Facebook Best Practices For Synagogues

by Yoram Samets


Engage to Build Relationships
Facebook is a social space where people can connect and build relationships with others, including your synagogue, your religious school, youth groups, etc. One engages friends through conversation, rather than speaking at them. Keep the conversation going by monitoring and responding to posts and providing links to your website.

Speak in One Voice
Your page should represent the synagogue's brand in a tone and personality that’s consistent with its overall personality. You should work hard at one consistent voice through all channels of communication (especially when there are multiple contributors).

Keep it Brief
Posts between 100 and 250 characters (less than 3 lines of text) tend to get a lot more likes.

Change Up the Visuals
Consider changing your cover image from time to time to reflect holidays or special events taking place.

Utilize Multimedia
Include videos in your posts when appropriate to engage and educate your members.  And provide them with a link to more information -- preferably on your website.

Update Frequently
At Jvillage, we post status updates at least one to three times per week. The best times of day to post are between 8 and 10 a.m., between noon and 1 p.m., and after 4:30 p.m.

Use Tabs Effectively
You can support special initiatives/events by setting up appropriate Facebook tabs, such as YouTube and Twitter tabs to share information, as well as a “Welcome” tab, holiday tabs, new kitchen fundraising tab, etc.

Get to Know Your Members
Support engagement and gain feedback through the use of Facebook Questions and Polls.

Inspire Word-of-Mouth
If you want something, ask for it. Encourage your members to use the “suggest our pages” feature to promote the pages to their own networks.

Leverage Contests
Contests are a great way to get friends to “share” posts from your pages.  

Promote Your Pages
Consider using all your communication tools to spread the word about your Facebook pages.
Don’t forget, your website is your online home, and Facebook is your online community.