Creation and management of a professional association's Facebook page to increase online visibility and awareness

• Main Author: Tugano, Marjun S., III
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Professional associations—Public relations; Facebook (Electronic resource); Marketing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdm_manorg/69
• Institution: De La Salle University

This action research addressed the issue of low online visibility and awareness of a professional association, especially in the geoscience community. The main issue was collaboratively determined by several stakeholders, including its members, committee heads, and some Board of Trustees officers, utilizing various inquiry tools. A fishbone analysis revealed possible causes of the primary issue, including restricted online visibility due to a seldomly updated website, no deliberate efforts and definite guidelines to publicize the organization, a lack of workforce to promote the association, and the absence of an official social media platform. Using Guo & Saxton’s (2018) framework on the factors affecting the level of attention on social media, for the first cycle, the researcher, together with his collaborators, laid out the groundwork and launched an official Facebook Page for the association. The focus was on expanding the network size by gaining page likes, followers, and engagement in our posts to spur visibility and awareness. While the first cycle's results were generally satisfactory, the number of followers still has to catch up, as should the posts' reach, engagement, and engagement rate. To address concerns emerging from the first cycle, the second cycle focused on enhancing the Facebook Page’s communication strategy by redefining the target audience to better connect with them, fine-tuning the timing and pacing of postings, and improving the visual attractiveness of content. Additionally, the existing framework was enhanced to include other techniques such as goal setting and page branding. Although the number of additional followers fell short of the target, there was an exponential increase in reach and engagement and a drastic improvement in engagement rate.