Have you considered using a Facebook Group for your business? While starting and maintaining a Facebook Group may seem a little intimidating and does require time and energy each week, there are some big benefits. Facebook Groups are a great way to add more value to your audience. With the recent addition by Facebook to allow fan pages to join Facebook Groups, starting and maintaining a group for your brand is an initiative worth considering. Below I’ve laid out 4 tactics to help further your business with Facebook Groups.
Facebook has some pre-populated rules for groups, but you’re encouraged to add your own. Creating group rules helps to keep things in order by setting the tone for what kind of behavior is expected and tolerated from your members. The rules can be as strict or as open to interpretation as you would like. The important thing is to ensure that the rules you set in place play a role in creating the group experience you aim to provide.
Creating rules for members of the group can also help mitigate any unnecessary unpleasantness if you ever need to remove someone from the group. The rules can also protect your business from a legal perspective, so having your legal team review them is recommended.
As with all things social media, consistency is key.
Creating a digital marketing campaign and using a management tool can be incredibly helpful in ensuring you are consistent with your posting frequency. Simply enter your group content into your management tool at the same time that you are scheduling organic public posts
For additional convenience, try creating a calendar with weekly themes that are laid out a few weeks to a month in advance. This layout will provide a source of base content for you to pull from quickly each week, and help you to focus on content that will encourage more engagement and conversation within the group.
In a perfect world, responding to every post and question would be a given. However, between to-do lists a mile long and limited hours in the day, making your Facebook Group a priority can be difficult. Leaving questions unanswered and comments unliked (or responded to) is the fastest way to lose group members.
Set a specified timeframe (24 hours is standard) goal for when you’ll respond to questions and comments. The best way to meet this goal is to set aside a few minutes on your calendar each day at the same time to address any questions, comments, or concerns you receive. Whatever process you setup, make sure you don’t use copy and paste generic responses. Personalize the conversation by tailoring responses to the individual and their comment or question
Who doesn’t want an inside look that the majority of others aren’t able to get? Exclusivity is a fantastic marketing and sales tactic, and one that plays very well into the strategy for Facebook Groups.
Creating exclusive content solely for the members of your Facebook group is a great way to entice the individuals you are most interested in to join, as well as to keep them engaged.
You can use the group to offer exclusive discounts, private downloads, early releases and even live sessions. These types of offers and invitations provide group members with the sense that they are VIPs and will ultimately make them more likely to remain in the group and engage with your content.
Now that you have 4 tried and true tactics, get started with a Facebook Group for your brand. And make sure and let us know how it goes.