Road to Being a Facebook Page Admin

It began innocently enough as a normal mid-December morning of scrolling through Facebook friend status updates while enjoying a cup of coffee.  One update caught my eye, a friend was looking for someone to help administer a community page he had started a few months earlier and didn't have the time to maintain.

I was just coming off a 6 month whirlwind of being the Digital/Social Media Coordinator for the local presidential re-election team and for the local county's Democratic Party which, in itself, had several local campaigns going on simultaneously.  Not long after November 6th, I found myself with a lot of idle time on my hands; so this random call for help could not have come at a more opportune moment.

I immediately clicked on the link to his page to see what it was about; knowing I couldn't put 100% into it unless I believed in what he was trying to accomplish.  The page and task at hand seemed simple enough.  Its main premise was to promote local area small businesses and the overall concept of shopping local.  There are 46 page followers at this point and a handful of business pages that had liked the page.  As a former small business owner from an era when social and media would never have been used in the same sentence together, I knew how important and valuable this online resource could be to the small retailer competing with the big box stores or the local restaurant and cafe fighting for space among the big chains in the area.

Initially, my thought was that this would take up to an hour a day, if that much, to maintain.  It would be a piece of cake.

Boy, was I wrong.  Just shy of two months later, we are up to over 570 followers, over 300 business pages that like us and a totally separate blog devoted to local business profiles and reviews.  What started out as an unrealistic expectation of 1 hour of computer time has become a full time obsession, for lack of a better word.

I adore what I am doing and love hearing the mostly positive feedback both on the street and online.  I have made it a habit of scouring the social media blogs and how-to sites to make sure I can give solid advice; but I know enough to refer the harder questions to the social media professionals in the area.  

I will continue to devote whatever time I can to this endeavor.  I am also realistic in knowing that the Internet and Social Media is ever evolving and changing.  With that in the back of my mind, I know that this will not be a permanent volunteer gig; but believe me when I say that it keeps me busy and has helped me to master a skill I never would have thought possible just 5 years ago.