Has the number of people that join your Facebook group decreased? Do you want to breathe fresh vitality into your neighborhood?
In this post, you'll learn about some of the most common mistakes organizations make when it comes to Facebook Groups, as well as how to avoid them.
Why Do Facebook Groups Still Work for Community Building?
If you're wondering if Facebook is still a viable choice for growing your business, the fact is that no other social media site can now supercharge your community like Facebook.
Of course, Facebook continues to be the most popular social networking site. Not only are they the biggest, but they've also spent the most time developing community-focused tools and services.
Not only that, but if done correctly, a Facebook community is one of the few branding assets that take less time and care from you as it expands.
The more you expand on social media, the more effort you'll have to put into maintaining your profile and connecting with your followers. This isn't the case with Facebook groups like Boss-Moms since your network grows as you grow. Within the community, natural leaders will emerge to assist keep the discourse on the topic. Senior members will take on the role of greeting newcomers and assisting in the formation of the group culture.
Because your community will be there for you, you won't have to be there babysitting and commenting on every single post in an attempt to keep the engagement up. Because, once again, your community will be there, you won't have to censor the material or ensure that no one is breaching the rules.
If you've created a community with a strong sense of culture, you won't have to worry nearly as much about providing material for the group. The larger your group, the more stuff will be available to you. It seems contradictory since the more people that join and follow you on social media, the more material you have to develop and manage to keep them interested. Facebook groups, on the other hand, do not follow the same set of regulations.
#1: 5 Common Facebook Group Mistakes to Avoid
If you're having trouble getting your Facebook group to participate, some of these frequent blunders might be to blame.
Sharing Inspiring Articles
When it comes to developing Facebook communities, one of the first mistakes businesses make is forgetting to consider how their material within the group will contribute to the community's culture.
They'll, for example, make a lot of inspiring posts. Sometimes these inspiring messages may include bits of their tale or a snapshot of their day, and the community generally enjoys them. In fact, because the community enjoys these postings so much, they frequently receive a lot of interaction.
Unfortunately, these posts are frequently empty and provide little to no value to the community. Even the community involvement that such posts do receive is in the form of empty comments. You'll notice a lot of "you got this" and other celebratory comments on those kinds of postings. However, you are unlikely to come across a conversation starter.
As a result, these posts feel good since the creator gets some validation for their accomplishments, and the community gets to affirm their accomplishments as well. But that's the end of the relationship. Because there is no communication, the community stops going to visit people after a while. There isn't a single word spoken.
If the group's culture is established by the founder publishing encouraging postings, this teaches members of the community that it is OK to submit similar motivational posts. However, if motivating postings are of little use and fail to spark discourse, the group's culture will suffer.
Using Photos That Aren't in Context
Another common blunder made by marketers and companies with their groups is sharing too many images of themselves rather than anything related to the topic. When a creative asks a question or tells a tale, they frequently follow up with a "picture for attention."
Unfortunately, such kinds of photographs don't get much attention because it isn't usually why people gather in the first place. People joined the community to learn more about the answers you give as a business, not to view images of you or ask unrelated questions. If you're going to share a photo in the group, make sure it has some context and is related to the topic at hand.
Your Content's Branding
Businesses and marketers have a tendency to over-brand everything that comes into their organization. They aim to include their brand and emblem in every photograph, graphic, and quotation. However, your community members will develop brand weariness as a result of this.
People begin to tune out after a time since they aren't there to have your brand thrust in their faces. They're looking for the solution that your brand or company can provide.
Publication of Teaching Positions
This can also leak over into any coaching or instructional resources you try to provide to your group. Many businesses and brands have clubs dedicated to teaching their customers about the skills, services, or goods they provide. The issue with continually uploading educational materials is that even those who join up to be a part of your community don't want to be lectured at all times.
Remember that the initial purpose of any community is to have a dialogue, which is a two-way street by definition. Your community will soon tune out your instructional materials and seek a different discourse if you continue to upload them.
Failure to Establish Clear Boundaries
Last but not least, it's critical to create clear limits inside your Facebook group.
Members in unrestricted groups are free to post whatever they want at any time. And if you've done a fantastic job of establishing the culture and educating your members on what kind of information to publish, this isn't always an issue. However, in smaller or younger organizations, the lack of set boundaries can make the group feel disorganized and difficult to follow.
Various strong personalities frequently emerge and begin to assume leadership roles within the community, ultimately forming their own culture inside the group.
The first stage in defining your group's borders is to decide on posting guidelines. No motivating postings, no advertising costs, no links, and other similar rules are used by many communities.
Group creators have two choices for enforcing these restrictions: allow all posts to be published and have a moderator remove any posts that fall outside of the boundaries, or allow all posts to be published and have a moderator delete any posts that fall outside of the boundaries.
Keeping post approvals off and having the moderators delete the posts has the extra benefit of allowing you to notify the post's author and inform them of which rule the post violated. You can use this method to instruct new members who only skimmed or didn't completely read or comprehend your group's rules before joining.
Pro Tip: You can use Facebook's Admin Assist tool to set up automated content filters for your group. For example, you might set it up to automatically reject postings that contain terms that are frequently seen in promotional posts. You might also make a rule that if a group member deletes more than three posts, approval is disabled for a week or two.
#2: Create Content for Your Facebook Group to Increase Engagement
We've seen a variety of content styles that have gotten a lot of interaction and results in Facebook groups: educational posts, motivating posts, and posts looking for beta testers, to name a few. When compared to those that inspire a true dialogue, these ones today fall flat.
When it comes to developing your group's content strategy, keep the notion of having a dialogue at the forefront of your mind.
Establish Your Organization's Culture
Setting the tone for your group's culture is crucial to fostering meaningful discourse. Most people believe you do this simply by stating your organization's mission, but this is not the case. Permissions are involved. Identify a common source of guilt for your target community members and offer them permission to feel bad about it.
If your target community member is a mother who has launched a business, for example, many moms, even when working from home, feel bad about how much they have to work. Your organization may embrace them for who they are and give them permission to not be perfect in all parts of their lives, giving them a sense of belonging in your community.
People want to feel like they've discovered a place where they belong, where they're welcomed, and where any flaws they perceive in themselves are forgiven.
It's critical to explicitly communicate this authorization to your group through your content once you've defined it. Video, for example, is an excellent method to convey this consent since others can see and hear your face. Upload a video to your highlighted area and pin it there so that it's the first thing people see when they join your group.
You might also make Facebook group units that explain how members can get the most out of their membership.
Initiate a Meaningful Discussion
The good news is that there are lots of conversion-inducing tactics that aren't all that dissimilar to what used to work in Facebook groups. You can, for example, add a large number of prompts. Many people love responding to prompts or answering inquiries. They like offering advice and expressing their viewpoints.
You may include an occasional question that allows them to talk about their company, such as inquiring about their podcast, depending on the sort of group you're conducting. This will assist to teach the community to be on the lookout for those kinds of possibilities and to keep those kinds of posts in one thread.
The beautiful thing about asking your community questions is that you can ask them about anything and get a lot of positive feedback. For example, you can conduct market research by asking certain questions. You might inquire about the tools they use or require in order to build new items. You can enlist their assistance in making a decision on anything in your community.
Asking these questions will not only keep your community active and engaged, but it will also provide you with valuable information about why people are in your group and what you can do to keep them there.
#3: Respond to Comments in Your Facebook Group to Encourage More Participation
One thing to keep in mind when you post questions in your group is that you want to start a dialogue. As a result, make sure you reply to comments and ask others to do the same.
You may use a variety of ways to do this, but one of the most successful is to spread out your answers to member comments throughout the day. Every time you respond to someone's comment, it pushes the post back to the top of the group, bringing it back into view of everyone and inviting further discussion.
It's critical that you answer in the same manner as you did when you made the original post. If you have a large team of individuals helping you run your page and wish to post using your personal account, it should be replying to comments alongside everyone else.
If you post on your page, it should reply to comments in the same way that everyone else does. If you use your personal account to publish to your Facebook group and then leave the group so that others may handle comments, the Facebook algorithm will see you as abandoning the post, which will lower your total engagement.
#4: Convert Members of Facebook Groups Into Customers
First and foremost, you're missing out if you're not collecting email addresses from your community members when they join your Facebook group. Having your community members on your email list is one of the finest strategies to help convert them into customers. Then, depending on how much traffic your Facebook community receives, publish your request roughly once a week.
This should not be one of your opt-ins, but rather one of your offers. And of all the postings in your group, this is the one you want to trademark.
Consider these inquiries to be billboards. They won't garner much attention, but when used in conjunction with an engaging group and a nurturing email, they'll remind your community members of your services. You'll see that your community members may inquire about your offer based on an email you put out in some of your previous posts.
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Salty Red Dog Marketing, LLC is a marketing agency in Red Bank, NJ, Westport, CT, and everywhere in between. We service businesses with marketing strategies, digital marketing, social media, and consultations.
Contact: info@saltyreddogmarketing.com
Phone: NJ: (732) 802-6205 // CT: (203) 429-9671
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