Marketing through Facebook Groups is one of a Ninja digital marketing secret. In this article, we will discuss about below topics –
- THREE Ways to Get More Facebook Group Members
- THREE Ways to Keep a Steady Flow of Content to Your Facebook Group
- How to Create a Facebook Group That Runs Itself
- How To Promote Your Content In Another Facebook Group
- Using Facebook Groups for Feedback and Suggestions
3 Ways to Get More Facebook Group Members
The main benefit of a Facebook group is not that it allows you to grow your audience and reach lots of people.
Groups, unlike pages, are typically quieter and less public. If you have your privacy set to private, then other visitors wonÕt even be able to see the content of a group until they join!
The benefit of Facebook groups is more about increasing the engagement with the followers you already have.
And to that end, you need to think about what goes in the group more than how you promote it.
BUT with that said, you will still likely want to grow your Facebook group to at least some degree, so that you can get the best ROI for the time and effort you put into it. Here are some easy ways to grow your member count.
Link to Your Facebook Page
If you have a Facebook page, then linking to that will mean that your group appears at the top and this will attract more of your Facebook page members.
This is a great way to treat your Facebook promotion as a kind of sales funnel Ð taking your viewers from a less invested form of communication to one that involves them taking part more actively.
At the same time, this can be a really good way to Ôwake upÕ your Facebook page, if it has become somewhat stale.
Talk About It Elsewhere
Another great way to get more people into your Facebook group is to talk about it elsewhere.
If you have a blog or a YouTube channel, then make sure to actually mention your page and to make it sound enticing. Drop it into the conversation as often as possible, and choose your language carefully.
Calling your members things like “VIPs” can go a long way to making the whole concept seem more exclusive and exciting.
You can also use other types of incentive Ð for instance by offering something free from within the group only to members.
Run a Competition
Invite your members to invite other members to the group.
The member who brings in the most new members wins something. This could be an ebook or something similar, or even mean making them moderators!
Simply making more members into moderators can even have a similar effect Ð as they will likely feel pride at being in that role and want to share what they are doing with friends.
3 Ways to Keep a Steady Flow of Content to Your Facebook Group
Facebook groups are highly powerful marketing tools that can allow you to build an extremely engaged and loyal audience Ð perhaps moreso than other options such as Facebook pages.
But while a Facebook group is unique in the way it often gets used, it still requires content and discussion to provide value.
People came to your group because they wanted to discuss a subject they’re passionate about and learn more about it. If the group is empty, then they’ll leave.
How do you keep your Facebook group full of great content? Here are three excellent options.
Research
One of the best ways to use a Facebook group is to share content you find on the web that you think your audience will be interested in.
Ideally, this should be the kind of ‘higher caliber’ content that only those that are extremely well-versed in the subject matter would be interested in Ð the kinds of stuff that your shallower blog might not share.
But where to get this highly engaging and fascinating content? The answer is to dedicate some time each day to researching topics.
And one of the best ways to go about that is to head over to BuzzSumo (www.buzzsumo.com).
Here, you can type in any niche and get a selection of posts that are trending on social media on that topic.
This is an amazing strategy, because it lets you find content that you already know is capable of performing well on the platform.
Another option is to sign up to other similar Facebook groups and pages and to use those for inspiration.
Allow Posts From Members
There are many different settings you can tweak in your Facebook group. One is to decide to allow members to post to your group or not.
You can alternatively allow posts but require that all said posts are approved by a moderator.
By allowing posts, you empower your members to share content and start discussions, thereby ensuring a steady flow of new content and information!
Use Post Scheduling
Did you know you can schedule posts on Facebook? Write the post as you normally would, but instead of hitting post, hit the small clock icon next to that button.
This way, you can choose when the post goes live.
If you know you’re going to be busy, then spend a day researching great content and then just set it to go live at set intervals.
How to Create a Facebook Group That Runs Itself
There are many great reasons to create a Facebook group for your business, but one of the most compelling is that this is a project that can run itself.
Facebook groups are used by one billion people on the planet, and allow for a far more engaged and personal form of communication between brands and their customers.
Despite these facts, a lot of companies simply aren’t using them. The reason for this is that they don’t feel they have the time or resources to dedicate to yet another marketing endeavor on Facebook! They’re already running a Facebook page and an advertising campaign!
But what if the group could run itself? What if you could set it up, walk away, and then come back months later to find it had grown huge?
This is completely possible owing to the community nature of the group.
A Facebook group allows people to discuss their favorite topics, share stories and tips, and generally Ôtalk amongst themselvesÕ. While it can be useful to facilitate conversation in person, you aren’t strictly needed at all!
How do you get to this point?
First of all, you choose a topic for your Facebook group that is very niche. By doing this, you target a more select segment of the population, who are therefore likely to have more in common and therefore have more to discuss with one another.
At the same time, you need to make sure that there are clear and concise rules that help to set the tone for interactions and help people behave toward one another in a courteous fashion.
There is an option in the settings to set this up.
By keeping your group private at least to begin with and inviting people manually/requiring approval for new members, you can thereby ensure that at least the first batch of members will have the right attitude.
This will again hopefully set a ‘tone’ for the rest of the members and the conversation going forward.
Another thing to consider is making some of your own members into moderators.
That means they will be tasked with approving posts and members, and clamping down on any breaches of your terms.
By using moderators, you not only offload some of your own work, but you also create extremely loyal followers in those moderators who will be pleased to have been chosen, and likely to feel even more committed to your brand as a result.
How To Promote Your Content In Another Facebook Group
When you think about marketing via a Facebook group, you probably think about creating your own Facebook group and then using this in order to promote a product or service that youÕve created.
While this is an effective and viable option for promoting your business however, it is only one of several marketing strategies involving the use of Facebook groups.
In fact, one of the best ways to use a Facebook group is by using groups made by other brands and users. But there is a way to go about this if you want to be successful. Read on to make sure you get it right!
Choosing the Right Group
This is what we call the ‘go to market’ strategy. It means finding somewhere that your target demographic is likely to spend time, and then marketing to that specific group.
For example, if you sell martial arts supplies, then you might look for Facebook groups about martial arts, UFC, karate, or even Jackie Chan movies.
The key is to make sure that the group members match your ideal target demographic (or buyer persona) as closely as is possible. Ideally, the subject of the group should almost precisely match the industry you are in.
At the same time though, as we can see in this example, there is also some benefit to occasionally trying related and tangential topics.
Someone who doesn’t do martial arts but DOES love Jackie Chan, might consider buying a book on kung fu for example.
By looking for tangentially related subject matters, you can often open up your products to entirely new potential customers.
This is also a great way to increase your readership if you run a blog or website.
Contributing
While missing the mark with your niche is a common mistake, itÕs actually the less serious mistake that gets made.
More serious is when you post your content to a group and the moderators remove your post and remove you from the group!
This happens a lot because you might look as though you are simply spamming the group and using it for self-promotion (which you kind of are).
The solution then is not to start using the group for self-promotion right away, but to FIRST use it as it was intended. Answer questions, post interesting blog posts, and generally try to make a name for yourself.
This is the secret ingredient that so many marketers are missing.
Using Facebook Groups for Feedback and Suggestions
Facebook groups are extremely useful for any business or brand, yet they often go under-utilized. Of course one of the big advantages of a Facebook group is that it allows a level of conversation and intimacy that is often missing from Facebook pages.
This is somewhere for people who are like minded and share similar interests to meet and discuss and it’s amazing for getting people invested in your brand and community.
But what it can ALSO be, is an excellent opportunity to get feedback and information. And in many ways, that can be the perfect business model.
A lot of businesses make the mistake of thinking of social media Ð and the web as a whole Ð as a platform, a pedestal, or perhaps a megaphone.
They think of this as a way to scream out to the world and get their message across.
This is understandable, given that this is how traditional marketing has worked for many years.
In fact though, the most successful use of the internet in marketing is as much about what you get back as it is about what you put out.
It’s about letting the audience become a part of the creation process, thereby increasing their investment significantly and making them feel a part of something.
In the case of a blog, you might have spent the last several years posting content to your blog and finding that people arenÕt reading or sharing it. So why not instead ask your Facebook group the content they’d like to see?
If they tell you, then you can almost guarantee that they will be interested in reading that content at least.
More likely still, they will be representative of a much large audience that will also enjoy the content.
And the same goes for a product. You can simply ask your customers what product they would get excited about, and then make that product.
It’s a foolproof business model! Not only have you made something that you KNOW there is an audience for, but also you have made that audience feel more invested due to the role they played in making it happen.
There are countless other ways to use a Facebook group to collect information. You can use it to learn about how your audience found your brand for instance, or you can use it to learn about your competitors.
Either way, many companies spend thousands for this. With a Facebook group, you can get it all for free!
