In the social networking world, there is a lot of discussion about taking your online community offline and meeting face-to-face. But what about taking your offline community online? That’s exactly what the Greater Omaha Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth (GO HC • HY) initiative has done by creating a thriving online presence through Facebook.
GO HC•HY was officially founded three years ago, but the greater Omaha community and Millard School District have been working with the assets for six years. The initiative has created a speaker’s bureau, a school-based mentoring program, and a recognition program for asset-building businesses in the community. The group continues to see more and more organizations and agencies getting involved with the initiative and, according to Scott Butler, chair of the GO HC • HY board of directors, “It’s been a really fun thing to watch in our community.”
Butler says that the initiative started the GO HC • HY Facebook group “to find an easy way to communicate things that people were starting to ask for,” like where to find resources and information on upcoming events. Often, members of the speakers’ bureau would give a talk about assets and people would request follow-up information.
The initiative didn’t want this follow-up to be the work of one or two people, but wanted a central source for information sharing. Rather than having a static Web site that initiative leaders would manage, they wanted something more community-based that would enable many people to share their thoughts and ideas with each other—not just with those in charge.
GO HC • HY had found that Facebook was helpful for keeping their board of directors in touch with one another between board meetings, so it was a natural next step to use Facebook to organize an online community for asset builders. Board members and other community members create posts every day to keep the group at the forefront of people’s minds, and occasionally send messages to all members about an upcoming event or new initiative.
Find resources for learning about non-profits and Facebook
As Butler explains, The Greater Omaha Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth Facebook group is “still in its infancy,” and the group would like to see much more participation. GO HC • HY speakers always reference the page when doing presentations in the community, and the following continues to grow. “Seeing how many people join [the Facebook group] after an event like that is a neat way to check your effectiveness,” says Butler.
Check out GO HC • HY’s Facebook page
When asked what advice he would give to an initiative leader who was just beginning to use social media, Butler explained that you need to be proactive for a Facebook presence to be successful. “The biggest thing that we have learned is that it’s not enough to just create a Facebook page and expect people to start accessing it and using it. We really had to actively recruit people to be a part of it and then make sure we are regularly reaching out to them through it,” explains Butler.
By using Facebook, the Greater Omaha Healthy Communities Heatlhy Youth initiative has expanded their ability to connect with asset builders in their community, created a new space for discussion, and discovered a fun way for their young initiative to track its impact.
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