Facebook Groups provide an effective method to improve your business’ customer relations, create a user community, and enhance engagement. Facebook Pages are mostly used by companies to offer updates, but Facebook Groups are more comprehensive and allow you to communicate and connect with people who share your interests. In this article, we provide you useful tips on how you can successfully use Facebook Groups to expand your business.
What is a Facebook Group?
A Facebook Page is your business profile. In contrast, you can create and use a Facebook Group to encourage interactions and conversations from your followers. You can affiliate your Facebook Group with your business’ Facebook Page and make it an extension of it.
Your Facebook Group enables your fans to communicate shared passions, connect with one another, express their opinions and ideas, post pictures, organize activities, discuss specific subjects, and more. Any user can produce a Facebook Group.
For instance, a skincare brand named Drunk Elephant has initiated a group where members discuss their beauty regimens as well as other aspects of the firm’s products. If you find that your loyal customers or fans have already produced Groups about your brand, you can ask to join and engage actively in pertinent discussions.
However, we advise you to create and handle your business’ own Group even if there are already many existing Groups about your brand. Facebook Group ownership enables you to access Activity Insights, moderate discussions as the group admin, and control privacy controls and group settings.
Why Create Your Business’ Facebook Group
A Facebook Group can offer the following benefits to your brand:
You can control your community membership and produce a secure space
Provide a place where you conduct two-way, direct communication with your consumers
You can deescalate problems by replying to queries
Track audience sentiment
Gain honest and valuable feedback
Pinpoint new target prospects for marketing and product campaigns
Better understand your followers’ demographic and their interests
Develop communities around particular events or topics about your brand, and also create location-based member groups
Facebook is now focusing on helping users interact more meaningfully. A Facebook Group facilitates this by surfacing group activity in the notifications and news feeds of members. This gives your brand more exposure compared to a post on your Facebook Page.
How to Create a Facebook Group for Your Business
Go to your company’s Facebook Page and select “Create” then “Group”.
Name Your Group
Use a group name that is related to your business and clearly indicates what it will enable and provide. You can set up a group devoted to a certain discussion thread or product line of your business.
Invite Membership
Next, use people’s Facebook names or email addresses to invite them to become your group’s members. First, create a small user base by asking your coworkers and friends to join your group. This will encourage more followers to become members.
Then, invite followers who already engage with and like your business. Invite your newsletter subscribers and Facebook Page fans. Promote your group on the other social networks you use such as Instagram.
Make Your Group Private or Public
Facebook Groups offers private or public privacy options. You can select one according to your goals. Opt for private, if you wish to produce a personal and intimate place with your follower community. But if you want to attract more users, make your group public. A public group is visible to everyone, and anyone can become a member without needing to get permission.
In addition, visitors can view all posts in the public group without needing to get a membership. This is a welcome thing if your aim is growth. Readers can opt to join if they like what they see. Therefore, typically, public groups grow more quickly compared to private ones.
Private groups are visible in searches and anyone can see their members and “About” sections. However, only members can access the posts and content inside these groups. A group admin or existing member needs to accept a user’s request to join a private group. Private groups enable you to create a sense of exclusivity and community for your devoted fans. In this space, hand-picked members can indulge in feedback or conversations. Select “Create” after you choose your privacy option.
Add Details
Now, you should include relevant details to set the purpose and tone for your new group. You can customize your group in the following ways:
Include a Cover Image: Upload a specific cover photo which conveys that your brand owns the group. Ideal cover photo dimensions are 820px width x 312px height for desktop computers and 640px width x 360px height for mobile devices.
Craft a Description: Your group description will be displayed in the “About” portion and can be seen by anyone. Write a catchy and clear description that indicates the interests of the group. Include group guidelines and rules, or provide more details about the group’s admins.
Add Tags: Tags function as keywords to assist your group to show up in searches as well as in Facebook’s “Categories” and “Suggested for You” segments on the chief Groups page.
Select Your Location: If you’ve created the group for a particular city or area, set the specific location.
Start Sharing Posts
Now it’s time to publish posts to your Facebook Group that encourages members to comment and like. You can involve your colleagues and friends for further engagement. Your initial post can ask details about members, why they joined the group, and what they think they will gain. Post regularly to encourage members to interact, increase involvement, and share their voice. In this way, you can build an amazing online community that can serve as an incredible marketing and public relations platform for your brand.
How to Optimize Your Business’ Facebook Group
You should go beyond utilizing your group to drive sales and customer loyalty. To create a robust Facebook Group community, you should learn who your followers are, what they want, and how your business can provide value to them. Follow the below tips to build your Facebook Group community:
Regularly Engage with Group Members
As your Facebook Group grows, members will begin to create and drive conversations of their own accord. You need not simply observe the discussions but can actively engage with the posts. Encourage new conversations on and comments for existing posts and contribute to current discussions. Your group is also an ideal space to offer support and help to your customers and users. Prompt questions, welcome new followers, provide encouraging comments, and respond to queries to communicate with your group community and lead conversations.
Get Feedback through Polls
Use polls to keep your finger on the audience's pulse. Ask members which group aspects they enjoy and wish to view more of. You can also use the group to get useful feedback about your brand and products.
Create Groups for Different Places
If your business has robust communities in different cities, you can create a localized Facebook Group for each place. Fitness apparel firm Lululemon has created groups for many cities. Its Chicago group has more than 1,800 followers and growing. Lululemon engages with each city-specific community by sharing hyper-local news, events, and sales information. In this way, Lululemon is bolstering brand affinity and loyalty in a powerful manner.
Produce Exclusive Group Content
Create unique content for your group members to sustain their interest. The exclusivity element will enhance the group’s value and help to make it more significant for followers. For instance, you can offer promotions and discounts for your product. Peloton follows this policy in its official group where instructors regularly post exclusive content on fitness.
Encourage UGC (User-Generated Content)
After your group is established, members may become more motivated to share their user-produced content and reviews with other followers. In this way, you can increases awareness about your services or products. Further, third-party suggestions and recommendations have a big influence on buying decisions.
Encourage and request members to share photos with your product, or a good experience they had with your business. You can also host giveaways to inspire more UGC. Ensure to reply to and comment on their posts. Also, get their permission to share their content on your other social platforms.
Keep Your Space Positive
Your group should aim to attract kind, engaging, interesting, and fun members. However, some followers may violate group regulations. To maintain a positive experience for all members, your admins/moderators should suitably modify or delete controversial content to keep an enjoyable and safe atmosphere.
To start, clearly post your group’s rules and conduct guidelines in the description section or pin them atop your group. If a member creates issues, you can utilize the admin features to disable them temporarily from leaving comments or posting. In severe circumstances, you can permanently remove the membership of followers who dishonor the peace and rules of the group.
Wrap Up
A Facebook Group is a robust platform for creating an active user community and interacting meaningfully with them. Use the tips provided in this article to create and maintain an interesting and engaging Facebook Group for your business.
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