Some homeschool leaders over at the Facebook group I am a Homeschool Group Leader were discussing using Facebook as a way to communicate with their members:
Does anyone use Facebook to connect your group members? Do you have a FB group or just a page? What are the pros/cons of each? So many people are on FB now, but is there any benefit to using FB when we already have a Yahoo Group and a website?
We do NOT have a Facebook page for our group. I have not pushed the issue since most of the other board members are very concerned about privacy and have told me that they hate Facebook. However, I do create events for some of our functions that are open to the public, invite people, and ask them to pass the word along. Every time i do this I usually have a couple of people come because they heard about it on Facebook.-Lori C.
We actually started a high school student council FB page. It is ‘secret’ from everyone except members. Parents and students can join the group. Right now, it’s not hugely active, because not everyone is on FB and there is some disagreement about this being a good way to communicate. We do also send out emails and post on our website forums all the student council info as well.-Abby
I set up a FB group for our group and that was the worse thing I could have done. None of the ladies knew each other before I created the group. They used FB to friend each other and then started meeting behind my back which ultimately lead to the all of them teaming up against me to start their own group. I guess it just depends on the type of people you are dealing with.-Amy
We set up a FB group last year and it has been very effective. Pretty much use it to post events. I like how the events give reminders. We are not a really large group about 25 to 30 families. We also have a yahoo group for those very few that aren’t on FB and are in the process of getting a web page designed. If you are concerned about privacy you can make it a secret group where no one sees it that is not approved in the group. We only allow parents in the group to post on the board.- Jan
We use both a website and FB page. we are able to get in contact with all our members (support group members and co-op members) by both methods. we share are “public” events on FB for all members and then our co-op group activities are posted on the website. it is a lot easier to share links etc on FB. Most of our members are on FB.-Leslie
We got a page last year for our group. Its private, and we screen everyone who wants to join. You would have to know somebody in our group and they can verify and tell us about you. Last year when it was brought up a few people did not like the idea. It was made and most everyone loves it since we can add pictures and other things to it. I feel that it has brought the group closer together instead of just emails thru yahoo. More personable.-Melissa