From 0 to 20,000: How To Grow A Facebook Group

how to grow a Facebook group. And hasn't at some point in their professional careers have wanted to leverage a Facebook group business? Uh, well, we have the perfect person on with us today on Cashing On Camera. Cindy has done that, right? She has grown very quickly a Facebook group from 0 to 20,000. That is no small feat for anyone on Facebook. And so we brought Cindy on today to share her wisdom, share her secrets on how she did that. And more importantly, Cindy, we would want to grow a Facebook group, maybe of our own, some tips and strategies. And we're going to be able to dig into that today. First of all, congratulations on your success, because as anyone knows, it's no small feat. What prompted you to want to grow this Facebook group in the first place?

Yeah, thanks, Cheryl. Thanks for having me. First of all, I love talking Facebook. I love talking Facebook groups. And you know, I, I've been in marketing for my entire career, right? 25 years. And I know Facebook, I know social media, I know the strategic component of it. Didn't really know Facebook groups, but being a small business owner myself, I own a marketing consulting agency. I, when the pandemic hit, I wanted to do something to help small businesses. And my first thought went to social media. So I started a Facebook group that was to support small businesses during COVID during the pandemic. And the next thing I knew, it, you know, it blew up. And like you said, within a year we actually had just under 24,000 members. And it was all really surrounded around supporting small businesses during this critical time. And we have members from all over the world, which is so fun and so cool. Yeah.

Yeah, I love it. And it's called Supporting Small and Local Businesses, and the idea behind it is that you are aging, you're providing resources. So what is the intent behind the group specifically?

Yes, so there's really a couple, um, of really great things in the group. The first is that we do have so many members, right? So that alone, from a networking point of view is fantastic, right? So we're just at under 20,000. And I can sort of explain why I did that. Why at one point we were at 24, now we're under 20. People are like, what's that all about? But so just the fact that we have almost 20,000 members from all over the world, that alone, the networking is fantastic. So you have members who are, you know, making sales, making connections, meeting power partners just through the group alone, which is great. And then on top of that, I know being a small business owner, owner myself, a lot of small businesses, particularly the solopreneurs, the mom-and-pop shops, they don't have really big budgets, right, for marketing. And it's kind of like a revolving door. That's what I say, like, you need marketing to get clients, but you need clients to have money for marketing, right? So my number one goal in that Facebook group is to really support small businesses with marketing. So we do things like offer a free marketing workshop every Tuesday at 12 o'clock Eastern. It's free, it's an hour. The members tell me what they they want to learn. So this week, this past Tuesday, we did advertising. It was an hour-long conversation. We gave the top 7 ways to advertise and 5 tips to do that inexpensively. So we always bring it back to doing it very inexpensively. And then every Thursday, as you know, Cheryl, because you were one of my guests, we do a 30-minute discussion with a thought leader who talks about something, can be marketing related, but something that the business owners can really learn and take away from them that maybe isn't necessarily marketing related. Today we're actually— it does happen to be marketing related, but it's on social media today. But we've had finance, HR, um, and really it's just run the gamut. So it's really just helping to offer more resources to these small businesses who maybe don't have the budget to do so.

Yeah. And so I wanted in on this because if, if someone is wanting and they're saying, okay, great, I would love to do what Cindy did, I would love to start a Facebook group and be able to grow it to that degree. But they might be thinking to themselves, okay, well, what is there if it's free? Obviously it's free to join a Facebook group, and then we have guest speakers and there's work that's involved and there's a kind of a regular schedule of content that we've got to put out. You know, people are going to be saying to themselves, what's the ROI? And of course our marketing brains are thinking about that. They're, you know, so let's dive into that. And what is the return on investment of creating a small, medium, or even in the case of yours, like a large Facebook group from the, from a business perspective?

Yes. So I mean, there's lots of ways that you can monetize on Facebook. Um, clearly you can do things like advertising. I haven't quite opened that up yet, but I've had been approached by a lot of people who want to advertise on my group because it's, there's so many people on it. What I do, and I've, um, just started this, is actually I have a membership. So it's closed right now, but it's a year-long membership for people who actually do have a little bit more money. It's not a lot, like it's less than they would pay for me as a consultant for 5 hours. They get me for a year. You get a private Facebook group and then it's based on 4 pillars, 4 marketing pillars. So they leave that year branding, social media, website, like SEO website and organic marketing. So you leave that year with a full strategic marketing plan, a social media plan, understanding networking, full public speaking training. And it's really, it's really a win-win because obviously it's making money, me making some money, 'cause like you said, this is a full-time job. I mean, you're looking at way more than 40 hours a week, but it's also a win for them because they could never afford what they're getting from me anywhere else. I actually guarantee that. I'm like, if you do, Bring it to me and you get the class for free because there's no way. Yeah. And then I also guarantee that your sales will go up by 10% within the first 6 months— 60 days, I'm sorry. And if they don't, then you can continue having one-on-one training with me and being in the class until it does.

So you're getting your own products and services to the 20,000 that you've built on Facebook. We're going to dig into the how to do that in a moment. But I really wanna kind of understand and want the audience to understand why you would wanna put in the energy that would be necessary as why you would even want to do that in the first place. Hearing Cindy say is creating a community essentially in this case on Facebook allows you to be able to roll products and services to that group. She has an amazing offer. She has an amazing, therefore can do that. You haven't tapped into the advertising opportunities yet. That's gonna be on the horizon. Before we get into the, from how you did it, like, how you went from 0 to 20,000 very quickly. You mentioned earlier that you originally, you had 4,000 and now you have 20,000. So you actually lost, but I know that there's a strategy behind that. And I'd love for you to share that with the audience.

Yeah, and that is definitely so. In my whole marketing firm, the 25 years I've been in marketing, I'm a strategic marketing person. So I think there's something to be said about that. I deal with strategies and all different types of strategies. And so it was very strategic, right? So at one point when the Facebook group had the 24,000 members, it sort of became a free-for-all, right? And it was like just flyer drops, hey, follow me, I'll follow you, post, you know, whatever. And I, there was no strategy behind it, zero. And I took a step back after, actually I had a couple phone calls from people who were really interested in the group. And because again, I didn't know much about Facebook groups from a strategic point of view, but I said, there's got to be something here that's strategic. We've got 24,000 people here from all over the world. 24,000 small business members or owners. We've got to be able to do more. So I hired a coach because listen, I don't know what I don't know. I'm the first to admit that. And we together developed a strategy to make it the strongest Facebook group possible for these small business members. And the way to do that was to scrub the list completely. And so I took a very long time and scrubbed the list, got rid of bots, spammers, scammers, and eventually we got down to under 14,000 members. And now we're back up to just under 20,000. And I have to tell you, it was the greatest thing too, because listen, you can have a group of 20,000 members, but if they're the wrong members, then you have, you don't have a group of 20,000 members.

Well, it's a good point. When you're building a community, you want a targeted community, especially if you're doing that with an intent or a strategy to sell your own products and services. To it, or again advertising, whatever it is, it does need to be a targeted group. Just having random— a Facebook group of 20,000 random people does— but obviously the title of the group unto itself, who it's for, it actually says so in the title. And I love how blunt and how, um, obvious it is who it's for. You know, sometimes I think we see Facebook groups are so kind of clever and there's kind of meaning, know the insights and inside joke. And so it doesn't really resonate with the audience for whom it's for. Yours is so very obvious and I love that. What I want to do now is target, let's go into how you did it, right? Very, very quickly, were you or members of your team like just, what did you do? Were you constantly on Facebook? Were you constantly sending messages? Were you promoting it every and ever possibly be? Or did it, because of the circumstances or the relevancy of what was going on at that time during COVID was the thing that really helped it jump up? I'd be curious to know.

Yeah, so I think a little bit of both. First of all, I want to emphasize by saying I did this 100% organically, right? So today, for instance, the— my, my Thursday Thoughts is about social media and advertising. That's when we talked about, you know, obviously you can buy ads for, you know, for social media groups. I did this 100% organically. And yes, you are absolutely right. At one point, and this is my number one tip that I tell everyone, it's funny that you hit on it immediately without me even saying it. The number one tip is having a name, having a name, right, that sticks and that people will be curious about and want to know, like, but that also really tells you what the group is. Name is everything. So actually at the beginning when the group was about COVID it actually said Supporting Small and Local Businesses During COVID And I think because it had the word COVID in it, it drew so many people to it. And we eventually obviously dropped the name COVID. But that was the, that's the number one tip I give people. Pick a name that draws attention, that's unique, but also explains what the group is about, right? Don't make people like, oh, have to guess like, what's this about? Because let's be real, on average, on average, people are members of over 150 groups. Like, that's a lot. That's a lot.

That's more than I would have thought.

Yeah. So you want your group to be the group that they're actually active and a participant in, right? So that Facebook name is— you want your group to be the one that they go to, right? That's in their algorithm, right? And that happens by them being an active participant. Participant. And so the name is critical by doing that. And that was by far the number one thing that I did was coming up with a name that was important. But I will tell you, I spent, I, yeah, I spent a lot of time on this group. The number two thing I did that I will tell people is I have a very, very active board, right? We have a very active group. So I answer questions, right? People post comments and I, post comments back to them. I have, like yesterday was Website Wednesday where small businesses can post a link to their website and ask for advice. I, you know, I'm a small, I've done this for 25 years. I charge usually for my business, for my time, but I'm giving it to them for free, right? I'm doing a website audit and I'm telling them here's ways that you can improve your website. So I'm giving them free advice, but I'm, we're a very active board. I comment on everything. I answer every question and that is critical as well. If you're an admin and you have a group, you've got to make it active. And if the board slows down, if the group slows down, there's lots and lots of ways out there that you can make it, pick it back up, do, you know, with games, photos. It doesn't all have to be serious and about your actual subject, if you will. I will tell you one of the most, still to this day, probably the most popular post I had was just post a picture. I just want to see you and your four-legged friend. I think we have like over 1,000 pictures. Yeah. So, you know, people like that stuff.

Cindy, are you also, let's say the 20,000 people or at one point 24,000, well, maybe not with the 24, because you did identify that some of them were bought fam or whatever, but the 20,000 that you have as Facebook group now, are they also on an actual email list and that thing, or are you nurturing them outside of the Facebook group through email marketing on a regular basis?

Yes, a very good point. And the answer to that is yes. Now I started that after I hired my coach because again, I didn't know anywhere to even start with doing that. But yes, since I now have everything in place to do that with, and that is the best way to target them, particularly with the Facebook algorithms, because I will have— I'm actually very, very lucky that Facebook has these power admins and I— there's only, you know, there's over 70 million Facebook groups. Um, there's only 14,000 Power Admins in North America, and I was chosen to be one, which is awesome. And it's a huge testament to my group. So I get— like, we get to beta test things beforehand. We get to answer— like, you know, we get to ask questions and answer questions and all that cool stuff. Um, so, um, one of the things that— oh, I kind of lost my train of thought now, what I was going to say with that.

Um, um, you were saying you're a Power Admin. 14 Oh yeah, of them across North America.

Yeah, so one of the cool things about that is that we get to ask questions and get ideas from other power admins as well, and we get to beta test. So the algorithm in regards to the emails is one of the things that many of the power admins sort of complain about, is I will have posts that will only have 200 people will see out of 20,000, and that's frustrating. And as a— and now that I'm a power admin in this group, I can say like, hey, listen, this is a complaint of mine and everybody complains the same way. But that's why email is so important because you can make sure that they're seeing it, right? So if I have like an interview like today, like I did with you, I can send that email out and the however many people are on my email list can see it.

Okay. So just want to dig in on that then. The Facebook group behaves similarly in terms of organic reach as does a Facebook page in the sense that only a small percentage of organically seeing those posts group unless you pay or boost.

Yes, yes. Okay, interesting. I did not know that, which is why I am so active in my group. I go live almost daily, um, I— because the more you post under a post, the more— the higher reach it gets, obviously.

Makes sense.

So on Sundays we do, you know, I just say like it's free promote day because I don't let anyone in my group just post on the main board because I don't— I, again, strategic. I don't want it to just be sort of a, you know, free-for-all post your flyers and then everybody's things get lost. On Sundays, I let people promote whatever they want. That's our busiest day. We got like, oh, again, our busiest day with almost 20,000 people. We only had 3,000 people reach— saw who, who actually saw it. Um, so yeah, I mean, honestly, that is pretty good. Um, and honestly, when I look at my— because I look every day at my analytics and we still have like every day I have anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people who somehow touch my board.

So, so the organic reach on a Facebook group would be higher than that on a Facebook page. It's like that the reach, because it's, it's a group that you actually curated together. I'm going to guess that the organic reach is higher.

I would, yes. I mean, they, I don't know as much about, but that's, I would, yeah. I mean, it makes sense. It seems to make sense. I mean, I would, I would assume as well.

Yes. Okay.

So I can tell you, sorry.

Yeah. So in terms of how you use Facebook group, I hear a few things. One being the naming is critical. So you had world events on your side at that point because you named it as such to really I'll say capitalize for lack of a term because you weren't really like, you were doing something else. But you know, so you had COVID in the name, but you really leveraged that time and what was going on in the world to, you've since taken COVID out of the title. But the naming of it is really crucial and really important. You had world events behind you. You are very active. You and your team are active with engagements and engaging with the community and making sure that you're, you know, providing you, and you also have regular features that you do in the group as well. Is there anything that we've missed that you do and how you— but that has been crucial and fundamental to the growth of the group that you'd like to share?

Yeah, the other— the last tip that I'm going to give you that some people are like, ooh, that seems like it's kind of mean or whatever. I don't think it is. Um, I post it on other Facebook groups all the time, particularly ones like that say like they'll say like, whose Facebook group needs some love? Or let's support each other. Okay. I put, I have a, I have almost like a boilerplate statement that I say. It just highlights what we do. It talks about the free things that we offer. How many people we have. I'd love to have you come into the group. And I will tell you like overnight I did that. I don't have the time to do it now every day. Um, but last night I did it, and just overnight I had almost 30 new followers. On average, I get between like 100 to 200 new followers a week, which is crazy insane. Um, but people will post things like, if you could have, you know, an endless supply of money, what would you get for your business? Because I target like small business, other small business Facebook groups. Anyone who says marketing, that boilerplate goes right there, and the next day it's like boom. I get so many, so many members. So that is free, obviously takes a little bit of time, but I would say join other groups that are similar to yours and post away. Have a boilerplate statement, copy and paste, spend 15 minutes a night doing it. It will make a huge difference.

Yeah, I mean, I have a Facebook group, it's called Cash In On Camera. I think we have just under 1,000 members, and I don't have anyone who manages that, administrator of that group, or a moderator, you know, like it's really me. I obviously, I take the interviews great, like what I'm doing, you know, in terms of the, um, well, I think it's a great interview. Maybe I'm just patting myself on the back. It is providing a ton of value to us because you're providing value to us. Um, but you know, I do stream this into that Facebook group, but it does me thinking about, um, you know, engagement and maybe other things that we could do to better help help, uh, the members of that group. So it's really insightful, and I really appreciate you coming on and sharing it. I want to tell everyone about it. Tell us about how to find it. Um, I'm showing it on this— give it one more plug.

Yeah, so this is the Facebook group right here, Supporting Small and Local Businesses Everywhere. We are a private group, which is something I didn't say, but I would highly recommend. That makes you not get the bots as easily. And, um, It's— we would love to have you. We're a very active group. Um, you see again me going live right there talking about today. We do lots of things. We're having our first networking event on Monday, a free networking event. It's just a pop-in, pop-out event. I'm always looking for ways and feedback from our members. I listen so much to them. So it's a very active group. Just started doing things like giving certificates out now to the most active member. Like, because I'm a power admin, I get great ideas now too. So I love it. So it's very easy. It's just supporting small local businesses everywhere. And if you put it under the groups, facebook.com/groups, it's just Support Your Business. It's that easy. Um, and again, we have 19,600 members right now. When we hit 20,000 members, we're planning on having a week-long celebration the week of September 12th. So you want to be a member by then because that's going to be a fun week.

Well, you're also the founder of New Marketing Group. So if anyone wants to reach out to you at newmarketinggroup.com, of course they can do so as well, which is fantastic. One thing that I'd love to ask you, Cindy, is what is a tip, tool, tactic, or technique to market for the year that we live in for yourself or New Marketing Group? It could be like, oh, I found a great I have this new tip, I just learned about this thing, or I read a book. Could be anything that you'd like to share in terms of marketing yourself.

Yes. So obviously my entire career, like I said, I've been in marketing and communication, so I understand the importance of networking, right? I will tell you, since the pandemic, networking has changed so much. It's all online. It's, it's how, you know, I met you through networking. And my biggest tip is I joined a networking group. It's called Virtual Global Chapters, V Team we call it, and it is a paid networking group. And it's been the best thing that I've done, without a doubt. So we have weekly meetings with my chapter, we have monthly meetings with the whole group. It's called global meetings. And you get the opportunity to really meet other, you know, power partners, business owners, leaders from all over the world. And The people who are in my membership right now, my, my VIP members, 80% of them are from there, are from the networking group. Not only that, I've had the opportunity to speak globally, and I— it's just, if you're not networking, which is why I'm having this networking event on Monday, you're missing out. I mean, like, you have got to be— and it's so easy now. Yes, I understand people would rather— a lot of people would rather do it face to face, But you don't have opportunities like this. Like, you're in Canada, I'm in Atlanta. We wouldn't have this opportunity without spending money to fly somewhere and maybe go to a trade show. And so that was how I networked before pandemic. Post-pandemic, it is— you should be networking, you should be having networking calls, and if at all possible, join a networking group. It's, it's 100% by far the best thing you've got.

Part of two paid networking groups. One is in person. We're losing you.

Consistently, all of the time. Yeah, it's— they're great. And what's, what's great about them is that they also have events, and through them you meet other people, and it's just, it's fantastic.

I love it. Thank you so much, Cindy, for coming on. Great and supporting small and local businesses everywhere, nearing 20,000 members. And hopefully we'll get some more in for you as well as a result of this conversation. So thank you so much for coming on today. Appreciate it.

Thank you. It's been my pleasure. I loved it. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.