A great Facebook group is a place where a diverse group of people can support each other, learn from each other, engage with each other and a company, get questions answered, learn, and share content.
Facebook groups are a fantastic place to start when building a community of people and creating a fanbase or audience for your company.
You can start a Facebook group specifically about your company OR you can choose a niche or topic that complements your business and attracts like-minded people.
A Facebook group isn’t all about YOU or even your company. You want to use it to build a real community, not just make a quick sale. Think of your group as an investment of time instead of money. Yes, it acts as an advertisement for your business, but the purpose of the group is more to bring people together and educate them than it is to make one sale.
It all comes back to building real relationships. Every person craves community, so let’s give them a space to find one!
What Should Your Facebook Group Include?
Let’s get the technical details out of the way.
First, you’ll need to identify your audience. Who do you want to attract to your group? Next, you will choose a topic. You want one that connects directly to what you’re selling but isn’t exact. For example, I own a pet grooming business. Instead of having a group about how to groom your pet, I might choose to have a group all about loving animals and encourage people to share pictures of their pets, while educating them with some posts and articles about why grooming is important.
Then, choose a name for your group and decide whether you want it to be public (anyone can see it) or closed (only group members can see the posts). I recommend keeping your group closed so that members need to be approved but the description and photo are still public.
Fill in all the contact information so group members can easily find you and contact you. Especially important is knowing your purpose and intention for the group and putting that in the group description. You want to convey your message to everyone!
Add high-resolution photos for the banner and your photo!
You will also have the option to add admins or moderators so that those members can help you manage the community. As your group grows or depending on how active you want to be in it, having additional people helping manage and moderate the group will be so helpful! Moderating is not just responding to comments or making posts, it also includes things like removing offensive or inappropriate posts and comments, approving new member requests, answering direct messages from group members, and blocking people.
What you choose to include is up to you, but these are ones I highly recommend and also use. Below are two additional important options I want to highlight.
If you want to have potential members answer a few questions before you accept their request to join your group, you can add up to 3 questions in the group settings. For example, you might want to know how they heard about the group or what they hope to get out of it.
You can also create rules for the group by going to the “Moderate Group” tab and clicking “Create Rules.” You can create up to 10 rules or use their list or preset ones for your group, which will be in the “About” part of the group. Rules are a way for you to set expectations and guidelines for the entire group, such as “No promotions or spam” or “Be kind and courteous.” If someone’s post breaks your rules, any admin or moderator can delete it.
How to Engage With People in Your Group
Your purpose in the group as the leader is to engage with members and facilitate conversations, as well as help build connections.
Here are a few tips for encouraging your group members to engage:
- Be active! Respond to questions, write comments, make posts regularly, etc.
- Create a new post to introduce new members and encourage them to leave some information about themselves in the comments.
- Ask questions about common issues to see what others suggest.
- Use polls to get feedback and opinions.
- Try having weekly themes, such as “Motivation Monday” or “Sharing Sunday” to get members engaged.
- Offer targeted specials, freebies, or deals to members.
- Utilize video! Do a Facebook Live or post a video on a hot topic in your community.
- Educate your members by sharing lessons you’ve learned.
- Invite experts in the topic to do a video or interview in your group.
- Make posts celebrating member’s achievements or highlighting them.
- Share interesting or educational articles from credible sources.
- Ask the group members for feedback on what they want to see in the group.
Join my Facebook group to get more great information and connect with an amazing community of people.
Do you have a Facebook group? How do you keep members engaged and active? Comment your tips and help other readers!
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