How do you start a FT social media page?
Fair Trade Villanova is looking to start a Facebook page for our efforts. What are your suggestions? What material receives the most attention on your page? What are some best practices in creating a social media presence? Does anyone have any specific “launch” ideas?
Community Answers
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Hello! FT Hartwick College uses a Facebook page quite frequently. We started by asking our friends to like the page. Then, we liked the pages of local businesses–especially those who sell fair trade products. Next, we liked the pages of similar or relevant pages of communities, clubs, and organizations at our school, including alumni groups . This creates a kind of alliance and sense of community involvement. We also share links to other NGO, magazine, or other organizations that are relevant to our mission—like Walk Free. At all of our events and on all of our literature, we advertise our FB page for people to like.
We post about club meetings, fair trade items and related organizing/events on campus–these get the most response. We also post images and articles that relate to our mission , such as An article about “slave free sugar” from the Abolition Era. Be sure to be build your presence as an invaluable community resource. Advertise other group’s events , like and comment on alumni and athletic department posts. This semester we are also thinking about doing a contest of sorts through our page. Be a resource. Interact.
Great idea! Social media is definitely an effective way to promote your efforts – for free! Post photos of available products on campus and create Facebook events for your club’s events. Share what’s happening with your campaign and help educate your followers! Give the page time to grow a following – be patient! Feel free to check out Fair Trade Club at SUNY Geneseo’s page! https://www.facebook.com/fairtradecommitteeofsunygeneseo Good luck! You’ve got nothing to lose by creating a page – so go for it!
Hi Emily! I manage UW Oshkosh’s page currently. We post “Producer Profiles” every Tuesday which show a farmer benefiting from Fair Trade and “Retailer Spotlights” every Thursday, showcasing a nearby store selling Fair Trade goods. I typically schedule these for 7pm so I can get the maximum amount of views. In addition, try to get your friends to like your posts or tag businesses or anything you are posting about. Also, using Bit.ly will be really beneficial to shorten links ( https://bitly.com ). I also share posts from FT Campaigns and tag them! Here’s a link to our page for reference: https://www.facebook.com/uwoft
Good luck! 🙂
The Fair Trade club at my school has a Facebook page, but we have been having trouble getting likes and followers. The posts that we make do not make much difference if no one sees it.
We tried to get more likes by choosing three people at random who liked the page and giving them free chocolate bars, but beyond that, there is really not much to do.
Does anyone have previous experience and/or ideas about how to raise awareness once the social media page is established?