5 Facts About Facebook Groups To Help Your Business Grow

There are over 1.4 billion Facebook users. That’s a lot of people that you could potentially reach with your business. And one way to do that is through Facebook groups.

What are Facebook groups? How can they help your business? Let’s take a look.

Here are 5 benefits of starting a Facebook group.

1) Form A Closer Bond With Your Community

Facebook groups are a great way to connect with potential and current customers.

You can use Facebook groups to build relationships with potential and current customers. By doing this, you’re more likely to convert leads into customers and keep existing customers happy.

2) Facebook Groups Allow Members To Engage With You

Facebook groups offer a unique way to connect with your target audience.

This is because unlike Facebook pages, which are mostly one-way communication, Facebook groups allow for two-way communication. This means you can interact with group members and they can interact with you.

I'm currently a member of several Facebook groups and will from time to time take a few minutes to read the group discussions to learn what is new on Facebook as well as engage with the community.

3) Build Trust With By Engaging With Your Facebook Group

Building trust is essential for any business. And your Facebook group is an excellent way to do this.

When you interact with group members and offer valuable insights, you’re more likely to build trust. And that trust can lead to sales.

4) Create A Facebook Group Strategy

Develop a Facebook group marketing plan.

Engagement: Set the tone by encouraging discussion with your Facebook group posting.

Develop Thought Leaders: Post valuable insights, as mentioned above, and if your product would bring additional value to your Facebook group members offer that as a solution.

Reach: Consider writing a blog post about topics that are mentioned in the Facebook group.

Ultimately, you want to encourage members who are discussing or posting content that you like. This way you can get like-minded people in your group that can be an extension of your brand and increase your reach.

5) Facebook Groups Are Easy To Setup

Another great thing about Facebook groups is that they’re easy to set up and manage. You don’t need any technical expertise to create a group or add members.

Next, we will discuss the different types of Facebook groups available to you as well as some Frequently Asked Questions. However, if you would like to dive into the setup of your Facebook group you can jump there now.

What Types Of Facebook Groups Exist?

There are two types of Facebook groups: private and public.

Facebook Public Groups are easy to find and anyone can join. People can also see the post and members before joining, unlike private groups where this is hidden until after being accepted.

Private Facebook groups on the other hand require that new members accept the Facebook group rules and be admitted by the Facebook group admin.

Occasionally, you will come across a private Facebook group that is secret. Well, I guess you won't just come across it. Because these secret groups require the admin to invite people.

Once put in place and made live this "secret" setting makes your group "Hidden". This is great if you have a Facebook group where new members must first receive an invite before applying.

If you don't mind people searching for your group and applying to join your private group.

You can make it "Visible" so that everyone on Facebook can find it. Of course, your group admin still has a say over who gets accepted.

The main benefit of being visible is that you can be found through Facebook search and don't need to invite people before the group starts getting applicants.

Below is Facebook's comparison between Visible and Hidden.

Something to keep in mind, although you can change your group from public to private. If you decide to go with a private Facebook group you cannot change this to a public Facebook group.

This is to protect the privacy of existing members who may want their identities to remain hidden.

If you decide you still want to make this change you will then have 3 days to change your mind. Once the change goes into place all members will be notified of your change to a private group.

What Make A Facebook Group Successful?

As you can see Facebook groups can be used for a variety of purposes.

The group can be used to promote a business, build a following for your mission, or simply connect with like-minded individuals.

No matter what the purpose of the group is, certain elements make a successful Facebook group.

The first element is a clear and concise description of the group. The description should explain what the group is for and what kind of content will be posted. This will help like-minded people understand if the group is a good fit for them.

The second element is active members. A Facebook group is only as successful as its members. If no one is posting or interacting, the group will quickly become stagnant.

Depending on the engagement, consider making some of your most active members moderators/admins to try and jump-start some of these conversations.

Hopefully, this will also allow for the group's growth organically, as your moderators rave about your mission.

The third element is Facebook group engagement. Without Facebook group engagement from quality posts, there is no reason to come back to the group.

To increase Facebook group engagement, encourage existing members to post content of their own, and make it easy for them to do so by providing clear guidelines on what kinds of content are welcome in the group. Below are some ideas for guidelines.

• Group posts that focus on fostering conversation on a particular topic.

• Group posts that focus on your mission

• Group posts that ask questions about your topic.

Things you don't allow

• Spammy content

• Threats of violence

• Bad language

• Topics that may or may not be sensitive to people in the group.

Neither of these lists is exhaustive but should give you a place to start. If you need more help you can always apply to join new Facebook groups and see what the rules are and if they apply to your group page.

Lastly, provide opportunities for members to participate through games, polls, or contests.

Common Questions Around Facebook Groups

Below are some Frequently Asked Questions that you will want to tackle before creating your Facebook group.

Ready to create your Facebook group. Jump ahead to our guide on creating your Facebook group.

Can Anyone Post In Groups On Facebook?

Facebook groups can be set up so that anyone can post, or only Facebook group admins can post. If you want to allow anyone to post, go to the group settings and select "Anyone can post." If you want to limit posting to group admins, select "Admins Only."

What Group Rules Should I Establish?

Before you create your Facebook group, it's a good idea to establish some rules. These rules will need to be accepted by new members of your Facebook group. Here are a few ideas:

• Only post relevant content

• No spamming

• No personal attacks or harassment

• Be respectful of other members

Of course, you can tailor these rules to fit the specific needs of your group members.

Can I Search For Facebook Groups?

Yes, you can search for Facebook groups. To do this, go to the Facebook search bar and type in a keyword or phrase related to the group you're looking for. For example, if you're looking for a group about knitting, you would type "knitting" into the search bar. Facebook will then show the public and private-visible groups that match your search.

Can I Kick Someone Out Of My Facebook Group?

Maybe you have a disorderly group member or you have a secret group that is only accessible to paying members, but now the member has stopped paying. Can you kick that member out?

Yes, Facebook group admins can remove members from groups. To do this, go to your Facebook group and select members.

Then search for the member and kick them.

When you kick a member you can also choose to delete their last 7 days of posts, comments, and reactions.

Can Facebook Groups Have More Than One Admin?

You can kick people out of the Facebook Group, but maybe you want to have one of your moderators do this so that you aren't managing the day-to-day of the Facebook Group.

Facebook groups can have more than one admin. To add an admin, go to the member's section. This is the same process as kicking someone in this case you will make the person you search for an admin.

Successfully Measuring Facebook Group Insights

There are several Facebook group engagement metrics that you can use to gauge your Facebook group health.

Here are some of the most important ones:

The number of members: This is the most basic metric, but it's still important. The number of members in your group will give you an idea of how popular it is and how much reach it has.

Consider comparing group members from different times in the year to find your growth rate.

Posting activity: This metric will tell you how active your group is. If there are a lot of posts, it means that members are engaging with the group. If there aren't many posts, it could mean that the group is inactive or that members aren't finding the content interesting.

Comments and likes: This metric will show you how engaged members are with the content in your group. The more comments and likes a post has, the more engagement it's getting.

Group admins: The number of group admins is another important metric. Having more than one admin helps to keep the group organized and hopefully reduces your time managing it.

Not listed as a measurement of Facebook group engagement is sales.

If done properly you may see sales come as a result of solving a question in your group. Or a post promoting your product. However, the primary goal of your group members is Facebook group engagement.

Another reason is that it is very hard to measure which clicks are coming from your Facebook page, group, or ads in Google analytics.

If we can't properly estimate our sales numbers in this channel it makes it difficult to scale our efforts.

How To Set Up Your Facebook Group

Don't have a Facebook group created yet and want to dive in? Below we will walk through the step to set up your group.

Below I'll provide you with a quick walkthrough of everything you need to know and do to start either your private or public Facebook group.

Although you don't need to create a Facebook business page to create your group. Having a Facebook page will help with your Facebook group marketing.

To create your Facebook group, go to the "Groups" tab.

Select "Create New Group".

Once there give your group a name. Then choose if you want your group to be private or public. We discussed the differences above.

If you decide to go with a public group go to the next step. If you go with a private group, you have the option to make it hidden or visible.

Create group.

Then you can edit your cover photo.

Follow the five steps to continue setting up your group. The description is a good place to add group rules and guidelines for Facebook group posts.

The last step is to visit group settings.

From here you can customize the group, manage membership, and the discussion.

First head to manage membership. If you want to manage who can approve new members to your group this is the place.

Keep in mind that the default setting is to let members approve anyone who is a friend into the group. If you would like admins and moderators to approve group members you need to change this setting and hit save.

Remember when we said it's helpful to have a Facebook business page?

You can connect your Facebook page to your group. This will help grow your Facebook presence as followers of one are more likely to join the other.

When you visit group settings scroll down to the bottom of the page and select Linked Pages.

Within the linked page options you can connect your Facebook page to your Facebook group.

Create A Facebook Group Today And Start To Grow Your Facebook Presence

Successful Facebook groups are powered by the community and are not spammy.

They will provide members with an outlet for questions and discussion on topics you care about that can hopefully, be answered by the community saving you time and effort.

Ultimately, your Facebook group will allow you to reach more people, have greater engagement, and increase sales for your brand.