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December 9, 2024
If you’ve read our post on using Facebook Groups for community marketing, you already know that communities have become a large part of Facebook’s official strategy. The company is so interested in promoting the use of its Group features, a TV commercial advertising it ran during the Super bowl. Groups have many advantages for businesses who want to increase their Facebook reach and communicate with their potential customers, but growing your group is not always easy. In this article, we suggest several ways to build your community.
Opening your Facebook Group is easy and requires almost no preparation. All you need to decide on in advance is the name of your group and the type of group you want to open: public or private, visible or hidden. If you aim to create a group that will serve as a marketing vehicle for your business, you’ll probably choose to create a group that’s private, but still visible so people can find it on Facebook. All you need now is a cover image that will tell others something about the group. And that’s it. Your Facebook group is now open.
Growing your group, however, is not as easy as opening it. You should know in advance that producing content daily and monitoring discussions requires work and dedication. Don’t create a group if you can’t commit to maintaining it.
Even if you put in the work, growing your group and attracting new audiences is not always easy. Here are ten strategies you should adopt if you want to make your group more successful:
There’s no way around it. Being a source of quality content is the most important thing to do to attract new people to your group and make the people who join active participants. Publish posts, start conversations, offer advice, and treat group members as your dear friends. Even if your audience starts out small, keeping them engaged is crucial for the success of your group.
A Facebook Group is not a substitute for a Facebook page. The two should work in unison to promote your message. Connect your page to your group and easily share posts between the two. If you don’t have a Facebook page, create one that will become your group’s gateway.
Linking your page and group is not enough. Make sure to mention your group regularly on any other social channels you maintain and explain who should join and why. Consider creating teasers for your group that will let others know what they’re missing.
Like with any new project you want to start, telling the world is an essential step along the way. Make an effort to talk about your group everywhere and especially to people in your target audience. Seek out chances to do interviews, speak on podcasts, and appear at industry events.
With an endless list of groups to choose from, chances are, a group on the same topic you want to talk about already exists. But the good news is most of us belong to several groups in the same niche. Consider inviting members of other groups to your group with a private message – be very polite and watch out for group policy violation, of course. It’s also a good idea to cooperate with other group admins to cross-promote your groups.
Your best asset is the people who share your vision. Make the people who are already in your group feel special and appreciated. They are your best ambassadors. Reach out to them and ask them to invite their friends or make them part of the team by asking them to be moderators or guest writers.
Remember that on social media, you have to be generous and give to receive. Choose something of real value, whether it’s an exclusive discount on your product or a useful skill you can teach others and offer it to new group members.
You already know that working with influencers with a reach in your niche is a smart way to promote your business on social media. The same strategy can be employed to build your group: partner with key opinion leaders from your target community and make them part of your club.
At this point, Facebook seems to keep its communities away from its paid advertising mechanism. Unlike page posts, you can not directly promote group content, even if the group is public. You also won’t see “Promote Your Group” as one of Facebook’s campaign objectives. It’s also important to note that when you set up a Facebook campaign, you can not target users that belong to a specific group. But there are ways to obtain the power of Facebook Sponsored Ads to promote your group. One way to do so is to create an ad inviting people to join your group and run it from your page as an engagement campaign. Using the precise targeting abilities that Facebook offers advertisers will help you reach more potential group members, who are already on Facebook.
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