As you may have heard, Facebook announced the rollout of Reactions, their addition/replacement of the “Like” button. Another recent Facebook change also has a tremendous influence for how nonprofits communicate.
When you share a link, Facebook searches it for any images that are on the page. If an image is found, it includes the image as part of your Facebook post. You can remove it, but for many in the nonprofit field, it is often best to utilize the visual element in the post. Earlier this year Facebook added the option for an organizational page to upload their own image for a post. This is especially helpful for links to pages that don’t have any images or just have logos.
For example, if you link to an Eventbrite page that doesn’t have an image, the visual offering in Facebook will be the Eventbrite logo, like the image below.
It is not very visually appealing for a Facebook post, so this is a great opportunity to add a custom image. Facebook recently adjusted this functionality for company/organization pages and made it much easier to choose the image or images that you can include in an update. Below is an example. You can check or uncheck the boxes for any of the three photos or you can add your own photo.
I reviewed data for one of our clients to evaluate if adding customized photos changed the reach and engagement for their posts. Our client has monthly volunteer events with two different partner organizations. For both monthly events, when we link to the volunteer sign-up page, the image associated with the update is part of the logo of the partner organization. This is what it looks like.
One image is a partial logo, one image is blank, and one is a logo of their organization. Over the last few months, we’ve been customizing the image with photos of volunteers participating in the activity. Below is an example.
For one of the monthly events, the posts with a custom photo had a 51% increase in organic reach and five times the number clicks on the link to the volunteer activity. The difference was similar for another event with a smaller sample size. The posts with a custom photo had a 158% increase in organic reach and 2.3 times the number clicks on the link to the volunteer activity.
In this situation the data supports common sense. By using a more personal and dynamic visual image, there is greater engagement with the page. I’m exciting to continue to evaluate these changes and how they will help our this nonprofit.
Below are a few news items that can help you get through the day:
- A report from the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Urban Institute finds that retaining donors is an increasing struggle for nonprofits.
- #Fundchat’s weekly chat covers Effective Altruism vs. Traditional Charity.
- The Daily Show used Google Ads in a very creative way – creating custom videos for specific searches about Trevor Noah. Stacey Rizen of UpRoxx shares the details and links
- I missed this link last week, but the clever folks at the M+R lab created the “If This, Then Totally That” tool.
Justin (he, him) is a Principal and Co-Founder of Social Change Consulting. He has over fifteen years of nonprofit experience, with expertise in online fundraising, digital communications, and data management. Justin helps organizations connect their communication strategy to their income development needs. When he’s not on the clock, Justin is exploring Berlin, running, listening to too many podcasts, and drinking too much coffee.