Charlotte,

 

One method to consider is to stop thinking of your Facebook page as a billboard for announcing events, and to start thinking of it as a parallel museum.  While we have some crossover, our Facebook members and "real" members are different crowds - the Facebook group being mostly people who grew up here in tiny Thomasville, GA but are now scattered across the country.  Try using your page to post original content - images in your collection that are not on exhibit, images of artifacts, scans of documents like letters, newspaper articles, diary pages, etc.  Engage your users - ask them to identify things for you, name who is in pictures, ask them their opinions on things you might try at the museum...you'll be amazed at the information that comes from "crowdsourcing" - and don't batter them for donations, etc.  Once in awhile is ok, but most Facebook users enjoy the "freeness" of the content.  The donations, memberships and sales will come as people come to think of your page as a daily site visit.  All the other things, which are good suggestions - having existing members and board members sign up, putting in web page links, etc., are nice but in the end are meaningless if you're not creating good content to keep the visitor interested..."likes" for "likes sake" is not the goal, the goal is to have an engaged online presence that will be a benefit to your museum...otherwise, someone may "like" your page once, then hide it from their newsfeed if all you're doing is announcing events at a museum hundreds/thousands of miles away.  That's what I do.

 

If you don't already, also set up a PayPal account so when folks eventually ask about memberships, there will be an easy, online way for folks to donate...and please be sure to visit our Facebook page in the link provided below! :)