1. Use a Page, not a Group.
2. Amid the flood of information and all the stuff that starts up and fizzles online, be willing to persevere before seeing the fruit – it might take a few months for the site to really work.
3. Update regularly and at different times of day.
4. Invite people to become a fan regularly.
5. Create an integrated web of information – link to stuff from your main church website, link to stuff from your blog and so on.
6. Encourage individuals to use the Page – ask them to take photos and post them, ask them to advertsie events using the Page, ask them to share the Page on their profile every now and then.
7. Speak about the site as a part of your church life at your church services.
8. Make sure you all the Page’ wall to show both admin and other people’ posts.
9. Invite key members to also become admins.
10. Make sure you have a Profile image for the page and for any events. Search ‘tock photos’ if you can’t find one. To save upload a flier design PDF as an image, you need to first save it as a JPG or something.
11. Make sure your Profile image is 250px wide and high so that it fits as a thumbnail.
12. Give people profile updates that they can interact with, for example, ask questions.
13. Don’t expect the Page to become a central hub of interaction for your church. Don’t waste time trying to get Discussion boards happening or anything. It’ a public place, not a living room. Embrace it, with its limitations.
14. When you create events, disable Videos and Photos unless you are actually gonna post them. It makes the Event page less busy.
15. When you create events, check the box ‘how in search results’ and ‘Hide guests who are not attending’.
16. Sadly Page owners cannot message all guests to an event. You have to add someone else as ‘Events admin’ and ask them to do it 🙁

See the Tuesday Crossroads Facebook page for an example of these principles in action.