View Full Version : Do you maintaine a Facebook community page?
iris lilies
4-19-16, 7:39pm
does anyone here maintan a Facebook community page? This s NOT a "personal" page.
I guess I will be doing that for our community Garden, once I understand the ramifications.
comments, suggestions? Words of wisdom?
I started a family group, and I belong to a neighborhood group.
They are both "secret" (as opposed to closed). I made my family one secret because I have some family members who don't trust Facebook, and my neighborhood admin just switched the page from "closed" to "secret" because she said too many non-qualifiers were asking to get in.
I belong to a few local FB pages. They are not mine. Some get a lot of traffic. They post rules. It's up to the administrator to monitor them.
SteveinMN
4-20-16, 11:40am
I belong to two community pages and am Administrator for two buy/sell/trade forums which are geographically limited.
Comments, suggestions? Words of wisdom?
- Make it a Closed Group. Have an Administrator approve prospective members. Yeah, it's a pain. But if you don't, eventually you will end up with all manner of hucksters and low-information people posting $#!+ on the page. You might consider making it a Secret/Hidden Group, but Fb does not promote them, so if your goal is reaching out to members unknown, know that joining such a group requires explicit invitation from an Admin.
- Get ready to use your people skills -- or find people who have them. Seriously, if you're a person who considers most other folks a waste of oxygen, Admin is not a job for you. You will be encountering the world in all its forms -- and be reminded continually that the Internet has been fully democratized.
- You can have more than one Admin. You should. Set it up so that people cannot call you for Admin work (AMHIKT).
- Facebook's mobile apps do not look like the Fb Web page. This can be confusing as some page elements (like Pinned Posts) are not front-and-center as they are on the Web page.
- The Admin(s) should set the group's behavioral norms as early as possible. I belonged to one neighborhood page that was supposed to be a way for neighbors to get to know each other and help out when need be. It quickly devolved into a xenophobic fear-mongering mess, to the point that the Admin -- the guy who founded the page -- abandoned it. In seeing it happen, I don't think this was the Admin's fault -- his intentions were good and he was as on top of things as you could expect a normal person to be. But, too often, breathless posting of a police car parked in front of someone's home or news of a stolen bicycle very quickly descended into name-calling and political mudslinging. Yeah, Admins can delete posts/threads and ban members, but by then the wheels are in motion. Better to lay down the rules early and use the "ban hammer" quickly to get rid of troublemakers.
- Decide early on whether you will allow commercial postings -- community businesses, home-party sales, the guy curbstoning half-a-dozen beater cars, fundraiser popcorn sales, etc. -- or will allow them once or twice a month or whatever. But set those rules. They will come.
Cue the reliable people who say their lives are better off without Facebook.... I will say that while there are a few half-hours I've spent at this which I wish I had back in my life, it has been an interesting experience and I have not chosen to hand off the Admin reins. I'm learning too much! Besides, it's not like I would never meet these people IRL. After all, they're my actual neighbors. I don't conflate the technology with the results. They'd be doing this elsewhere if not here.
iris lilies
4-20-16, 6:31pm
Hmm, I thought
I replied to this earlier. Guess not.
steve,thanks for these points. I have to familiarize myself with closed vs the others in rder tomhave an intellgent conversatin. This is a public relations group so I dnt know if clsed is good. It jas been a very low activity site with 3-4 postings a year. good.
Its not intended for community gardening discussion, we use email for that. It has been used as a lave to park historical photos, do a little bragging and a little promotion.
you can find it on FB as Lafayette Square Community Garden.
il, if this is page is for promotion and not meant to encourage feedback or conversation, it's possible to set up the page so that no one can comment. You can restrict who can post and edit to Admins. If it's enough to have prospective Facebook users just "Like" the page and/or add it to their Feed, without adding their own content, that's a very easy way to go.
iris lilies
4-22-16, 9:53pm
il, if this is page is for promotion and not meant to encourage feedback or conversation, it's possible to set up the page so that no one can comment. You can restrict who can post and edit to Admins. If it's enough to have prospective Facebook users just "Like" the page and/or add it to their Feed, without adding their own content, that's a very easy way to go.
I will have questionsfor you later, when I have time to figure them out. For now:
Is There a hierarchy of Administrators? I dont see how I can make anyone else an administrator. Someone made me an administrator after she was made one. One of my interests is controlling who is an administrator.
i edited the "about" sectioj and chamges the beoken link to,the real website, which needed to be done. But otherwise, this wont need much maintainence. The community garden group communicates via email not FB And yes, that ngs do get snarky.
Is There a hierarchy of Administrators? I dont see how I can make anyone else an administrator. Someone made me an administrator after she was made one. One of my interests is controlling who is an administrator.
There is no real hierarchy of Admins other than the person who created the group is, of course, an Admin, and remains one regardless of the role that person has going forward. I was made an Admin of one of my groups by the person who created it. I cannot remove her as Admin (or, ftm, from the group). I have to think, though, that Facebook has some way of dealing with it because Admins do leave Fb or die off or whatever, so there must be some behind-the-scenes way they can handle it.
On the Web client (assuming this can be done with the mobile apps, too) I can add Admins: search on the group Members page for the person you want to designate, and the box containing their name and profile picture will show an asterisk-shaped character; click that and one of the choices will be to make that person an Admin.
I have been made an admin of a few groups that are open and as a result I get a lot of friend requests. Here are my suggestions
* have one admin who checks FB daily, someone who is regularly on it to catch things quickly and shut them down
* closed can be good, but if you are trying to promote community events then public is useful, mine are all public.
* don't approve everyone, I check out their FB page for red flags before I approve anyone. ( no activity, foreign language only, a thousand friends, etc)
* a set of standards such as posts should relate to the purpose of the page is good and can be pinned to the top of the page
Overall I have had a good experience following these guidelines, I haven't had members who post rude things or too many junk or unrelated items, just for awhile we had innapropriate posts daily and then with shutting them down quickly it was fine
iris lilies
4-24-16, 2:19pm
Thanks Zoe.
I do not know how to tell if it is "closed" on a mobile app (IPAD).The Community
garden pages doesnt say "closed" on the profile page. But
I have seen thoses statuses, such as "secret" on various profile pages.
So now I wonder is it is just better to become familiar with these admin functions using a Windows application.
SteveinMN
4-25-16, 11:36am
So now I wonder is it is just better to become familiar with these admin functions using a Windows application.
"Windows application" as in Surface tablet or Lumia phone or Internet Explorer/Edge? Facebook accessible through a Web browser is pretty much the same through most modern browsers.
I was going to start a new thread but I think just tacking on to the original post is more appropriate...
A while back I had the opportunity to join a "Secret" (standard FB privacy classification) group of people in the neighborhood I've lived in for 30 years. I have to say it has really given me a real community boost! Some of the members are people I knew from when my kids were going to school, but whom I've lost track of; some are the kids my kids went to school with, most are people I never heard of. But I'm really grateful for this way to communicate with my neighbors! Because of it, I did a 5k walk/run (I walked) in our neighborhood this past weekend to support our community elementary school's teacher whose son has a rare disease. I've been invited to gatherings to discuss local issues. I've heard about old friends/neighbors who have had major life events like moves or medical events.
I would encourage people on Facebook to join or start neighborhood Facebook groups. So glad I did.
Ultralight
6-16-16, 3:41pm
I was going to start a new thread but I think just tacking on to the original post is more appropriate...
A while back I had the opportunity to join a "Secret" (standard FB privacy classification) group of people in the neighborhood I've lived in for 30 years. I have to say it has really given me a real community boost! Some of the members are people I knew from when my kids were going to school, but whom I've lost track of; some are the kids my kids went to school with, most are people I never heard of. But I'm really grateful for this way to communicate with my neighbors! Because of it, I did a 5k walk/run (I walked) in our neighborhood this past weekend to support our community elementary school's teacher whose son has a rare disease. I've been invited to gatherings to discuss local issues. I've heard about old friends/neighbors who have had major life events like moves or medical events.
I would encourage people on Facebook to join or start neighborhood Facebook groups. So glad I did.
I like when online socializing facilitates socializing irl!
iris lilies
6-16-16, 5:14pm
I was going to start a new thread but I think just tacking on to the original post is more appropriate...
A while back I had the opportunity to join a "Secret" (standard FB privacy classification) group of people in the neighborhood I've lived in for 30 years. I have to say it has really given me a real community boost! Some of the members are people I knew from when my kids were going to school, but whom I've lost track of; some are the kids my kids went to school with, most are people I never heard of. But I'm really grateful for this way to communicate with my neighbors! Because of it, I did a 5k walk/run (I walked) in our neighborhood this past weekend to support our community elementary school's teacher whose son has a rare disease. I've been invited to gatherings to discuss local issues. I've heard about old friends/neighbors who have had major life events like moves or medical events.
I would encourage people on Facebook to join or start neighborhood Facebook groups. So glad I did.My neighborhood uses Nextdoor which is a nationwide system in place for neighbors to communicate. It has more features than FB. Just today I put out a call for needing baby food jars so that DH could make tiny jars of himemade apricot jam, and two people responded with jars. Yay!
I loathe FB for any true business to be conducted because one cannot control the order of posts. The FB software seems to randomly re-post items. That is super annoying.
As for our community garden page, hardly anyone looks at it. No one really cares about it! And that is fine.
My neighborhood uses Nextdoor which is a nationwide system in place for neighbors to communicate. It has more features than FB. Just today I put out a call for needing baby food jars so that DH could make tiny jars of himemade apricot jam, and two people responded with jars. Yay!
I loathe FB for any true business to be conducted because one cannot control the order of posts. The FB software seems to randomly re-post items. That is super annoying.
As for our community garden page, hardly anyone looks at it. No one really cares about it! And that is fine.
I wound up on our FB page because I was directed via NextDoor by the FB administrator. NextDoor is OK, but it attracted far fewer community members. There has been VERY little NextDoor activity since I've joined--but I had high hopes for it.
NextDoor is OK, but it attracted far fewer community members. There has been VERY little NextDoor activity since I've joined--but I had high hopes for it.
This is a major issue with all kinds of Web-based communication sources -- people already are on Facebook. They know how it works (at least at a basic level); it's free (of a subscription charge, anyway); Facebook promotes the groups (unless they're hidden/secret); people already have the app on their phone or tablet. No learning curve, no additional ID/password to manage, no separate site to visit to interact with the self-selected group of neighbors already connected. NextDoor (and listservs and the like) all get to compete with the big blue monster -- and human nature.
Our local NextDoor also is quite slow. Most of the traffic seems to be new members signing on and then ... little is ever heard again from them. The neighborhood Facebook groups are far more active.
iris lilies
6-20-16, 8:37am
Steve, certainly you are right that everyone knows how to use FB and it is hard to get people to move. Weve had a neighborhood listserv since about 1999,and some peole still have not moved from that old listserv to Nextdoor.
FB is so limited in functionality, it makes me crazy!
There are no provisions for classified ads or ways to send private messages or ways to select neighborhoods beyond ours to send messages.
We have 1,023 people signed up on our neighborhood Nextdoor list and there are many messages every day. They tend to be about lost or found pets, crime activity, complaints about garbage or other city services, and a few things cor sale or giveaway.
There are no provisions for classified ads or ways to send private messages or ways to select neighborhoods beyond ours to send messages.
I'm a little puzzled by this. We have for-sale/wanted/barter ads all the time and they can be set up to look (modestly) different from the regular posts. And we send PMs back and forth all the time; the Facebook weirdness is that if the correspondents are not "Friends", the emails go to an "Other" inbox which many people don't know about. The multiple-neighborhoods thing is a Fb weakness. Mind you, not defending Facebook on all this. Just saying that we're doing things I'm hearing you say you can't.
We have 1,023 people signed up on our neighborhood Nextdoor list and there are many messages every day. They tend to be about lost or found pets, crime activity, complaints about garbage or other city services, and a few things cor sale or giveaway.
I just checked NextDoor for our neighborhood: 293 signed up. Which explains some of our (lack of) traffic. I don't suspect, though, it will ever catch up.
iris lilies
6-23-16, 10:27am
I'm a little puzzled by this. We have for-sale/wanted/barter ads all the time and they can be set up to look (modestly) different from the regular posts. And we send PMs back and forth all the time; the Facebook weirdness is that if the correspondents are not "Friends", the emails go to an "Other" inbox which many people don't know about. The multiple-neighborhoods thing is a Fb weakness. Mind you, not defending Facebook on all this. Just saying that we're doing things I'm hearing you say you can't.
.
Ok, I admit it--i just do not find FB easy to use other than the basic functinality of friending/newsfeed. I purposely do not have many FB friends and dont know about the Other box, you are right.
Just the other day I posted a photo to a closed group, or at least I thought it was a closed group, but one of my FB "friends" not in that group pushed their "like" button. Why would she even see that? I dont understand the logic of FB.
Nextdoor seems straighforward to me although at the moment DH and I are puzzling out why his newly created email account seems to be tied to his/our old email account. I like clean boundaries, dont like it when worlds collide. :)
I do think Facebook's user-interface people try to make people take a circuitous path to what they want -- but that's little different IMHO than IKEA's main aisle forcing you to wander through the entire store to get to the checkout or a supermarket parading you past the produce first even if all you want is coffee or dish soap.
"Closed group" only means people need to be a member of the group to see posts in that group. However, Fb is not clear on whether users can set privacy settings to allow Friends of group members to see their group posts. And comments by Friends and non-Friends also are governed by the privacy settings Fb users set; post visibility also is somewhat at the mercy of those friends' privacy settings. My default is to treat everything I post as pretty well public -- just as I would be careful about what I say during a phone call in public.
I like clean boundaries, dont like it when worlds collide. :)
Oh, you are in for a world of disappointment... :)
I assume that facebook allows everyone who can see an original post to also see every comment. It didn't used to be that way which led to some odd threads where people didn't have the ability to see every comment that was posted to something. It actually makes sense but I wish facebook was more clear about the fact that this is how it is (if it is indeed how it is.) But my profile is locked down pretty tight so even if some friend of a friend thinks I'm a wackjob and wants to they can't come to my wall and start spouting off on my status updates because they can't see them. Nor can they see who my friends are.
I have a personal facebook page with only like 10 people on it and I haven't posted on it in forever. My kids do though and more than they email me I might add. But two things are bugging me, I went and made mine private and deleted some people but now they are all back and it is no longer private, so how did that happen? The other thing is that when I am applying for jobs, many companies are demanding your social media so that they can use it to advertise. Some of this data collection stuff is to make money too. Those pennies that they make from selling your info adds up.
does anyone here maintan a Facebook community page? This s NOT a "personal" page.
I guess I will be doing that for our community Garden, once I understand the ramifications.
comments, suggestions? Words of wisdom?
Yes, I have a group, which I guess would be considered a community. It is RVing Lifestyle.
Having at least two people watching for the comments not being spammy is important. Putting up (pinned post) the rules is important too.
iris lilies
1-3-17, 10:04am
Oh this is Interesting about FB: I've been outed to the Zuckerberg police after 10+ years of usng a nome de plume that isnt a real name.
Now, I will have to use a nome de plume that resembles a real name. Bummer. I still wont use my real name, I dont want to be findable on FB although there is one way, if someone put their mind to it.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.