How to Create an Engaged Facebook Group
Great! You’ve created your first Facebook group for your business. Now the real fun begins! It’s time to learn how to create an engaged Facebook group using these 5 effective strategies.
How to Create an Engaged Facebook Group
Having a Facebook group for your business is a great way to do A LOT of things! It can create awareness for your brand, move your ideal customer along in their buyer’s journey, and generate more leads. It can also help you learn more about what your customers want from you and to create a community among your fans, followers, and clients. BUT, having a Facebook group alone won’t do this for you. In order for your group to produce the results you want, you need to create opportunities for engagement within the group.
Here are the top 5 ways to engage your Facebook group members.
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A Few Things First
Facebook groups are very popular and have only increased in popularity in 2020, as people sought ways to stay connected even when they couldn’t gather in person. Facebook continues to make it easier for people to find and participate in groups with changes in its user interface and notifications center.
Why? Because Facebook’s goal is to keep people on their platform as long as possible. When people gather in groups instead of just scrolling through their feeds, they tend to stay longer and be more active on the platform.
Why is this important to you? Because knowing that Facebook prioritizes content that keeps people on the platform, and especially groups that keep people on the platform, can help your strategy. You know that Facebook will, most likely, continue to prioritize groups that have more engagement. So, with that said, let’s talk about how you can engage your Facebook group to provide value for your members and increase your reach.
Another thing to note here is that there are multiple types of engagement on Facebook. Take likes, comments, and replies, for example. However, not all types of engagement are created equally. Likes are the most basic form of engagement. To have a truly engaged Facebook group, you need to create content that not only inspires your members to comment, but also encourages conversation among members in your group.
So, for the purposes of this article, we will be discussing how to create comments and conversation!
The 5 Ways To Engage Your Group:
Conversation Starters
Think about why your group members joined your group. You want to post consistent content that starts conversations relating to WHY they are there! You can do this by posting questions and creating polls, for example. Facebook has also added new features to help you foster more engagement with your posts. The “Host a Q&A Session” feature is a way to allow your members to ask you questions about a particular topic. You can do this by posting text or with a Live Q&A session where members submit and vote on questions for you to answer. For more about this, see this post. Another feature you’ll want to try out is “Write A Prompt.” Facebook even gives you ideas about what to “prompt” your members could do, like, “post a photo of…” or “let me see your favorite…,” for example.
Go Live
One of the best ways to drive engagement in your group is to GO LIVE! Listen, your members joined your group to get more access to you, to learn more from you, and to be encouraged by you. Going live in the group is an effective and efficient way to connect with your members, share more about who you are and how you can help them, and to answer their burning questions. Don’t be nervous. Or, be nervous, but do it anyway! Once you’ve done your first Live you will know that it is more fun than it is scary. You got this!
Chat it Up in Rooms
You may have seen this feature and ignored it. I know I did at first! Facebook “Rooms” allow you to go live and invite certain people into the room. So it’s like a small group video chat (similar to Zoom.) Unlike a Facebook Live which is focused on you presenting, a Facebook Room provides a group experience for collaboration and conversation. If you want to brainstorm with your group, this is a great option.
Share Member Content
When you initially start your group, you’ll need to be the main conversation starter and generator of content. After all, everyone is just getting to know each other. (Pro tip: People LOVE to talk about themselves, so asking questions that prompt them to do this is the fastest way to get the comments going!)
Once your group members begin to feel more comfortable, encourage them to pose their own questions or add posts to the group. Make sure you have guidelines for appropriate posts in place and, if needed, have moderation settings to allow you to approve posts before they go to the group. Having posts coming from people besides you will make the group feel more active and, in turn, prompt more opportunity for engagement.
Engage Back
This is the last, but the most important thing you can do to create an engaged Facebook group. When group members engage with you, engage back.
You’ve asked your members to comment, to share about themselves, and to connect with others in your group. Be sure you thank them by replying to them and letting them know you see and hear them. After all, this is what people are looking for in any group – connection. When they see you are actually listening, they will keep talking. The more they talk, the more you learn about your customer and how you can serve them with your product or service.
Remember, whatever type of group you have: Brand awareness, Customer Service, Challenge Group, Lead Magnet, etc, the ultimate goal is to meet your customer. You want to learn more about them, teach them about you and your product, or turn your followers into fans. You can’t accomplish any of those things without creating a Facebook group that is active and engaged. Use these 5 strategies to get the conversation started!
