Don’t post to social media without a plan. Your Facebook page’s followers, like your members, need to feel welcome, respected and valued. If they’re not, your page’s posts won’t reflect the power of the Rotary brand.

Article by PP Roslyn Teirney, Assistant Regional Public Image Coordinator

Your Rotary club’s Facebook page should be consistently attracting more followers. Make it easy for your followers by posting simple, compliant posts and clearly calling your readers to action – watch this video, donate to this cause, give us your opinion, enjoy this behind-the-scenes insight, invite your friends and so on.

Are you scheduling your Facebook strategy sessions? At least every second month, Club and District Public Image Directors should be examining their analytics. There may come a time when Facebook charges for the Insights that are currently freely shared with page administrators, so while we still have this excellent feedback from our page followers, appreciate the information shared and make sure your club or district is setting itself up for success and growth.

Find the analytics (who visits your page and what they do while with you) by clicking the Facebook Insights heading.

Analytics give you access to information about your page which will help you engage your site visitors more effectively. Discover who your followers are, when they are online and more, thus being able to choose the best time of the day to post. See which of your posts have been most popular and give your audience more of what they like. Cut out the sort of posts that don’t work for you.

Do not post without a relevant visual, but equally a photo without an explanation to the community is a wasted opportunity too. Photos given the People of Action treatment on the Brand Center will deliver the best engagement.

The ten verb phrases in the People of Action template are selected for a very strong reason. They are meaningful concepts and inoffensive words in all the cultures of the 166 countries in which we have Rotary clubs.

Use the “Together, we…” sentence structure to represent the activities of your club or district and end with the appropriate hashtag - #togetherweconnect, #togetherweinspire, #togetherwetransform, #togetherwefighthunger etc.

Readers of your page will give you only 0.03 seconds of their attention before they swipe on, so plan strong Rotary content, which is relevant, useful, informative and entertaining. Give your readers something of value much more often than you ask them for something.

By examining your club’s Facebook page analytics, you can learn more about your audience and speak their language. What you say should belong in that sweet spot between what you want to share and what your audience wants to hear.

Find those shared interests and your Facebook page will be a magnet for connectivity and interactivity.