Using Facebook Pages

Before you set up a Facebook account for your group, read the Getting Started page and answer the questions we've outlined. We'll wait here...

OK. Common practice for Facebook is to create a Page for your organization (your club, department, office, etc.), rather than create a private or even public group. We repeat, create a Page rather than a group or, worse, a personal account.

Groups serve a different purpose and it is against Facebook policy to use a personal account for a business or organization. (To explain what we mean, an example would be creating a Facebook account with Elizabethtown as the first name and College as the last name; before Pages existed, this was how people 'got around' creating a page.)

Here are some general instructions on how to create a Facebook group:

• To create a page, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/, click "create page" and follow the instructions.
• Remember to use Elizabethtown College or E-town College in your Page name. This is crucial.
• Note: to create a page, it must be tied to someone's personal account; herein lays one of the problems with organizations that will have leadership turnover. (Tip: create a "dummy" personal account to get around this so it is not tied to an actual person--this prevents being stuck with a page no one can access.)
• Choose your page administrators wisely. And remember to remove graduating students or departing members from the administration panel of the account.
• Once your page is created, suggest it to friends to "like." If people have to send a friend request to your page, you've created a personal account. You MUST create a business page in order to be "liked."
• As of this writing, you need 25 followers to claim your short Facebook URL, otherwise, you will have a very, very long address filled with numbers. Once you have your short URL, you can easily promote your Facebook page on printed materials.
• Maintain your page!

Refer back to the best practices outlined in the Getting Started section and also to the Social Life Blog for tips and success stories.