Are you a start-up, an SME, a blogger? You have a website, a blog and certainly a Facebook page? Creating a Facebook group can be a great help for your business. It is also a solution to better target the needs and expectations of your audience and interact with them more easily.
It is also possible to use a group to increase the visibility of your website or blog. Having a Facebook group can even help you sell your products or services.
Your group will allow you to overcome the problems of reach of your publications that you encounter on your Facebook page. Indeed, with a group, members are notified of each publication which is not the case for your Facebook page. ?
And then, the feeling of community is more developed there. Hence a stronger engagement.
Anyway, I want to stress that to take full advantage of your Facebook group for your business, you have to know how to manage it well and also develop it. Here are 7 tips on how to grow a Facebook group.
1) Choose a group name related to your theme
Choose a group name related to your theme, a name that people can type in when they do a search on Facebook. Don’t be too creative with a name like “the unicorns of the county”! The name of the group must contain at least one word that represents your theme and that you place in the keywords of your group. ?
Remember, however, that only public and closed groups are indexed in the results.
If you have set your group to secret mode, you will need to change this in the privacy options. If you haven’t already done so, create a Facebook page with a name close to that of your group and link your group to your page.
2) Be active in your Facebook group
If I want to boost my Facebook group, I must also be willing to be active. It is important that other members know that I am the group administrator. So my advice is to be among the first to comment on posts. A good group leader should also be able to make regular posts.
However, you should not be monotonous. Be the first to publish what is new in your sector. Thinking carefully before you post is also a golden rule for administrators who want to grow their Facebook group. Your posts should not only be of high quality, but they should also encourage sharing. You need to create buzz around your posts and among the members of the group.
I also think that the least you can do is to give a warm welcome to new members. By encouraging the introduction of new members, you will also bring some animation to your group. ☀
As well as being active, you also need to be responsive when it comes to being a good Facebook group leader. Membership requests should be accepted as quickly as possible to show people that your group is still active.
3) Engage in conversation with your Facebook community
Having a group in your sector is a good way for a company to get to know its target audience, to know their expectations, needs and fears.
But even if you have set up your group with commercial objectives in mind, avoid promotional speeches so as not to scare off members. Nothing prevents you from talking about your products or services, but don’t overdo it. It is important that members remember you when they are looking for a service or product related to your field.
The best way to do this is to engage your community in conversation. The goal is to create a friendly atmosphere, a space where your members know they will find the answer to their problem or learn something useful. ?
Liven up your group by creating polls, quizzes, do lives…
This is a must: if you want to create interaction with your Facebook group members you have to be accessible.
4) Talk about your Facebook group
To grow your Facebook community, it is very important to promote your group by all means.
Don’t hesitate to talk about it around you. First, on your company’s Facebook page. Obviously, the fact that you have associated your group with your page gives you visibility that should not be neglected. Your group will automatically appear in the tabs of your page, which may encourage your fans to join.
You can also pin a post introducing your group and what it can add to your existing community. Your page becomes a showcase for advertising and promoting the group when necessary. And vice versa.
But don’t neglect the other social networks either! Twitter, Instagram, Youtube can help you to make your group known. Indicate special content that is only available there. Share PDFs and other resources that can bring added value to your audience.
And don’t hesitate to spread your web… on the web! ?
Look for discussions on forums, blog posts that deal with topics related to your theme and comment. Your comment should not be an advertisement for your group or activity. You must provide an answer, an argument, an advice. Share your experience and listen. If possible, put a link to your group in your signature or in the body of your message, but never interfere with the author of the post or article.
5) Run a Facebook ad to a specific audience
If your goal is to promote and sell your products and services, you can afford to make a small investment by setting up an advertising campaign on Facebook. This will raise awareness of your group and increase its membership and potential customers.
It is not necessary to invest huge amounts of money but to experiment with a very small budget of a few euros. ?
6) Promote on other Facebook groups
There are more than a BILLION groups on Facebook… You are sure to find some with a similar, complementary or broader theme.
I invite you to work with other group administrators to make yourself known.
Make yourself useful on the group in question before promoting yourself. Give advice, tips, answer to other members. For example, don’t advertise for the first month, but be very active during those 30 days.
Afterwards, you have 3 solutions:
- Post a question, mentioning that you also have a group more specific to…
- Ask the creator of the group as a friend. See with him, by Facebook Messenger, if you can quote your complementary group to his. This can be a good exchange: promote each group on the other.
- Publish a post talking about the group, specifying that it is on a more precise subject, or more general, or slightly different. It is complementary to this one, in short. Tell the administrators in the post that if it is against their rules, you understand that they will delete it.
7) Motivate the best members of the group
Don’t hesitate to publish posts asking to share the group. People like to be helpful.
When you start to get a crowd, create a private chat with your top 15-30 representatives. Ask for their help in growing the group, explaining what it will do for them.
You can also organise a competition among your members and offer one of your products or services. The winner is the one who invites the most people. Like:
Leave a comment tagging all the people you have invited. These invited people can in turn participate in the contest.
In short, to grow your Facebook group, you need to think about referencing, be a good administrator who is both active and reactive, know how to build loyalty among your members, do everything possible to make your group known to as many people as possible and, above all, bring value to your group.
What about you? Do you have any particular advice to share with us on how to grow a Facebook group?
