Facebook

==** Watch this video if you don't have a facebook account. It explains how you can join and there are more videos in this series explaining how to use your profile page: ** ==

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Facebook Pages & Groups
Facebook is a social networking platform allowing the creation of ‘pages’ which are very easy to set up and maintain. A Facebook page is a very powerful way of enhancing TA online presence. Creating a ‘group’ which allows instant messaging to all members is even more effective in reaching a wider number of people. All activities or events can be promoted, both to members and non-members, the latter of whom might potentially join through the event itself, whether it be a one-day seminars or the TA’s major annual event.

Features of Facebook Pages & Groups
Both FB pages and groups allow the following:
 * Status updates for news and interaction with members
 * Uploading photos
 * Creating events and inviting members
 * Uploading your own videos of seminars, webinars or other scenes from your events
 * Sharing links to You Tube Videos
 * Sharing Blog posts and links
 * Linking the Facebook account to Twitter so whatever you post on one appears on the other as well

Pages
You can see examples of many TAs which already maintain a Facebook fan page. Check out the following TA's fan **Pages**:
 * TESOL International with more than 9000 fans
 * TESOL Chile with close to 5000 fans.
 * IATEFL Online

Here is an example of a page:

Facebook Groups
Check out the following TA's **Groups**
 * ELTA English Language Teachers Association Serbia
 * IATEFL Hungary
 * BETA-IATEFL Bulgaria

Which one to create, a Fan Page or a Group?
To create your own page or group, the creator and administrators must all have Facebook accounts and, of course your members should, too. Here is a very useful article explaining the differences between fan pages and groups:

Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?

The feature article is from Mashable, a website which supplies review and information about the various social networking sites.

Our own general comment is that both enhance a TA's presence; we find groups handier because the group administrator can send a message to all the group members' inbox with one click - see this example below of a page I have created - the option of messaging all members is visible only to the administrator, which is why I have included my group here:



Choose whichever option you prefer, but do make sure that more than one person is set as a group administrator, so that the task of updating the page is shared and not just the duty of one person.

Since board members change every so often and it is not possible to change the creator of a group or page, it might be a better idea to first create a regular FB account for your TA and make the TA the page creator or administrator - in this way, every time there are new board members, they can simply use the same account and, if it is felt necessary for any reason, change the passwords to that account and, thus, access to admin rights.
 * Important advice: **

How to Create a Page for your Members Creating a page for your members is very easy but here is a recent video which explains it all: media type="youtube" key="Wqkl77RRCQ4?fs=1" height="360" width="580" align="center"


 * Free: Design your own Facebook Page Here you can choose a more attractive layout than the standard look of a FB page

 How to Create a Group for your Members Creating a grou for your members is just as easy but here is a recent video which explains it all: media type="youtube" key="XvVdRvT4ObI?fs=1" height="364" width="445"

How to create an event
And here is a video on how to create an event for your page or group. Once you have created the event, you will be able to send it to all your page or group members

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