How to use Facebook Groups for your Business (Guide)

Now, I know what you're wondering. Did I make a Facebook group just for this video? And the answer to that question is yes. Yes, I did. What's up? It's Jamal from HubSpot. I'm going to explain to you the best way to use Facebook groups to market your business. If you find this useful, be sure to like this video and subscribe to the HubSpot YouTube channel. In early 2018, Facebook doubled down on community engagement and put groups front and center on the platform, increasing organic reach in users, news feeds and notifications, and even running television ads to promote the feature. That's why today, Facebook groups occupy a larger role in the lives of Facebook users than ever before. With 1.4 billion users active in over 10 million groups, that's almost 20% of all people on earth. And global lockdowns have made digital communities like Facebook groups more vital than ever before. A survey conducted by Facebook during the COVID pandemic revealed that 77% say the most important group they are a part of now operates online. And a staggering 98% of people who belong to a online groups say they feel a sense of belonging to that group. And in the Jamal fan club, it's 100%. Come join us. Yet most businesses are just starting to harness the power of Facebook groups to promote their brand. Why is that? Well, for starters, using groups is quite different from Facebook's other tools when it comes to marketing. When running a Facebook group for your brand, your focus should be not on marketing, but engagement. And you might be thinking, isn't engagement always the focus on Facebook? But I'm not talking about just metrics. I mean, truly engaging with your group as if you're throwing a party just for friends. Everything you do on Facebook groups should try to make members feel special. That's the fundamental way that groups are different from Facebook pages. And in the Jamal fan club, we're raging constantly with that in mind. The first decision when setting up your group is whether to make it public or private. Public means that the content in the group is searchable and shareable, making it easier to grow the number of members. It also lets anyone see the list of group members. The problem is, not everyone wants the world to know that they've joined the group any more than they'd want someone to go through their bag or be reading their purchase history. Private groups limit who can see the content and member lists to current members only. This not only makes people less hesitant to join the group, it also makes them more confident in speaking freely. Once in the group. And that is what I mean when I say engagement. In fact, some of the most effective branded Facebook groups, like National Geographic's Women of Impact and Gold's Gym's Challenge, are private. So don't be afraid to add a tiny bit of user friction if it means fostering a sense of exclusivity. If you do decide to go with a private group, you'll have to also decide if you want the group to be visible, meaning it can be found via search, or hidden, meaning the only way to know about the group is to be invited. A hidden group is like a secret club and can be a great added value if your business offers some sort of premium level membership or service. Finally, add an image to your group. Try to use something that is slightly different from your brand's Facebook page so that the group is easily recognizable. Now that your group has been created, it's time to start getting members. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't make this easy. In fact, they recently removed several tools allowing you to easily add your page followers and replace it with a field that requires you to manually enter the names of individuals that you want to invite to join the group. Whack. However, there are still several ways to convert Page followers into group members. Start by announcing your new Facebook group by sharing it on your existing Facebook page. You can also pin the announcement on the top of your Facebook page. Next, use your other marketing channels. Spread the link via email, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. Wherever you engage with your community, encourage people to become founding members of your new group. Remember, it's all about making people feel special. You know, give them that warm old fuzzy feeling inside. That's something that we offer in spades. In Jamal Fan Club, you can incentivize some of your top customers and brand advocates to join the group by giving them special promotions or even sharing moderator privileges with them. We'll talk more about moderators in a little bit. You can also run Facebook ads promoting your group, but you probably want to save those dollars until you have an active group going. Once people are flocking to your group, you have to start approving their membership, which is no task. Now, before you throw your hands up, let me teach you a few ways you can automate approving new members while still weeding out trolls, spammers, and other bad actors. The first thing you can do is set up a questionnaire related to your product or service that users have to answer to be automatically admitted. You can also set up a geofilter to automatically let people in within, say, 25 miles of your location. This is particularly useful for local businesses. You can allow friends of existing group members instant access and you can filter out any Facebook profiles that are less than three months, six months, one year or two years old, which will remove most bots trolls but still leave the door open for self promoters who could spam your group. Unfortunately, this is why it's a good idea to use two or more filters if you want to allow for automatic entry. If you really want to curate your group but just can't handle vetting all the approvals internally, you can go into group settings and change the setting to allow any current group members to approve new members requests. You might think that offloading approvals on your existing members seems unprofessional, but it can actually make your existing members feel empowered, reinforcing their personal stake in the health of your group. Jamal Fan Club, you know what to do. Always remember that when it comes to inbound marketing, the goal is to create a positive experience for each and every customer. Your Facebook group is an extension of that mandate. That's why effective moderation is essential to success. Facebook groups need to feel like a safe and intimate space where a community can grow around your brand. Irrelevant or unpleasant content, even just from one or two users, can be a major obstacle in achieving that goal. Moderation can be divided into two initiating conversation and moderating conversation. Initiating conversation involves creating content specifically for your group that is different from what you're already making for your page. In fact, most of the promotional content you make for your Facebook page is ineffective for Facebook groups. No one joins a Facebook group to be marketed to. So what should you do to initiate conversation in your Facebook group? Well, an easy place to start is by posting questions to your group or creating polls. Make these relevant to the interests of the members even if if not specific to your brand. This isn't a survey to gain data. This is a chance for group members to talk about their interests. Challenges are a great way to engage your audience. This might seem obvious for fitness and wellness brands, but genuinely any Facebook group can promote Mustache, Movember or a challenge to read 10 pages of a book every day. Get creative. You can also let your group members get creative by asking for user generated content. Would you believe that Throwback Thursdays are still a thing? Just make sure that your content is genuine and that you listen to your group members. Encouraging conversation by commenting and liking posts by others is as valuable as starting from conversations and maybe even more so. Pretty soon group members will start to use the group as a place to ask you questions about your brand. Always be modest and encouraging when addressing customer pain points in a public forum. If everything goes as planned, your group members will soon start talking amongst themselves. And that's the real magic of Facebook groups. Unlike other marketing tools that need you to constantly feed new content, the best groups feed themselves. While you reap the benefits of a loyal and engaged community built around your brand, all you have to do is keep the conversation congenial. Which brings us to moderating conversation. It's no secret that social media can be a place where people don't always display their best selves. All it takes is one or two troublemakers to sour an online experience for everyone. Of course, that never happens in the Jamal fan club. It's all good, all the time, all the members, never trolls. They're great people. That's my money back guarantee, but you're not getting any money from me. There are a few tools that Facebook offers to help confront the challenge of keeping things civil online. Start by setting up group rules and having users agree to those rules as part of the entrance questionnaire when joining a group. Besides the obvious things like no bullying and no spamming, this is a great place to tell people what they can expect from the group. What sort of content is encouraged. That way you're being proactive rather than just scolding. Next, recruit a reliable group of moderators who can oversee the quality of the conversation. These can be members of your existing team, community management pros you hire for the task, or even highly active group members who you deputize to help keep your and their group a pleasant place to spend time online. Moderators have the power to hide or delete inappropriate posts and comments. They can also shut off commenting entirely for threads that are getting out of hand. The last line of defense is to approve all posts and comments in your group before they go live. Now, this is not ideal, because any delays in user interaction with the group will dramatically reduce overall engagement. Even if you have an army of moderators reviewing submissions in real time, moderating a conversation is a challenge because it often requires you to make judgment calls. For additional advice, we studied how teachers manage their classrooms. No surprise, much of it applied to moderating Facebook groups. First, you want to make sure everyone understands the expectations of the group. All group members agree to the rules when they join, but a gentle reminder in times of trouble is a good start. Next, remove users who repeatedly cause problems. This can be hard for brands who believe that the customer is always right. But better to lose one jackass by choice than a bunch of quiet customers through inaction. Sorry, Charlie, you gotta go. And most importantly, don't yell. Yelling at a classroom full of kids bears little fruit, and arguing on social media accounts accomplishes even less. If you feel that a conflict is being caused by a misunderstanding, you can try resolving it in your DMs away from the group. Or just delete, block and move on by building a Facebook group for your business that is safe, supportive, and helpful to its members. There's no limit to the amount of positive sentiment you can generate for your business. So, yeah, I'll see you in the fan club. Good luck out there. 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