Anton Kraly — March 8, 2017 Follow @https://twitter.com/PMMarketerCreating a Facebook group that hosts an enthusiastic and engaged community around your business, will strengthen your marketing efforts while putting social proof front-and-center.
And that’s what makes Facebook groups different from business pages and profiles. Facebook groups are similar to a forum for members to create, connect, and discuss based on a common interest or cause. Chances are, you’re probably a member of a few Facebook groups that deliver high value to you.
It’s simple to set-up your own Facebook group but creating one that’s powerful and engaged isn’t. That’s why we’re sharing our favorite tactics, so your Facebook Groups can be successful, while keeping it’s members engaged and spam-free!
Social proof is one of the biggest drivers of sales in business. Using a forum for members is unlocking social proof’s power to to set up a foundation for scalable word of mouth.
1. Get Help
Find a trusted partner or two to help you moderate your Facebook group. You don’t have to pay someone to do this, just ask an friend or two in the industry if they would mind.
Having an extra set of hands makes it easier to keep the group under control and negative interactions won’t go unnoticed. Additionally, they’ll be able to accept or decline requests to join.
If you don’t feel comfortable giving over the reins to your Facebook group to someone else, no worries! Facebook has a few different levels of roles for group members.
Set yourself to the admin level and your ‘helpers’ to moderator level. Here are more specifics of the differences between the Facebook group roles:
2. Facebook Group Privacy
With Facebook groups, you have three privacy options for your new community:
Public Facebook groups allow anyone to join or be added in by a member. The group is found in Facebook search, and the posts and members are public.
Closed Facebook groups allow anyone to find the group and see who is in it, only group members can see the posts, however. Group admins and moderators must approve members requesting to join or invited in.
Secret Facebook groups can only be found by the members and only the members can see the posts. Secret groups can be joined by anyone but they need to be added or invited by a current member. Group admins and moderators must approve members requesting to join or invited in.
3. Promotion Policy
This is very important to do right away when you start creating a Facebook group. Without a promotion policy, members will drop any business, article, or service they’re trying to push and then run.
As members receive notifications every time a new post is made in the group, you can see how this will annoy the rest of your group.
Decide what kinds of content group members may post. Clarify what kind of promotional posts are allowed and when they can post that content.
It’s a great idea to create a weekly thread that’s saved just for self-promotion. That way, there’s no reason why a group member would want to spam the group with their promotions.
4. Start Conversations
Starting conversations in your Facebook group is a great way to keep members engaged. This means asking group members their goals, interests, or what they have going on.
Make it clear that the members know you’re there to help them. By delivering value to your group members, you’ll build up a trusting relationship with them.
The key to this is not just creating a group to serve as another feed for all of your blog posts and promotions. Instead of driving your Facebook group members to your newest article, start insightful conversations and share content that’s specifically for your group.
5. Set Examples and Expectations
This is your Facebook group and you are the leader, so it’s important to remember that group members will be taking cues from you. If you want people to come forward and share stories, concerns, opportunities, and help others, show them how it’s done!
Help and comment on every post, like members’ comments, give feedback, and check out what other people are promoting. Whatever behavior you expect from the members of your Facebook group, make sure you’re modeling those behaviors and standards first.
Additionally, in the beginning, responding to every post in your Facebook group, whether it’s big or small, is very important. Reward people for posting high quality content into your Facebook group.
6. Establish Clear Community Guidelines
Most importantly in Facebook groups, you must establish clear community guidelines and ensure that members read the guidelines first before joining or posting. From our experience, things can get out of hand quickly in Facebook groups if you’re not clear about about the guidelines.
Leave no room for guessing, and remind members of the rules every so often.
Additionally, let people know from time-to-time when someone breaks the rules and gets banned from your Facebook group. Facebook groups can become spammy fast, and that just hurts your brand and reputation with your customers and potential customers.
In Conclusion…
Facebook groups are growing quickly in popularity because the value in having a community of like-minded individuals is an incredible!
If you have a great product and you support your people, it’s only going to lead to more sales and more business. An engaging Facebook group is an incredible way to support your current customers and nurture potential customers while building a valuable community.
Performance Marketer has a Facebook group that exists solely to bring internet marketers together to share and learn, so we can all grow! If you’d like to join in our conversations, hop over here.
Let us know, what Facebook groups are you in? What value do they bring you?
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