Many hospice and palliative care organizations have a Facebook page and these pages have varying amounts of likes. But how do you lift your page up among the sea of content Facebook users see in their feed every day? Or better yet, engage the community that liked your page to become advocates for your hospice organization both online and off? Transforming a passive group of people into an active group of hospice advocates can be done by:

1. Making content relevant. Many organizations don’t share content that their audience wants to hear and will inspire engagement.Too often, hospice and palliative care organizations get bogged down posting more information about themselves than information that will encourage their community to respond.Provide your community with inspiring, educational or thoughtful content that makes them want to be involved with your organization. For example, providing tips regarding end-of-life care could one useful source of content for your audience.
2. Encouraging sharing. One of the best ways to get your community to be involved with your organization is to give them opportunity to share content and personal experiences.Provide content that they will want to share with family and friends as an advocate for your organization such as videos, tips and photos. Also, provide the opportunity for users to share their positive experiences with hospice. This can be done by asking questions and crowdsourcing for answers.
3. Responding and engaging promptly. Most likes, shares and comments are made within the first few hours of a posting.Staying on top of a post allows you to engage with your community by answering questions and encouraging their involvement. When your community feels invested in something, they are more inclined to advocate and even volunteer on your behalf. Also, be sure to respond to all private messages – some audience members may feel more comfortable communicating this way.
4. Encouraging engagement with call-to-action posts. There are various types of calls-to-action – what type you choose to use depends on organizational goals.For example, driving users to an online form to register during a volunteer drive, learn more about palliative care or watch a video to learn how hospice supports families.
   If you are looking to make a volunteer drive, maybe you drive them to a website with more information and a registration form.
5. Knowing when your community is online. All of the aforementioned suggestions will go for naught if you are providing content when they are not online.By checking analytics in Facebook Insights, you can learn more about your community’s habits and target them during this time, thus increasing engagement opportunities.

Following the steps above won’t give you overnight success – creating an active community takes work. So be patient and stay with it. Stay focused on their needs and find out what topics resonate. Once you turn your Facebook followers into hospice advocates, the benefits it will provide your organization will be well worth the hard work.