How to Use Facebook Groups to Grow Your Business
Facebook Groups are an effective way to create a community, drive engagement, and improve customer relations for your brand or business.
While Facebook Pages can sometimes feel like a one-way channel for brands to share updates, Facebook Groups are a space for users to connect and communicate with like-minded people about shared interests.
Ready to build a successful Facebook Group for your business? I'm covering everything you need to know in this blog post!
What are Facebook Groups
If Facebook Pages are the business equivalent of a “Facebook Profile”, Facebook Groups are the best place to encourage conversations and interactions from your community.
Facebook Groups can also be affiliated with Pages, so any Group you create can be added as an extension to your official Facebook Page.
Essentially, when you create a Facebook Group, you’re giving your fans a place to come together to discuss specific topics, organize activities, post photos, express their ideas and opinions, and connect with each other to communicate shared interests.
And while only official brand owners or admins can create Facebook Pages, anyone can create a Facebook Group.
For example, fans of skincare company Drunk Elephant created a group called Drunk Elephant Skincare Addicts, where its 5.3K members can share their beauty routines and discuss anything and everything related to Drunk Elephant:
LLAMA TIP: If you discover that fans or loyal customers have already created Groups related to your brand, request to join and actively engage in relevant conversations!
However, it’s always a good idea to manage your own Facebook Group, even if several Groups related to your brand already exist.
As the owner of a Facebook Group you gain access to Activity insights, can control the Group settings and privacy controls, and most importantly, you have the authority and control to moderate conversations as a Group Admin.
Why Create a Facebook Group for Your Business
Facebook Groups provide a whole set of unique benefits that help your brand stand out from the crowd. In summary, Facebook Groups allow you to:
Own a space where direct, two-way communication can occur between you and your customers
Control who is part of your community and create a safe space
Monitor audience sentiment
Respond to queries and deescalate issues
Build communities around certain topics or events related to your brand, or even location-based groups
Get a better of understanding of your audience demographic and what they care about
Identify new target audiences for product and marketing campaigns
Gain valuable and honest feedback
Facebook used to mainly focus on showing users the most relevant content from businesses, brands, and media. But now, one of Facebook’s main focuses is to help users have more meaningful social interactions.
This is where Facebook Groups come into play.
Since Facebook encourages (and even favours) the social interactions happening in Facebook Groups, it means that group activity is much more likely to be surfaced in members’ News Feeds and notifications than a static post from a Facebook Page would.
How to Set up a Facebook Group
Setting up a Facebook Group for your brand or business is easy and can be done in just a few steps:
Step #1: Create Your Facebook Group
After logging into your Facebook Page, find the “Create” tab in your navigation bar and select “Group” from the drop-down menu.
Step #2: Name Your Facebook Group
When deciding on a name for your group, choose something that clearly conveys what the group is about and how it relates to your brand.
Remember that when it comes to creating groups, the world is your oyster. You really can make a group for anything, but it’s worth making sure it’s relevant to your business in some way.
Step #3: Invite Members to Join Your Facebook Group
Next, you can invite people to join your group! You can enter either email addresses or Facebook names here.
Facebook users are more likely to join groups that already have some members. Bump up the numbers by inviting your friends and coworkers to join the group first.
Next, invite the users who already like and engage with your brand. Invite subscribers from your newsletter list, fans of your Facebook Page, and promote your new Facebook Group on your other social platforms like Instagram!
LLAMA TIP: Give the invitation to join your group a more personal touch by writing a quick note. You can use this space to explain why you’ve created the group, why invitees should join, and what they can expect to see from the group in the future!
Step #4: Make Your Facebook Group Public or Private
In terms of privacy, Facebook Groups has two options: public or private.
Choosing to create a private or public Facebook Group depends on what your goals are. If you’re looking to create an intimate and personal space with your community, opt for a private group. But, if you’re looking to bring as many users together as you can, making it public may be your best option.
When your Facebook Group is public, like this community group by Tasty, it’s visible to anyone, and any user can join it without asking for permission.
Private groups are great for creating a sense of community and exclusivity for your most dedicated fans. They are a place for conversations or feedback from hand-selected members
Step #5: Add Detail to Your Facebook Group
Now you’ve created your group, it’s time to add the all-important details. This will help set the tone and purpose for your group.
Customize your new Facebook Group by:
Add a Cover Photo
The more specific, the better! Your cover photo should make it clear that the group belongs to your brand.
Ideal dimensions for a cover photo are 820 pixels wide and 312 pixels tall for desktop, and 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall for mobile.
Write a Description
The group description will appear in the “About” section, and will be visible to everyone.
Make sure your description is clear, catchy, and conveys what the group is all about! This is a good place to include group rules/guidelines, or more information on the group admins.
Include Tags
When you add tags to your Facebook Group, they work as keywords to help your group appear in search as well as Facebook’s “Suggested for You” and “Categories” sections on the main Groups page.
Set a Location
If your group is intended to be for a specific area or city, set a specific location.
Step #6: Share Your First Post
Finally, it’s time to get the party started yourself! Publish a post to your group that prompts members to like and comment, and ask your friends and coworkers to get involved for an extra engagement boost. Your first post could ask where everyone is from, how they found the group, and what they hope to get from joining the group.
It may take a while to get the ball rolling, but regularly posting and encouraging interactions will soon encourage members to get involved and start sharing their voice.
Now you’re on your way to building an incredible community! Online communities are an incredible tool for your business, no matter which social platform you’re on.
Like Facebook communities, building a community on Instagram is one of the best ways to boost engagement and stay connected to your customers.