With over 900 million users, Facebook is by far the most used social network and with further plans for its expansion across the globe, it is becoming a necessity for NGOs and individuals to open an account for communication. With this in mind, Social Media Exchange (SMEX) [7], in cooperation with and funding from IREX Iraq [8], produced a Facebook Guide [9] in Arabic.
The 72-page guide walks NGO communications teams through nine major steps in developing a strategy for Facebook Pages, including selecting administrators, setting goals, and using insights to monitor progress. The guide also includes examples of successful Arab-world pages and is illustrated with screenshots to help navigate the numerous Facebook features, including the most recent changes. According to Ahmed Al-Jaff, Deputy Country Director of IREX in Iraq, “this Facebook guide will assist Iraqi journalists and media in making optimal use of this increasingly important platform.”
The recently published guide is considered to be the first of its kind in Iraq covering how to create Facebook pages for organizations that have a lack of information about it. Mohamad Najem, the co-found of SMEX, explained, “our options are limited with low Internet penetration in a lot of the countries, so we decided to produce guides focused on the strategy of creating pages.” SMEX had received requests from many organizations asking for help in creating and managing Facebook pages for outreach, “so we decided to produce this guide to fill this gap, especially for Arab organizations, and that's why the guide is in Arabic as well.”
The guide is already having an impact, as many organizations established Facebook pages showing their interests and strategically explaining their goals. The Official Facebook Arabic Team [10], listed the guide on their official page, deeming it a success story and recommending that others use it as well.
The effects of the guide are not just limited to NGOs; Facebook activists are using the guide, specifically the sections on how to strategically use Facebook for communications and activism. Hayder Fadhil, a Facebook activist and social media trainer with IREX Iraq showed his interest in the guide with respect to the Iraqi Network For Social Media page [11] which he manages. He said, “the guide has great information on how to create Facebook pages strategically. Once I got it, I spread it immediately, and was overjoyed when I saw about 250 Facebook activists making use of it.” Tariq Al-Faris, blogger and social media activist, said, “it’s an important guide, not for being a guide on how to create a Facebook page, but because it offers advice on how to have a successful page through modern technical tools.”
This is another example of the cooperation between SMEX and IREX working together in Iraq as part of IREX’s ongoing support for independent media, civil society, and education in the Iraqi community. View the Facebook Guilde below or visit here [12] to download a copy.
These activities are part of IREX’s [12]Media and Technology for Community Development (MTCD) [13] program in Iraq, which is funded by the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL).