How To Use Facebook Groups For Your Business

Facebook Groups are one of the basic components of Facebook. You are probably even a member of some of them.

It's a place where people with the same interests can connect online. The basic principle is that it is an online place for people to discuss, share experiences and express their opinions and attitudes. It also allows people to organize events, share photos, videos, or broadcast live videos.

Any Facebook user can create a group and its operation is completely free. Each user can be a member of up to 6,000 groups at the same time. 

Unlike FB Pages, groups can be closed, and while the Page serves primarily for brand presentation, groups are focused on users and their activity in the community.

There are 3 types of Facebook Groups:

Public groups are the ones anyone can find and join. On the other hand, Closed Groups can be found, but their content is hidden and the membership must be approved by its moderator or administrator. This is a great tool to control who wants to join the community and thus control the membership. The highest level of privacy is offered by the Secret group. You cannot view or search those on Facebook. Members of these groups are directly invited by administrators or other members.

Key takeaways

• Anyone with a Facebook account can create and run a group for free
• A user can be a member of up to 6,000 groups at the same time
• Groups can be public, but also completely hidden and closed
• You can create events, share content, and discuss, exclusively in a group, without showing content on your wall
• As an administrator, you can delete a group at any time

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More than 1.4 billion people are using Facebook Groups. It means, people like groups. Why are they using them?

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To connect

People like to connect and discuss a common topic. Groups are a great tool for people to meet new people with the same interests, build relationships, or connect with friends or acquaintances.

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Inform

Groups are an excellent tool for informing people. Almost everyone has a Facebook in their pocket, which makes FB Groups an excellent tool for informing people with common interests. For example, a library that you regularly visit may report sudden changes in its opening hours or send notifications about upcoming news or events.

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Express

Groups are by nature closed places, giving people the opportunity to express themselves and share their opinions. 

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Inspire

Groups are also a great tool for sharing inspirational posts, or finding inspiration.

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Discover

In groups, people draw new knowledge, discover new resources and ideas.

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Co-work

Secret groups are also popular at work. A Secret group is a place where people can discuss projects, share information and documents.

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Offer

There are a number of groups that focus on connecting people who sell and buy something.

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Organize

People like groups because it allows them to organize events for a specific target group on a regular basis. Groups allow them to easily create an event, let members know about it, and keep track of attendees.

Facebook Groups are a distinctive tool and there are several ways to use them for business.

Building community

FB Group is a great tool for creating communities around a particular interest, location, brand, etc. By its nature, a group is a closed place where people have a safe space to discuss and share their thoughts. When you create such an environment, you have a unique space to ask and interact with members.

Connect with your customers and provide them value

You can also use a closed group for your existing customers. It is a place where you can provide additional support and stay connected with your clients.

Connect your team

Facebook Groups can also be used as an internal digital workplace. You can set a group as "Secret" so people can't find it. It means you have enough privacy to discuss and share documents with your colleagues.

Nurture group data insights

Facebook collects a lot of user data and, fortunately, shares some with you. Use Group Insights to better understand the group. The data can also help you understand your target audience and help you target your ad more accurately.

The growth of the members in the group is the basic rule for group success. There are some minor strategies to increase the number of new members with minimal effort.

Brief and clear description

Be extremely careful about the description. It's the first thing people see when they find your group. In this case, it must be immediately clear what people can expect from the group. The description should be brief and clear.

Think about contact points

Your potential group members are going through different so-called contact points. These points could be your website, Linkedin profile, business cards, etc. You can use all of these places to mention your group here.

Email signature

Include a call to action in your email signature. With every email you send, you let the world know that you run a group and invite other members there.

Set it as one of the signatures and whenever you write a new email or reply to one, you can easily add information about the group.

Try a paid ad

On Facebook, you can make your group visible with paid advertising. If it is well optimized, it is usually a cheap way to get new members. You don't have to be a social advertising specialist, for example, you can use our groost app to create an optimized ad with just a few clicks.

Short link

Use a short link with your domain that redirects the user directly to the group. For example yourwebsite.com/group should be redirected to the group. With this short link it is easy for you to tell people how they can find the group. 

Ask for recommendations

Reach out and ask the first few members of the group to invite their friends who may also be interested. You can repeat this process indefinitely.

The basis of a successful group is the consistent and regular activity of its members. You can support it in many different ways, and we offer several of them in the following list below.

Tell people to set up alerts

Your post may be lost among other content. Fortunately, Facebook provides an Alert feature that notifies you when someone in the group posts something new. But the user has to turn it on himself and it's up to you to remind them. Create an in-action post, like an image, an animated GIF, or a short video to tell people to set up an alert.

Loom / Clips / Pic / GIF

Write personal messages to members

Groups are a great tool for people to meet each other personally. Don't be afraid to communicate with members directly. Send them personal messages. You are showing that you are interested in them and that you care about their membership. For example, you can thank members for their participation in the group. With more members, it's not easy to communicate with everyone, but you can use Group Insights to find the most active members and filter out the key members of your group, so that you can personally thank them.

Create an event

You can create an event within a group. It's a great tool to tell people about an upcoming event. Do this, because you will get feedback on whether people are interested in the event, and if so, Facebook will provide a reminder for you that lists who wants to come.

Name active members as admins or moderators

Take the opportunity to reward active members of your group. An excellent tool for this is to appoint a member as an Administrator or Moderator. It is a certain public appreciation and status they have earned for their efforts towards the community. In addition, the benefit for you is that such people will be happy to assist you in controlling and following group rules and deleting and blocking trolls.

Show your “behind the scenes”

Show people things they can't see. Show them what you're working on. They will feel more important, because you are sharing a "secret" things with them. This open approach can also attract other people to join your group.

Make polls

A minor, but engaging function. Instead of a regular post, give people the chance to vote by creating a poll. People like to voice their own opinions, and such a poll can give you valuable insight into people's ideas about a given topic.

Start debates

Groups, unlike Pages have an advantage — people are much more into debating here. They feel that they are in a small, closed group, so it is much easier to share their ideas and to debate about different topics.

Ask questions even if you know the answer. Remember, it's not important that you know it, but it is crucial that others have the opportunity to show publicly that they also know the answer. Remember, that people come to Groups to share their knowledge, as well as to learn more, and some people love to be "heard," so give them a chance to have a voice.

Create live video dedicated to certain members

Use one of the most favourite Facebook features — live stream. An advantage of the live stream is that you are authentic and this is what people like. You don't have to broadcast every day, but you should live stream on a regular basis. It also shouldn't be too long. Use live streaming to tell people news from your business, or just say “Hi” to them and thank them for their activity.

Pin important posts

You can pin one post in a group so it remains visible and doesn't get lost in the others. This post can be contacts, group rules, etc.

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Closing remarks

Facebook Groups have a huge potential for your business. It's a great place for personal interactions with your customers. With all the features, groups are more powerful and effective tool than ever before. 

• Do you manage any Facebook Group?
• What strategies do you use?
• How do you increase engagement?
• What are your biggest struggles?

Let us know, we would be very happy to help!