On Facebook, you have the opportunity to join and create groups to discuss topics with like-minded people. Similar to LinkedIn Groups, Google+ Circle, and subreddits, Facebook Groups bring together users who want to share, learn, and discuss the same topics.

But, Facebook Groups are more than that. Facebook Groups provide your clients with:

• A sense of community.
• A place to network and connect with like-minded individuals.
• An opportunity to learn more about your products/services and hear from other customers.
• A chance to get to know you as a thought leader and a chance to build rapport.
• An exclusive club for special deals, coaching, promotions, or samples.
• The chance to provide input and feedback into a business they are passionate about.

Badass Tip

Facebook Groups also provide you, as a business leader, with an engaged audience to experiment, get crucial feedback, and build strong brand loyalty. It’s a win-win! Facebook Groups give you the chance to organically promote your business to people who’ve already shown interest in your industry.

Facebook Page vs Facebook Groups: Why You Should Use Both

But wait a second, didn’t we just talk about building a Facebook Page to try and do those things?

How right you are! While your Facebook Page is the hub for other Facebook tools, it’s still a pay-to-play system. When you post that fantastic image/video on your Facebook Page without sponsoring it, only a small amount of your followers ever get to see it. But with Facebook Groups, they are notified of new posts, comments, etc in their notifications. Facebook is based on engagement and community, so it prioritizes Group posts for its users. This is a game-changer for your business!

Think of it this way. A Facebook Page is similar to a book on a library shelf that takes some time to find amongst all the other books. A Facebook Group is a book club all about your business or industry.

See other “Book Clubs” for Yourself. Join a Few Interesting Groups.

As a Badass Marketer, you can join groups that are made up of people who match your ideal customers to join their conversation or groups with other business leaders like you to learn from each other.

Or you can join groups with other business leaders in your industry to learn from and network with. Some examples of Facebook Groups we suggest for all Badass Marketers to learn from:

Ok great! But how do I find them on my own?

To find relevant groups, simply search for keywords in the Facebook search bar and filter the results by Groups. You can request to join different groups to see posts and interact. Some group admins may require responses to accept new members into the group. You should also be mindful to any rules or requests about the Group by the admin.

Badass Tip

Remember the annoying dinner guest? When you join an established group, you are an invited guest in their space. Join the conversation and refrain from self-promotion that is intrusive to the Group. Bring value-first content and add to the Group’s well-being, instead of focusing on selling a product or service.

Create Your Own Facebook Group and Get Engagin’

Facebook Groups are a fantastic place to building a community around your brand, but it can be intimidating.

“Ugh, another page to manage”

“What if no one but my mom and sister join?”

“What if it’s boring or just me talking to myself?”

You’re a Badass who started their own business, remember? Creating your own Facebook Group doesn’t have to be like any of those things. YOU are in charge.

That’s the greatest thing about creating your own group is you make the rules.

With a Facebook Group, you can:

• Pin certain posts to the top of your group for maximum engagement.
• See analytics on your most active group members, when the highest amount of members are online, and what posts are getting the most engagement.
• Search for key phrases that appear multiple times in your group.
• Moderate any unseemly behavior to keep the group focused on your intent for the conversation.
• Use other Facebook tools like Facebook Live, polls, and Events to promote engagement in your Groups.
• Casually promote your product or services to your audience (or even better have your customers promote your product or services in the Group).

Monetize it Tip:

Facebook Groups can be used to drive revenue to your business as a secondary source of income. Once you build a thriving community, you can include membership in your Group as an add-on or value-add to your products. You can charge your members on a monthly or yearly basis for the privilege of being a member in the Group.

For more information on how to set this up, schedule a one-on-one consultation with Jodi.

Quick Tips for Creating a Successful Facebook Group

1. Ask yourself: “Why am I starting this group and why would someone want to join?” By understanding your intention for the group and the benefits someone might gain from joining, you are setting up your business for success.

2. A Facebook Group should be run more similarly to a forum or community page than a brand Page. It’s a book club, remember? It can’t be all about the author. Invite and encourage other voices.

3. To begin creating your own Group, consider searching for a topic related to your business that doesn’t have a strong Facebook Group associated with it. (Or if you’re a local business, searching for a topic in your area and starting a group based on geography, i.e. Wellness and Nutrition for Busy Moms in Jacksonville, FL.)

4. Next, decide if you want an Open, Secret, or Private Group.

1. 1. An open group allows any person to search and join your group. Literally anyone. While that may seem intriguing, you want to create an exclusive experience for your target market. IMHO don’t use this one.
   2. A secret group is not searchable and is by invitation only. These are perfect for workshops, coaching sessions, or events where you only want a select group invited. Not super great as a Facebook Group marketing strategy since it’s like “the island that can’t be found except by those who already know where it is.” POTC anyone?
   3. A Closed or Private group is searchable but you can only join once you are approved by an admin. Ding! Ding! Use this one. This will give you the opportunity to vet your group members while still being searchable on Facebook.

5. Now, give that page some serious personality.  Give your page an easy to understand Group Name that your target market might search for. And add a sweet cover photo 🙂

6a. Establish an onboarding process for new members and posting guidelines for current members. Are members of your Group allowed to promote their business on your Group page? What type of comments will you allow or moderate? Do they agree with your group guidelines? You are the moderator for the conversation in your group, so set the expectations early for your members.

6b. Plus, you can gain a lot of knowledge from the admission questions about your target audience. You could ask, what’s your biggest challenge keeping you from your target weight? Or something related to your business. Think of the free market research you could get!

7. Once you’ve established a guideline, start posting relevant, curated articles and images to get the conversation going. You can then start inviting people to join your group in similar ways to how you’ve invited people to like/follow your page.

The One Downside to Facebook Groups

While Facebook Groups have so much potential for your business, there is a downside to them. You don’t own Facebook. I don’t own Facebook. We have to play within Facebook’s rules. At the end of the day, your brand community is housed on a third-party platform. But it’s a platform that your audience already uses so it’s worth it.

3 Ways to Build Your Group 

1. Guest write or present in a relevant Group

Once you’ve created your Group, research other Groups that your target audience may already be a member of.

Consider reaching out to the moderators the Group to co-create a useful piece of content for their audience. This content could be an ebook, guide, Facebook live, webinar, or giveaway. The content should be non-salesy and provide this audience lots of value. You can mention your Group with an incentive while promoting in this Group to drive more traffic to your Group.

Alternatively, you can request to join and provide quality, non-sales information as member and casually mention content from your Group. However, this strategy is risky since moderators may not look too kindly on you promoting your Group willy-nilly in their Group discussions.

2. Link to it on your Facebook Page and tease exclusive content

Another way to drive traffic to your Group is to add links in your content, on your website, and on your Facebook Page. Though just saying, “join my Group” isn’t usually going to be enough of a drive to get many members. Instead, post some content with insane value that you can only get access to by joining your Facebook Group. Then you can promote this piece of content AND your Group. You smarty-pants, you 🙂

3. Add relevant tags so people can search and find your Group

Your audience can also find your Group by researching keywords in the Facebook search bar. So as you are creating your Group, make sure to add keywords in the title and about section. One way to think of this is what problem does your Group solve that someone might search for.

3 Ways to Use Some Badass Marketing in Your Group

So you have your Facebook Group, up and running with discussions abounding. It’s time to add some Badass marketing sprinkles to drum up some engagement and sales for your business.

Here are three ways to promote your business and still create a pleasant experience for your audience. (No one likes a non-stop salesman).

1. Facebook Lives

Running a Facebook Live for your Group members keeps you and your brand top-of-mind, provides awesome consumable content, AND gives you the option to promote your service/produce.

You should plan a cadence of Facebook Lives to engage with your audience in your Group. Bonus, remind your audience of that cadence so that they can turn in live instead of just watching the recording.

2. Use Groups to create exclusive customer experiences

Just because you have one Group, doesn’t mean you can’t create more than one.

But wait, you say!

Why do I want more than one?

Well, I’ll tell you.

Exclusive. Customer. Experiences.

You can create a Facebook Group only open to your customers and shower them with all the love, support, and premium content you have. Then, promote the perks in your main Group to drive more sales. Use FOMO (and a raging customer party in the exclusive Group) to your advantage.

3. Work-around to target Group members with Facebook Ads

You may be thinking, I don’t need these tips because I’ll just use Facebook Ads to target my Group members. Well, as of right now, that ain’t possible.

Targeting Group members is not an option for Facebook Ads.

However, we have a fun work-around for you.

When you post content into your Group, make sure to use a different link than your main content link that anyone could use.

For example, if you have an ebook that can be found at yourwebsite.com/awesome-ebook. When posting that ebook to your Group, duplicate the page and change the URL a little to be yourwebsite.com/awesome-ebook-now (for example). Then, when you’d like to target your audience members with a content piece, you can segment based on the website visitors to those specific pages.

Bonus Tip:  Make sure to keep a log of your URLs to keep track of which one is which.

Facebook Groups are one of our favorite tools as Badass Marketing Moms and we think it can be yours too! Comment below with the link to your Group and who it’s perfect for and we will check it out!

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