Do you find Facebook to be an enjoyable tool?  Did you know that you can advertise the Springwater Trails hikes on Facebook?  This is an easy way to share our recreation opportunities with your friends and neighbors.

However, it has been pointed out that Facebook isn’t always obvious about how to do things. So here are some instructions I have learned.

Lets suppose you read something on the main page of Springwatertrails.org that you would like to share.  Just now, reading the home page, I saw Ellen’s note about Teasels.

Step 1

The first thing I do, is click on the title of the story.  This brings up a page with just that one story.  That way I can easily comment on the one story and not confuse my facebook friends. From the Address bar of my browser, I highlight and copy the address to this page.

Step 2

Next, I log onto Facebook, and on my home page, I type a comment into the “What’s on your mind?” box, and paste the address from the address bar.

Step 3

At this point, Facebook goes to the Springwater Trails website and looks at the page.  It reads what is on the page, and looks for any pictures.  This may take awhile.  If you can wait, you will see the pictures.

Step 4

What you will notice is that Facebook finds two pictures on this page. The first picture appears at the top of the page. The second picture is a part of the text of the post. You can leave the pictures as they are, but notice that the first picture has nothing to do with the Teasels. Really, the second picture is the better one. There is an arrow in the upper right that lets you select the desired picture.

Step 5

The final step is to post you comments. When you press Post, you will notice that Facebook removes the Springwater Trails address from your comments, because the box with the picture and description is the actual link.

Page Posting

When you post a link on a Facebook Page, things show up slightly differently. Here is how it looks when I post on a Facebook page, rather than on my own timeline. (To find the Springwater Trails Facebook page, search Facebook for Springwater Trails Hiking Page).

Step 4 (Pages)

There are still the two pictures. In this situation, you want to remove pictures you don’t want, rather than selecting the one you do like. You can click on any of the small pictures to remove it, or you can look within the larger pictures an find an X in the upper right corner to delete it. I clicked on the first small picture.

Step 5 (Pages)

When you post to a page, the link address isn’t removed automatically for you.  So, you may want to highlight the link and delete it just before you click on Publish.

Group Posting

Facebook also has Group pages (Search for Springwater Trails Hiking Group).  Posting a link to the Springwater Trails webpage works the same on the Group page and on your personal page.  however, it is seen by the people who have joined the group, rather than by all of your friends.

I hope this helps you post links to our website.  It is a great way to increase our hiking group’s audience.