How to Create and Grow your Facebook Group

Why you need a Facebook Group to grow your business

Mark Zuckerberg’s made it clear: Facebook prioritizes community and conversation-building over click-bait and passive consumption of posts.

Despite the fact that mobile ads brought in 93% of Facebook’s $15.1 billion earnings in the first-quarter of 2019, they insist that their focus is people over businesses.

So what can you as a business owner or aspiring entrepreneur do?

One of the best ways to combine your business goals with reaching and connecting with your ideal customer is through your Facebook group.

Best of all, groups are a free tool to share information, encourage conversation and provide value to your members.

And the Facebook algorithm loves groups.

In this article, we talk about various ways to use your group and how to attract new members to your group.

What is a Facebook Group?

It’s important to understand that a Facebook Group is very different from a Business Facebook Page.

Your Business Page is the welcome mat to your online business (apart from your official website of course) while groups are sacred spaces where conversations happen.

You would most likely only have one Facebook page for your business, whereas you can create multiple groups for different functions eg: beginners copywriting group vs advanced copywriting group.

Typically larger numbers of people will “Like” and follow a page, but a much smaller number will want the in-depth conversations that occur in groups.

And groups can be amazing places to launch products and sell because generally the members are highly engaged and loyal fans of your brand.

Facebook Group structure

Setting up a new Facebook group is easy and takes only a few minutes.

When setting up your Facebook group, you have to choose between various options depending on the purpose of your group.

We generally find that closed groups work well for businesses.

Some additional fields you have to complete include:

• Description: State the purpose of your Facebook group. This is an ideal opportunity to attract your ideal audience member and repel people who will never become fans and/or buy from you.
• Tags: Keywords that define your group (max 5).
• Location: useful for local businesses.
• Group Icon: you can choose an icon in line with your group.
• Cover photo: this is valuable retail space and can be used to announce events, promotions, competitions, lead magnets etc.

NB: be sure to go through ALL the settings and customise to your requirements. For instance, there is a setting allowing people to add other members to your group. Decide if you want this or prefer members to be admitted by request only.

You can also set up entry questions that people have to answer when they request to join. Reviewing the responses is a useful way to establish whether the person asking to join would be a good fit for your group.

Be sure to add some group rules as well, so that expectations and boundaries are clear.

So now that you’ve created your group AND checked all the settings, get posting and growing your group.

Who should you attract to your Facebook Group?

If your Facebook group forms part of a greater marketing objective and strategy, you will want to be selective when it comes to attracting and accepting new members.

You definitely don’t want everybody in your group.

As a smart business owner, you only want people who:
1) resonate with your brand voice and mission
2) want to hear from you and see posts from you
3) are likely to engage, comment, like, share, contribute and (possibly) buy from you

How to attract members to your Facebook group

Here are some ways to attract new members without using paid ads:

• Mention your group once or twice per week on your Facebook business page.
• Post a link to your group as a PS on your email newsletters.
• Include your group link in the “About” section of your business page.
• Mention your group when you do a Facebook Live.
• Utilise other platforms to promote your group: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram etc.
• Encourage your team members to mention your group to their friends.
• Building a genuine connection is key, so try to network with like-minded people who will promote you in their groups and vice versa.
• Promote your group on your website and blog TIP: do not let your Facebook group distract website visitors from your lead magnet. Remember, one of the most important things you can do for your business is grow your email list!
• Mention your group on your podcast.
• Connect with an influencer in your space and ask them to join and mention your group to their followers.
• Include your group link on your business card.

The Takeaway

We believe that Facebook groups are POWERFUL tools for business owners to reach their ideal client.

By providing tons of advice and support, your group members will love you and your group will continue to grow and flourish.

Be sure to post regularly to keep things active. And uphold the rules that you established to keep things fair.

Above all, try to respond to as many (if not all) comments because this is exactly the “conversation” that Mr. Zuckerberg is talking about.

Our connections on Facebook might be virtual but if you post regularly and with sincerity, it is possible to establish genuine relationships with people in your Facebook group.

Action Steps:

• If you don’t have a group, you need to create one.
• If you do have a group, be sure to use these tips to promote and grow your group.
• Let us know: do you have a Facebook group for your business? Do you have other ways that you attract people to your group that we didn’t mention in this article?

Want more help?

Take your Facebook Ads to the next level with Big Domino Marketing by your side. Check it out here.

Originally published at https://blog.bigdomino.co.za on June 3, 2019.