Facebook group promotion – the best way for you! Did you know that it is much easier to promote with a Facebook group to create greater reach than with a personal page? This is why many entrepreneurs create a specific group within their field. Want to learn how to deal with promoting a Facebook group? We explain it to you in this blog.
What is a Facebook group?
Before we delve deeper into promoting a Facebook group, it’s helpful if you have some basic knowledge about this feature within Facebook. A Facebook group includes a group of people with similar interests, hobbies or knowledge. There are Facebook groups about anything and everything; baking with natural ingredients, online entrepreneurship abroad, or just about the neighborhood you live in. The large number of groups makes it easy to talk to peers, exchange information and get ideas.
There are generally three categories of Facebook groups. First, you have a private/closed Facebook group, where non-members can see the existence of the group, but to read the content and contributions, they must first apply for membership. It’s best to choose this type of Facebook group when you do want your group to be visible in search results, but you don’t want just anyone in the group.
The second type of group is a public Facebook group. This allows anyone, including non-members, to see what is being shared in the group. This also means that anyone can share and like posts. If your group does not contain sensitive information and you want as many people as possible to see it, this public option is the right choice.
Finally, you can also choose to start a secret Facebook group. This group will not show up within the search results of both Facebook itself and Google, and you can only get into this group with a private link/invitation. In doing so, you cannot see the other members within the group, so there is an extra layer of privacy. Often these are Facebook groups for a business or topics that are sensitive such as miscarriages.
The benefits of a Facebook group
There are several reasons why you should choose a Facebook group instead of (or in addition to) a Facebook page.
- Get a better understanding of your target audience: all members can contribute something, giving you a better understanding of what is going on within your target audience.
- Infinite reach: because group members invite others back, you need to put less effort into growing your group compared to a page.
- Group members help each other: if one day you don’t have time to answer questions in your group, that’s no problem at all. Often group members help each other with the issues.
- You have several privacy options: as described above, you can choose from different types of groups. You cannot do this with a Facebook page.
- You bypass part of the algorithm: where business pages have suffered from less engagement lately, your group page actually gets shared more.
Moreover, creating a Facebook group is completely free! So no reason not to create a Facebook community.
Creating a Facebook community
To avoid confusion immediately; creating a Facebook community is the same as creating a Facebook group. It’s just still sometimes called differently on the platform.
Creating a Facebook community is by no means a difficult job! First, it is good to know that you need a private page on Facebook to create a Facebook community. Once you have done this you can go from your profile to www.facebook.nl/groups. Soon you’ll go through the various options, such as the type of group you want to create, what niche your group falls within and, of course, the name of the Facebook group.
You can’t really get started in your Facebook group sharing contributions and decorating until you invite one other person directly. In fact, a Facebook group should not consist of just one person. Then you can also invite the rest of the people you want in the group, based on name or email address you look them up.
Promoting your Facebook group
Although growing with a Facebook group is easier than with a Facebook page, getting the first members can be quite frustrating at first. We have listed for you the most useful 6 tips to promote your Facebook group.
Share the group with your Facebook friends
The easiest way to promote your Facebook group is to invite your own Facebook friends. You can choose to invite your friends one by one or click the entire list at once. Think about whether everyone in your Facebook friends list is waiting for this. You don’t want people to have a negative association with your Facebook group.
Share the group on other platforms
There are many more platforms than Facebook. Speak around on your other social media channels and see if you have any followers there who might find your Facebook group interesting. Or look for pages that are also about the same topic and invite people there to take a look at your group as well.
If you don’t mind spending money to promote your Facebook group, you can also choose to advertise your Facebook group on these pages by engaging with the owner. Often you can buy a post or story from this person for x amount of money, to promote yourself.
Do you happen to work with a weekly or monthly newsletter by virtue of having your own business? Even then, you can choose to promote your Facebook group. Write about how people can find your group, highlight an interesting discussion that took place in the group, talk about the benefits or possibly attach a win promotion to increase motivation. There are so many more ways than just one sentence to promote your Facebook group. Make smart use of your email list!
Facebook advertising
This option is only suitable for your group if you don’t mind spending money. In fact, Facebook advertising (advertising on Facebook) is not only available for business pages, but also definitely for groups. When you want to grow a lot in a short period of time, with little effort, Facebook advertising is good to consider. In addition, advertising in the Netherlands and Belgium is fairly cheap for the reach you get in return.
The many options Facebook makes available allow you to accurately reach your target audience through a simple ad. Be sure to use a catchy photo and good copy explaining the benefits of your Facebook group.
Use your blog or website
Do you have a website or blog? Be sure to mention your Facebook group on this as well. You’d be surprised how many interested people click through to Facebook from this medium out of curiosity. Mention your Facebook group on the home page, contact page, in the conclusion of your blog or relevant blogs that connect to the group’s topics.
Be critical where you list the Facebook group on your website. The last thing you want is for potential customers to leave your website for Facebook, get lost and not come back.
Promoting your Facebook group by eliciting interaction
The content you post also has a big impact on growing your Facebook group. The more interaction there is within your group, the faster groups are shared with third parties. A good example is to work especially with video, people are more likely to respond to videos than just text. In doing so, it is also good to post critical issues, because of the different opinions in the group, the reactions to them will be more than average.
In addition, be sure to share frequent content within your group. When a group is stagnant, it is not interesting to others, and people are less likely to join. Try to make yourself heard at least 3x a week within the group.
Take your Facebook statistics seriously
Perhaps an obvious tip for some, but we still think it’s important enough not to share; check your Facebook stats. Through these, you can see what type of content is performing well, how your group is doing in terms of interaction, and what type of posts you should better not post in the future. Hugely valuable information that will help your Facebook group move forward.
After your Facebook group has grown to about 500 to 1,000 members you will find that it becomes easier and easier to grow. That way, at some point you will have little to do and the page will spread itself.
Want to learn more about growing on Facebook? Then check out this blog where we discuss how to get more likes on Facebook. And try our secret way!
