
3. Click the “Follow” button
4. Under “In Your News Feed” – select “See First”

Now, new posts from your organization’s page will show up at the top of your friends’ Facebook feed. 

Also, if you’re not getting many post views or likes and your page is brand new, remember – you’re brand new! Give it more time.

You can certainly boost a post or promote your page if you want to expedite the process. Listen to Episode 50 for instructions on how to boost a post.

How do I put my organization’s page on my page? 

So if you want to share your organization’s post on your own personal page, go to your organization’s page, find a post you want to share to your personal page, and click the share button, and then “Share Now.” Make sure you are interacting as your personal page like we talked about a few minutes ago. If you’re going to share it to your personal page, your personal profile picture will show up next to the share button.

Get the free step-by-step guide: How to Interact as Your Page

Do I have to friend people for them to see my organization’s page?

You don’t have to be friends with anyone on your personal Facebook profile for them to see your organization’s page, if the page is public. The sure-fire way to test to see if your page is public, is to sign out of Facebook, then go to your internet browser, and type in your Facebook address… Facebook.com/_your organization’s username (just like we talked about earlier!)

Something I see a lot on Facebook is people creating what should be a personal page and using that for their organization, instead of setting up a professional Facebook page. This is problematic primarily because only people who are friends of that personal page will be able to see all your posts. Also, you won’t ever be able to run a Facebook ad or boost a post.

Get the free step-by-step guide: How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Organization

How do I change the size of the photo?

Once a photo is on Facebook, you can’t change the size, however sometimes Facebook will stretch a photo to be bigger if you’ve uploaded a small photo.

I use Canva.com to resize all of my photos – it’s a free and easy to use website where you can edit photos and change the sizes with just a few clicks. If you want something simpler, you can open your photos with Microsoft Paint on your Windows computer (if you have an Apple computer, you can use your Photos app). If you have a Windows computer, find your photo, right click on it, and select “Open With” and then, “Paint.” Once your photo opens in Paint, you’ll see the option to Resize in the upper left corner. Note: It’s OK to make an extra-large photo a little smaller, but NOT OK to make a little photo bigger. It will look all blurry and bad – a definite no-no on Facebook.

On the other hand, if you have an extra-large photo, it’s OK to upload it to Facebook – Facebook will make it the appropriate size for you. 

If you want to crop a photo – trim the edges – before you upload it to Facebook, you can also use Paint. Just open your photo in Paint, click the Select button in the top left corner, select the area you want to keep, and click Crop – it’s near the Select button.

Keep in mind – the recommended size for a Facebook image is 1,200 x 630 pixels. The MINIMUM size is 400 x 150 pixels. In layman’s terms, that means pretty much the bigger the better when it comes to photos on Facebook. If you upload a huge photo, Facebook will shrink it to fit their recommended size. When in doubt, go bigger than you think you need.

Remember – you can always test things – create a post, and then click PREVIEW POST (Note: you may have to click “Publishing Tools” at the bottom of your post to see this option). If it looks good, then post it! If it looks blurry, your picture is probably too small. Try again! And if you accidentally post something, you can always delete it by clicking those three little dots at the top right corner of the post and selecting “Delete from Page.”

Is there any way to give photo credit to my son? I will be using most of the pictures he took for posts.

There’s no formal way to add photo credit to someone on Facebook. The most common way to give credit to someone is to simply write the words, “Photo credit: John Smith” at the end of the post caption. 

If you feel daring and you want to add photo credit to a picture, you can always use Canva.com or Paint. 

Using Paint, all you have to do is open that photo up with Paint, and then click on the button that has a big “A” on it. You’ll see it there next to the paint can in the upper left area of the window. If you click on that “A” you’ll be able to draw a box where you can type. I suggest keeping things very professional and put that little box in the bottom corner of your photo, and then type in “Photo credit: John Smith.” Keep it simple – you wouldn’t want anything to distract from that beautiful photo, would you?

Is it possible to add bold, color, italics etc. to the text on the post?

No. The most you can do is type out an occasional word in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, but Facebook recommends using proper grammar, spelling, punctuation and not too many all capital letters. In case you didn’t know, many people these days interpret all caps as YELLING, which can be kind of unpleasant to read, right?

Try this instead: make your words count. Make what you say short and sweet and keep it from drowning in words you don’t need. This way, you won’t have to make your words visually stand out with bold, italics, and color, because everything you’ve said has meaning. I know, it’s a hard thing to do! But take that into consideration and try it out.

I know I’ve mentioned Canva.com about a million times by now… BUT – if you really feel passionately about highlighting a short sentence from your post, you can always get creative and make an image on Canva with a picture and then some words across it. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve seen how sometimes my posts are a big picture with writing on it – I make all of those on Canva – and you can too! Canva has templates you can just paste words into and boom – you’ve got a beautiful image to go along with your post that has some of your text IN the image that really stands out!

Click here to learn how to design from scratch using Canva’s step by step guide.

Here’s the one thing I want you to keep in mind while you are creating images on Canva… Make sure that you are not going crazy with the words. Make sure the words you type into your Canva image only cover 20% or less of the picture. That’s right, think of a square – the words can only take up 20% of that square. 

The first day I had quite a few hits on my post and now they are dwindling. Should I be doing something different?

Remember – you are just starting out! Give it some time to grow. Be consistent. 

Share the “See First” instructions with your followers. Share your Facebook link again. Yes, you can boost a post if you want.

Facebook loves engagement, so if someone leaves you a comment, “Like” that comment, and reply! Not only is this beneficial to your page, it also creates a positive experience for the person who left you the comment.

Listen now to Episode 6: How to Handle Comments

Don’t get discouraged! You are doing great! Keep listening to this podcast. Go back and listen to the early episodes again, things will become clearer to you. You’ll keep learning! Keep up the great work!

When I finish and click “Preview,” only the first couple of lines show up so I have to publish before I can review it. Am I doing something wrong?

You should be able to click the “See More” button and see the rest of your post. If you don’t see that “See More” button, it’s time to adapt and overcome! 

Type in your text, and make sure it says what you’d like – or type your post into a Microsoft Word document, edit it and then copy and paste it into Facebook. After that, upload your photo to go along with your post, and hit Preview. You’ll see your photo and at least the beginning of your text so you can get an idea of what it’s going to look like. Then publish it! 

I know, it’s nerve-racking to post something – this might be new to you and you’re not sure. But you know how to delete a post if you mess up – just click those three little dots at the top right of the post and select “Delete from Page.” The more you practice posting, the more confidence you will have with it. 

Remember when you were a kid learning to ride a bike? Remember how scary it seemed? Remember how fast it seemed like you were going? Through practice and repetition, you learned. And you probably got a little daring at times with your bike, didn’t you? You had confidence in yourself riding that bike! This is no different. In time, this will seem easy – all you have to do is keep going. Keep practicing! 

How do my posts look to you?  What should I do differently?

The biggest mistakes I see with many Facebook post images are too many words in the image (remember the 20% rule?) or using images that are too small, so they look blurry. If you’re a nonprofit, the biggest mistake I see is not putting important information like a phone number or website and a call to action. I’ll see a beautiful picture, and then nothing to go along with it – there’s nothing that tells someone how they can get help, or what phone number they should call or where they can make an appointment online. They’re just left wondering.

Why would I ever want to advertise on Facebook?

You can reach hundreds of people who might be interested in how you can help them, or inspire them or teach them or what you have for them but they don’t know about you yet, but with a small amount of money, as little as $5, you can tell them.

Advertising on Facebook is extremely effective, and extremely affordable. The more money you spend on Facebook advertising, the more people you reach. 

Can you imagine, if you’re able to reach hundreds of people with just $5, how many people you can reach with a Facebook advertising budget of $25? Yes, you are able to get your Facebook ad in front of hundreds or thousands of people in as little as 4 or 5 days, for as little as $5. Pretty incredible, right?

Making posts takes me a LONG TIME! Any tips?

One thing you might try is drafting several posts in a Word document for future use. Start by typing in the date that you plan on publishing that post, then type in the text for your post. Next, I like to type a brief description of the photo I’m going to use for the post, or if I know the name of the actual file, I’ll just use that. Then, that post is ready when I need it. Then to make a second post, I’ll hit enter a few times to put space between the first post and repeat the process: date for publishing, followed by the post text, and a brief description for the photo.

Then, set aside some time to get all your images in one place. Put them all in the same folder. This will save you time when you are ready to post – you won’t be looking all over for that one picture you had in mind but can’t find.

Finally, when the time comes for you to publish your post, you can copy and paste from the Word document one of the posts you’ve already written out using a photo from the folder you’ve already compiled.

Stay organized, spend a little time setting yourself up for success and it will pay off!

I am so proud of you!  You’re doing such an amazing job of investigating, experimenting, and figuring out how to make Facebook WORK FOR YOU! You are awesome! Keep going! Send me a message on Facebook or a “DM” as the cool kids call it – or email me your questions! You know I LOVE hearing from you, and even more, I LOVE ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS! This podcast is FOR YOU! So, let’s answer YOUR questions! Let’s make this work for you! I am dedicated to helping you learn. I’m here for you! Send me your questions!

If you liked this episode and you know that you want a lot of great tactics and simple, easy to understand step by step training without a lot of fluff… then make sure you subscribe to this podcast. Actually, go into iTunes or Apple podcasts and subscribe. When you do, brand new episodes will land right on your phone each week and you won’t miss anything.

Until next time!

Links mentioned in this episode

• Free step-by-step guide: How to Interact as Your Page
• Episode 50: How to Run a Basic Facebook Ad
• Free step-by-step guide: How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Organization
• Canva photo editor
• Learn how to design from scratch using Canva’s step by step guide
• Episode 6: How to Handle Comments

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