Use Facebook groups or pages to keep in touch, share information, build community and hold conversations.

Complexity: 2/5

Facebook is one of the most popular mainstream Social Network Sites and it offers many different opportunities for engaging with young people.

• You can offer young people a way of connecting with your organisation (see below…) and then keep young people up to date with information and news about opportunities to get involved;
• You can provide space for young people to comment on your updates and on the services you provide;
• You can host in-depth discussions on important issues in Facebook groups and on discussion pages;
• You can use the in-built features or add-on applications to manage collaboration and conversation between groups of young people from across a wide geographical area;

There are three main ways of connecting with young people through Facebook. These are: profiles, groups and pages.

• Profiles have friends. The friend connection is a close connection. Using the friends feature is good for one-to-one communication - and makes it easy to message young people on Facebook. You will need to create a professional work profile to manage any engagement on Facebook, but you do not have to accept friend requests from young people.

• Groups have members and provide a discussion and media sharing space. Groups can be public, private or invite only. As the creator of a group you can moderate members. Groups work well when there is a clear shared interest or sense of community between group members. You can message all the members of a group direct to their Facebook inbox.

• Pages have fans. A page is similar to a profile, but pages are for organisations and projects rather than for people. They are a good tool for sharing information and getting feedback by allowing comments on the content you share. You can add Facebook applications and add-on features to your pages to make them more interactive.

The most effective and most appropriate method of connection for you to use will depend on your existing relationship to the young people you are engaging with - and the sort of participation opportunity you are creating. Often the most appropriate route will be to use a page. Pages also offer greater opportunities for integration with other online tools.

• Account/profile These instructions step you through setting up a Facebook page as a professional working with young people.
• Facebook Group These instructions step you through setting up a Facebook group.
• Facebook Page These instructions give you details on setting up a Facebook page.

You can feed content from a blog or twitter account directly into your Facebook page.

See Facebook Page Feeds for details.

When you are editing a Facebook Page look for the links to get a promotional box which you can put on your website - giving visitors a view right into the latest activity on your Facebook page.

Facebook offers a sophisticated ad-targeting system which allows you to reach young people from your local area, or with interests that match those of your organisation/project.

You can use adverts to link to websites outside of Facebook, or to promote your 'Pages' within Facebook.

Facebook adverts are 'pay-per-click' or 'pay-per-impression', and you can set a daily budget for your advertising campaign on Facebook.

If you have a Facebook account, then visit http://www.facebook.com/ads to explore advertising options in more depth.

Facebook Groups vs Facebook Pages - an evaluation from February 2008.

How to link Facebook to your Blog - more tips on linking up Facebook and blogs.

How to Build a Facebook Community - 14 Point Article of ideas from SocialBrite.

Gloucester University use Facebook to cut student drop-out rates