Although Facebook has been around longer than other active social media platforms online, it has remained one of the most-used social networking sites. In fact, Facebook continues to grow every year with monthly users now at a whopping 2.93 billion.
Naturally, this large community of people is what attracts businesses and brands. After all, marketing your products wouldn’t work without an audience—that Facebook provides almost limitlessly. However, if you think that this is what makes them stay, you couldn’t be more wrong.
What this 18-year-old social media platform does better than its competitors is making consumers more accessible to enterprises, specifically when it comes to engagement and interaction. A good example of this is the feature Facebook Groups.
What are Facebook Groups?
According to Facebook, Groups are “places to communicate about shared interests with certain people.” They also function as “hubs where valuable conversations flourish between brands and customers, and among customers themselves.”
How to Use it to Grow Your Community
Of course, this article wouldn’t be complete if we don’t give you pointers on how you can utilize your page’s Facebook Group to grow your community or enhance the way you engage with your consumers.
Below are some of the top ways social media management agencies in the Philippines optimize Facebook Groups to build a brand’s community and improve its overall consumer engagement.
Observe Order
In any venture, order must be observed for success to be achieved. You can’t just throw anything in the mix and expect good things to come to you. You must take the reign and control every aspect of your plan—to make sure that things don’t go haywire or unruly.
The same principle should be applied when you’re trying to expand your Facebook Page’s reach through Groups. Make your rules and expectations clear from the get-go—to prevent your Group from devolving into a mess filled with spam posts and general disorder. After all, if left to their own devices, people, especially those on the internet, are almost always going to choose chaos.
Establish your Group’s boundaries and regulations to maintain peace and a professional atmosphere!
Lead Discussions
For Facebook Groups, discussions are essential. After all, what would be its purpose if not to foster conversations between you, users, and consumers with each other?
To make full use of the potential of your Group, starting conversations will be necessary. Make sure that you always take the lead and get members talking. The more active your Facebook Group is, the more relevant it will be—and will increase its chances of appearing in your members’ newsfeeds.
We recommend organizing a timeline for your discussions, which could be scheduled weekly or monthly. Always keep it different and diverse—no one wants to talk about the same things over and over.
Listen Up
While it’s important to talk and be proactive on social media, listening and going the extra mile to understand could also do you a world of wonders. People naturally want to be heard and understood, after all.
By keeping an eye on conversations, replies, queries, and notifications, you’ll be able to build rapport with your audience and members. It will also make them feel seen and validated, which means that you care about what they have to say and that you’re putting importance on what they have to share.
However, don’t overdo it. Only reply when your input is necessary or if you need to mediate between members and clear issues or provide information about your brand, product, or services.
Post Different Types of Content
When on social media, you can’t afford to be a one-trick pony. You always have to come up with a variety of ways to capture the attention of your chosen audience and maintain it.
This is especially true when it comes to content that you release or post in your Facebook Group. You can’t just use one type of media every single time, you have to diversify and bring something new and stimulating for your members.
You can try using infographics, images, sound, video, or a mix of different media to convey your insights or to signal new discussions. Remember to not make it boring or repetitive!
Choose Your Admins Wisely
As we mentioned earlier, it’s not enough that you create a Facebook Group, you have to commit yourself to your community to reap the results that you want. Of course, this entails always being present for your members, specifically when it comes to queries and other important situations.
To make this happen, you’ll need people that you can depend on and trust. They’ll serve as the administrators (admins for short) for your Group and be there almost 24/7 to connect and build relationships with your consumers. Think of them as your brand’s representatives.
And because they embody your business and what it stands for, you can’t just pick anybody to be your admin/s. You have to make sure that you pick people that are responsible and are up to the task given to them. If they’re not, your reputation and the relationship you’ve built with customers over the years could vanish in an instant.
Build A Strategy!
Now that you’re equipped with the knowledge on how to use Facebook Groups to grow your community online, the next step that you should take is to build an appropriate strategy!
Feel free to use the tips that we’ve provided as a guide! But remember, you should ensure that the strategy you’re going to create will complement the marketing and engagement techniques you’re currently employing. After all, if it doesn’t mesh well with your existing plan of action, then your effort, time, and money will be wasted.
Very helpful tips momsh .