I noticed on a web page of a Canadian charity with national scope that they intend to mover more towards Facebook as a means for delivering their message, as opposed to posting on their website. For them the website will be used as an archive resource. The message in this case is the ministry, but every charity in Canada and beyond has the same challenge and desire to get their message heard. Obviously we won't all be heard by everybody.

 

Here's why I think moving to FB as a web platform is a mistake:

1. Pretty much everyone in Canada has access to Internet and therefore to a website. Not everyone is on Facebook.

2. Its easy to post from your website to FB. Not so easy the other way round.

3. You can control what you put, or more specifically what you remove, from your website.

4. People have to have a membership to access your information, or to communicate with you.

5. The Internet is not owned by someone. Facebook is.

6. While the thrill of seeing new "Likes" and the push technology of posting on someone's page is appealing and potentially powerful, the message probably has less impact, because of the method. For sure their are people who won't see it or get it, because they didn't log in and don't have the notification settings to be aware they ever had a message. By the time they log in again the message is long gone. Or its one of so many - I've seen people who have hundreds of "Likes" listed on their profile. You can't tell me they're receiving and taking in messages from all those people.

7. Maybe I'm a dinosaur, and need to move with the times (we do have a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/worshipwithusministries) but I want to be found by people who want to find us. (I want control over my content. I want password free access to our public information and resources). 

 

There may be research to counter my every argument - I'm just going with what I think, but for me the strategy is simple: Keep web page content relevant and useful, and only post to Facebook from my website, not the other way around. That way you can still find us on Facebook.