With all the new changes to Facebook, including many that are burying content, some companies are looking to Facebook groups as a way of gaining engagement for their content. Facebook has stated they are going to put more focus on groups and community. Therefore a logical step is to consider starting a group. There are many changes, and it is not wise to consider starting a group with the intention of skirting the new rules. The rules are similar to what Google implemented three years ago, as this is the content users want. It means content has to be useful and thoughtful, not just ‘clickbait.’ You can be sure if you employ the same tactics in a group, you may be looking at group engagement being banned. In fact, we are anticipating this being part of the next set of changes in a year or two.

How to run a facebook group for effectiveness.

The first thing to remember is a group is a community. If you wish to start a group with the intention of hard selling the members, you will quickly find yourself in an empty group. The purpose of a group is the soft sell, to lead by example. For example, if you run an auto repair shop and you want to start a group on automotive repair, you should focus on many do it yourself posts, offer advice for those who are trying to fix things themselves and offer simple car care tips. If the administrators of the group are pushing helpfulness, you build trust. When they run into problems they cannot fix themselves, you will be who they call. A well-tuned community can almost manage itself, and after getting the initial members, the group will practically maintain itself, and it becomes only your job to remind the community of your services occasionally get rid of the abrasive members of the group.

Groups have a curve to follow when growing them. Some examples to follow of proper ways to build a group is shown here. Unfortunately, to see how they are employing growth methods, you have to join, but you will be able to get the impression without joining if you choose. The first is a new group called Build, Scale, and Entrepreneur up, which is a new community that offers incentives to members to stay engaged. New people entering a small group and seeing even a couple engaged members adds to a willingness to stay. This group is doing an excellent job of that, and the members are offering helpful information for the page owner, so he has time to focus on his career. Even a small group such as this already polices itself in the realm of growing a business.

Another is Arne Giske and his Millennial Entrepreneur Community. At this point, I feel I should mention we are not paid to promote these groups, but I am suggesting them because I do believe they provide a legitimate value. Arne Giske runs a professional service and group built on growing groups. To watch how he runs his group, you can pick up a lot of tips without paying for the service. He also has a fan page that offers regular tips on growing groups which I follow religiously. I will leave it to you to decide whether or not paying for his services are worth it or not as I am not here to promote paying for outside services.

Whether you decide to start a group or not to help grow your business traffic, know the team at Zilker is here to assist you in a plan to grow and engage your group.