7 Reasons Why Nonprofits Should Reconsider Facebook Groups
Much has been made of Tim Cook's lambaste against Facebook. We've all had our own issues with the company over the years, ranging from having to help our parents figure out how to use it to realizing that the social media monolith is part of the reason conspiracy theories are spreading faster than science these days. As nonprofit professionals, people often find themselves relying on tools not because they're the best or share their organizational values but because they're free and familiar. This is often the case when a nonprofit creates a group for volunteers or program participants in Facebook to be able to send updates and share content. But there are some serious shortcomings with this approach that I want to review here, again some small and some much more serious.
The first concern is that when you build a Facebook group and want people to join it they might not see your invitation unless they're checking their notifications in the app or see the email that may or may not go to spam after having flagged their domain. This will hurt uptake and engagement from the start.
The second issue is even if they do see the invite AND accept it, when you update your group with new content and posts they won't see it unless they're regularly checking the app AND are checking their notifications for your group specifically. This is unlikely for most programs.
If someone is in a lot of groups (I can’t even count mine, but I’m guessing it is 10+ at this point) they still might not take the time to open up your notifications because they've been pushed down on their notification feed from the clutter of all the other groups’ notifications they get.
Then there's the issue of boosting posts. Facebook's entire business model is built around the idea that even when you do post something on your page, most followers or members of your group aren't going to see it or know about it because the Facebook algorithm is designed to keep people who follow your page or are in the group from seeing the content unless you pay to reach them. We've had MilkCrate clients who before working with us were relying on Facebook groups for their programs and they would post really important content to their followers and only a fraction of 1% of their users would even see the post because they didn't “pay to play” i.e. purchased advertising on Facebook to boost the post.
And now we come to the values issues. Of which there are many, but here I will review just these three. Does your nonprofit have a organizational values? Most likely some of those values would come into conflict with some of the agenda’s that are given free reign on Facebook. The lack of fact-checking and outright promotion of lies allows serious harm to be done, like compromising elections and spreading conspiracy theories with deadly consequences. This is a serious issue that will only change if Facebook is forced to heed these concerns.
Another values issue is the lack of transparency around their user tracking and personal data mining for their own profit. I don’t think I have to explain this one, it’s pretty cut and dry. Just think of the last time you were served up a Facebook ad that reminded you of something you don’t even remember shopping for but as soon as you saw it you realized you had to buy it.
And finally, there’s the issue of defining the role of technology in our lives. Tim Cook said it best when he said "We believe that ethical technology is technology that works for you…It's technology that helps you sleep, not keeps you up. It tells you when you've had enough. It gives you space to create or draw or write or learn, not refresh just one more time." With this in mind, does it really fit your organizations ethos to embed your programs experience inside of another experience that is design at it’s core to keep your audience enthralled, tracked, and monetized to the highest bidder?
It’s not a coincidence I’m writing about this issue on the MilkCrate blog. We are strong believers in our nonprofit clients having control over their data and aligning their purchasing power with their values. As members of the technology sector we want to be a voice for reform as the time has come for reforming the tools that were created before the necessary thought was invested to anticipate the consequences we have already faced.