How To Use Facebook Groups for Your Brand or Business

28 Sep How To Use Facebook Groups for Your Brand or Business

Starting and maintaining a Facebook Group may seem a little daunting, but it’s a great way to add more value to your audience. In this post we’ll take a look at how you can run your business Facebook Group efficiently.

Why use Facebook Groups?

Facebook Groups see are seeing a lot more engagement than pages. This is because Facebook Groups allow members to start conversations more seamlessly than a Facebook Page does. Now I know you’re saying “Dhariana, you’re really asking me to put one more network on my plate?” – and yes I am – but only if it makes sense for your business or if you have the time to maintain a Facebook Group. Here are some of the benefits of creating a group:

1. Provide extra value for customers

Your Facebook Group can easily provide extra value for your customers. You can use it as a space to do more deep diving into subjects, you can use it as a testing ground for new ideas, and lastly it’s another way for your audience to connect with you – and each other.

2. Build a sense of community

Your best bet in building relationships with your audience in this social media landscape is to build relationships and a sense of community. This can be a little difficult on threads and building a community on your site can take tech (and money) that you may not have access to. Facebook Groups can allow you to build a sense of community when you lack the technology to build a community within your website. Members can start conversations among themselves and eventually even answer each other’s questions.

You can even use groups for your own teams within your company. This can be a way to keep everyone in the loop and even create a little company culture with teams that are remote or just not in the same location all the time. I am part of a brand ambassador group for a company I work with and it’s a fun way to connect with ambassadors from my city, talk about the brand events and share our work.

3. Create a sense of exclusiveness

Everyone wants to feel special right? Facebook Groups give you the ability to make them private (or even secret). With both private and secret groups you’ll need to approve members as the group admin.This means only people who you accept into the group can be active there. The main difference between these group settings is that private groups can be found in search but secret ones cannot be.  This create a sense of exclusiveness for the people you allow in. This also makes content you share in there only available to those who are part of the group. This option can be great for event attendees, course subscribers etc. I have a Facebook Group dedicated to those who join my email list or sign up for my social media resource library. Each subscriber gets the link once they join. In the group I take and answer any extra questions about my posts, answer general social media questions and more.

4. “Beat” the algorithm

Since Facebook Groups get more engagement, and Group posts are preferred in the personal newsfeed algorithm, creating and maintaining a group can be a way to “beat” the algorithm and get your posts seen by your group members.

How to use Facebook Groups Effectively

Okay – so now that we’ve covered a few reasons why Facebook Groups can be a great asset to your social media profile portfolio let’s go over some tips on how to run them effectively.

1. Fill in all sections

Just like I recommend you fill in all the information in your social media bio, fill in all the information in your Group. Facebook will walk you through each section when you set up the group.

2. Set the rules

Group rules are important for keeping all things in order. Facebook has some pre-populated rules in the “rules” section of your group (including no spam, no hate speech) but feel free to add your own. Creating group rules will set the tone for the behavior of members and protects you if you have to kick anyone out for breaking the rules.

3. Post regularly

As per usual remaining consistent is a key part to building interaction on any social media platform. It can also be the most difficult. My advice here is to create weekly themed prompts and sprinkle in some open ended questions to get your members to chat a little more. Using a management tool can make the task a little easier (especially if you’re managing multiple groups). So while you’re already plugging your content into the tool you can go ahead and schedule your Facebook Group posts. Some tools, like AgoraPulse is allow you to set your posts to recurring so you don’t even have to think about scheduling the same things every week – you can concentrate on the posts that will build more engagement.

4. Respond to posts

Always make sure to respond to any posts or questions your members post in the group.

5. Create exclusive content for your group

Aside from prompts, and being able to chat wit others who are going to the same event, taking the same course or using your product, you need a little something more to keep the attention of your group members. This is where group exclusive content comes in. It doesn’t have to be complicated – it can range from a group only discount, a group only download or even just you hopping on live sessions within your group.

6. Check your analytics

Facebook Groups now have analytics! As with your regular social media profiles, keep up with looking at your analytics to know what’s working.

There are so many ways you can use Facebook Groups for your brand or business! Do you use Facebook Groups? What is your top tip for success?

<3 DhariLo