Freegle Direct - Why You Should Add Facebook
If you like Facebook, then you probably don't need convincing that using it to enhance your community is a good idea. So let's assume you loathe Facebook and think it's evil.
The first thing to realise is: that's your view.
- It will be the view of some of your members. But it's not most people's view - just look at how astoundingly successful Facebook is.
- Whether you like it or not, people are spending vast amounts of time on Facebook - to the extent that they are even watching less TV. I know, it's awful. But that's where people live online now. And that's where we should reach them; they're perfect people to be freegling.
If you're under the age of 30, it's practically inconceivable that you won't have a Facebook account. Ask around. If you have kids, or grandkids, ask them if they have a Facebook account. People are growing up with Facebook. We might have done, but it's not what's happening now.
And there are some aspects of Facebook which are just perfect for Freegle. We spread best by word of mouth. Because you see what your Facebook friends are doing (that's why you hate it, right?) people will see their friends freegling. And they'll wonder what it is. And that's the first step - getting people to even hear about us.
You might hate Facebook. That's fine, we're not trying to persuade you to like it. But isn't it good for your community to get people who do like it to start freegling?
Promoting national posts on Facebook
In Modtools > Publicity there was a really easy way to share daily most popular items on your Freegle community to your local community page on Facebook, as examples of what's been Freegled, each with a link to Freegle. As of November 2024 Facebook has disabled this, and seems to have deleted all such past posts.
National Freegle's Facebook posts used to come up in the same feed, but as of November 2024 they likewise no longer do so. To post them manually to your local community Facebook page, you now have to:
- open Facebook,
- switch from your personal account to managing your Freegle page,
- go to national Freegle page on Facebook,
- under today's post click Share > Share to Feed,
- tick box for "Include original post" then click the big "Share" button.
These instructions are for a browser on a computer; it's slightly easier in a Facebook app on a mobile device.
Backup access arrangements
In 2023 Facebook made things more difficult by restricting access to accounts. Our Social Media team can help with general queries about running Facebook (and Twitter) pages, and also operate 'Amy'. Amy is a Facebook account set up to help local community pages get linked successfully to the Modtools sharing tools, and also to provide a backup in case a page gets lost or abandoned with no current community volunteer access. The is a simple Facebook Business Management tool which adds a layer of backup; in theory, even if there was an issue with the Amy account, we’d still have a way to restore access to any of the groups which have this in place. As with the Amy account, no action is taken otherwise by anyone nationally without local consent.
