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If you’re a Facebook user, chances are you’re in at least one Facebook group. Facebook groups are popular. In 2021, a study by the NYU Governance Lab and Facebook’s team of community partners was published. The study found that “1.8 billion people use Facebook Groups every month.”
Additionally, the report found that people “experience a strong sense of community by joining these groups despite the physical proximity.” As someone who runs two Facebook groups (one for my entrepreneurial mentoring and training business and As a business owner for my wine club business), I can attest to this finding.
If you’re a business owner, Facebook groups can be a powerful tool to build a community among your target customer base and in turn grow your business. Here are five strategies you should use when building and maintaining a Facebook group for your business.
1. Decide if you want to focus on your exact market
In my experience, there are two general ways to build a membership base for your Facebook group. The first is to focus on your exact market. For example, if you’re a photographer, you could focus your Facebook group on all things photography. The second way is to focus on a niche market that is not a critical part of your business but is a common activity that different people are interested in, such as reading.
I have used both methods. In the Facebook group related to my core business, the members are all women entrepreneurs who share the same mission – to run their own thriving businesses. They want to exchange ideas, and if they want more support, they can turn to my business. The path from member to client is more direct.
For the second method, the pathway from member to client is indirect. The Facebook group I started for my wine club was a way for me to generate leads for my mortgage business, but the wine club has since turned into its own business. Even today, however, wine club Facebook groups are a way for members of the local community to make friends over shared interests. They also got to know me along the way, and if they needed my startup guidance or mortgage servicing, they knew they could ask me.
Most business owners will find that they will get a higher and faster ROI if they center their Facebook Groups around their target market, but the approach you should take depends on your specific situation. You can also take both approaches if you prefer.
2. Consistently educate, entertain and inspire with your posts
The key to running a thriving Facebook group is consistently educating, entertaining, and motivating your members.
It’s safe to say that most people browse Facebook for entertainment. Find and share interesting topics relevant to your group, such as funny memes and videos and “what happened to me today” stories. To educate people, identify content that you think your audience can learn from and apply, such as news articles focused on your industry. When it comes to motivating your members, you can’t go wrong with inspirational quotes and stories.
As long as the material is not negative or inappropriate, it should be safe to use. I personally avoid political and religious content and recommend the same to other business owners (unless they run groups of a political or religious nature).
Come up with a posting schedule and stick to it. If you don’t post consistently, you risk members getting bored and leaving the group.
3. Encourage dialogue and interaction
As you post, encourage conversation and interaction. Try to help members get to know each other. For example, each week, you could post the names of new members who have joined and encourage everyone to leave a comment welcoming them.
Take this approach with your entertaining, educational and motivational posts as well. For example, if you post an inspirational quote, you could ask your members a question, “Does your life experience prove this statement to be true?” You should also let your members know that as long as they follow your group’s posting guidelines, they Questions and interesting content can also be posted.
Engage in as many conversations as possible – this will build your trust and authority in the eyes of your members. Even a simple “Thanks for sharing!” in response to someone’s comment can go a long way. Magic happens when people interact with each other – don’t limit that magic to the Facebook group itself! Organize virtual and in-person events such as webinars, speaker series or fun outings.
4. Prioritize giving, not taking
Avoid explicitly selling your company’s products or services in your Facebook group.
You can use the 80-20 rule for this (although I like to keep it 90-10 in my groups). You can explicitly sell your company’s product or service 20% (or 10%) of the time.the rest of the time, focus give to your group members. When you provide value without asking for anything in return, people feel more comfortable around you and more attracted to you. Then, when you decide to sell explicitly, they will be more likely to be interested in your paid product.
As part of giving to members, you should also give them opportunities to share themselves and market their business, such as letting them comment on their business every Monday under a designated post, or even getting members and their business engaged as an encouragement. As members comment and learn more about them, you can identify potential opportunities to market your company to them.
5. Make the rules and enforce them – and consider getting help for group reviews
I mentioned guidelines briefly before, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to have rules for your Facebook group and enforce them. Enforcing the rules doesn’t necessarily mean you should remove someone from the group (unless, of course, they said something inappropriate, abusive, etc.). Instead, you can message users directly and gently remind them about the rules.
Running a Facebook group can be time consuming. If you can afford to do so, consider paying someone to help you with comment moderation and other tasks such as member approval.
With good moderation and good conversation, your Facebook group will become one of the biggest revenue drivers for your business.
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