1. When on your branch page, find the box that says "what’s on your mind?” towards the top of the page, and click in the box - this will bring up a new box. 
2. Enter your text, and to add a photo or video click the photo/video icon in the box underneath that says ‘add to your post’. This will bring you to your computer folder. Go to the folder where your photo is, select the photo and click to select the photo, and then click again to transfer it to Facebook (or double left click). 
3. Select ‘post’ when you are ready to post to your page. 

You can also post from Business Suite. This allows you to see a preview of your post, and also gives you the option to schedule posts in advance as well as save drafts. You can download a Meta Business Suite app. These instructions are for the desktop version. Facebook often change their layouts but you should see ‘Meta Business Suite’ under ‘More tools’ in the menu on the left of your branch page. You can also access it from the usual ‘create post’ box on your page, then clicking on “Meta Business Suite”, highlighted in blue beneath. 

Once in Business Suite: Again, this may vary, but you should see a blue box with ‘Create Post’ on the home page of Business Suite
1. Click on “Create Post”. 
2. You should see a ‘media’ box. Here you can upload photos and videos. Once photos have been uploaded you can re-arrange the order they’re in by clicking and dragging. You can also edit/crop individual images. 
3. In the ‘Post Details’ box, type your text. 
4. You should see a post preview on the right hand side of your screen. You can change from desktop view to mobile view when looking at your preview. 
5. When you are happy with your post, go to the ‘scheduling options’ box where you can choose to publish now, schedule or save as draft. Once you’ve selected the action and added the date/time if scheduling, you still need to click the blue button at the bottom of the page, whether it is to publish, schedule or save. 
6. You can then view your published, scheduled and draft posts in the ‘content’ or ‘planner’ pages, access from the menu on the left of the Business Suite. Here you can also edit, delete, and reschedule posts.

One of the reasons businesses use social media is to drive people to their website. They use social media to give the reader short overviews (making them want to read more), and then direct them to the website page to read more (before enticing them to make a purchase and sign up for something etc). Driving people to the SSAFA microsites will increase the chances of someone seeing volunteer opportunities, events, other activity, and it may also encourage them to find out more, donate, fundraise etc. 

Facebook often changes their layout. You need to make sure you find “insights”. If you’re on the desktop version of Facebook you should find this on the left hand menu of your page. Insights are also available via Business Suite. Once you’re in insights:

Look out for certain metrics that will give you a good indication on how your page is performing, what you are doing well, what it not working etc. It will allow you to see what posts received the highest engagement (you can draw on conclusions, i.e. military history posts typical performed the best and therefore you can prioritise them going forward). You can also look out for peaks and troughs and see what happened at that time. For example, if you increased activity and, in that time, engagement went up, that will tell you that you should be consistently more active

If you are switched into your page profile, any comments/reactions will be as the page.

1. Left click where it says how many people have liked your post (underneath the image, underneath where it says, “people reached”. 
2. To invite someone to like your page, click on “invite”. If people have already liked your page, it will say “liked”. 

Your inbox can be accessed via the message button in the right hand corner of your screen, next to the notifications button. You can also access it in Business Suite. 

Messages do need to be checked frequently. To ensure people are offered assistance/support if needed urgently we would recommend setting up an automatic reply, which you can see an example of in the paragraph below. Depending on the admin settings you can set up an automated reply via your inbox. If you don’t have the option to do this or for any more information, please contact [email protected] 

Thank you for your message. We will reply as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can call us on *insert regional hub/branch number* or email *insert regional hub/branch email*. If you need urgent assistance, please contact our Forcesline team who are available Monday-Thursday 0900-1700, Friday 0900-1600 and on freephone 0800 260 6767

You can also set your page to ‘away’ when you are not active and available to reply. This will help you to manage expectations and ensure you do not get any aggrieved followers. It will also improve you page response time. This can be done in your inbox. 

Setting an ‘away’ message: 
1. Navigate over to your inbox. 
2. Select “automated responses”.
3. Click onto “away message”, then press “edit”.
4. Type in message (see example below).
5. Click on save (top right).

Example away message: 
Thank you for your message. We are away and cannot respond at this time. If you need urgent please contact our Forcesline team at 0800 260 6767 who are available Monday-Friday 9am-5.30pm.

Notifications is also a useful function. You can see if someone has mentioned you in a comment or engaged with your post. It is important to use this functionality to engage with your audience effectively. You will find notifications on the top right hand corner of your screen when on your Facebook page on desktop.  

Refer to Forcesline (0800 260 6767) within the hours of 0900-1700 Monday to Thursday and 0900-1600 Friday. Refer to Samaritans hotline (116 123) outside of these hours. 

Firstly, why should you use groups? Groups have higher engagement rates, they have more of a community feel and they will increase your chances of gaining more loyal followers (who often become advocates). Once you’ve joined the group look for other accounts to engage with (like their posts, comment and communicate). You can also post SSAFA related content in the group, just be sure to only post relevant content. I.e. share details about your upcoming Armed Forces Day event in an Armed Forces Day group. Try not to be overly pushy, just share content that you believe will be of interest to others in the group. 

Liking other pages allows you to see their content when they post it. For example, if you like military history accounts, you can see their content as soon as it’s published. You can then use this for inspiration or to engage with. When you are switched into your branch page, visit the page you want to follow and click like, or the three dots under the banner and then ‘follow’.

Some links are rather long, and this can look a little unprofessional when used within your posts. You can set up a free bitly account, that will enable you to shorten your URLs and make your posts look tidier. Find out more and sign up to https://bitly.com/.