Why You Should Create a Facebook Group for Your Business
80 million businesses have a Facebook page and more than 1 billion Facebook users visit them.
What makes yours different?
Does your company run a Facebook page? Your answer is probably yes.
Your company uses its dedicated Facebook page to develop its online brand, connect with customers, and run Facebook Ads.
This article presents 3 reasons you should create a Facebook Group for your business, 4 examples of Facebook Groups and what are the benefits for your business.
[bctt tweet=”67% of Facebook users have joined a Facebook Group. Leverage that to the advantage of your company!” username=”brand_minds”]
During his opening keynote at the 2018 Facebook’s F8 developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg mentioned 1.4 billion people on Facebook use Groups every month. Considering there are currently 2.1 billion Facebook users, a simple math calculation reveals that 67% of these users are members of a Facebook Group. This is a lot!
In a community, you can meet new people who share your values – for some, this might be a support group for new parents. For others, it might be about a disease they have. For others, it might be about finding people to come together and volunteer.
Mark Zuckerberg
The feeling of belonging is in our nature and being a member of a particular group satisfies this need. We wish to be with people that share our interests and are passionate about the same subjects we are. And Facebook is the perfect platform to make us feel connected and included.
The addition of the new Groups tab on Facebook will make groups a more central part of the Facebook experience, Mark Zuckerberg explained.
3 reasons to create a Facebook Group for your business
1. Facebook Pages’ organic reach decreasing to 2%
In December 2017 Facebook changed its algorithm and this change influenced users’ feeds as follows: more posts from friends, family members and groups and less posts from pages. Here is Facebook explaining how posts enter our newsfeeds based on ranking factors:
For many business pages this change meant a serious drop of their posts’ organic reach to as little as 2%.
Creating and managing a Facebook Group for your brand is an opportunity to bypass the algorithm, avoid the organic reach decrease and keep connected to your audience in a new and fresh way.
2. Facebook’s interest in groups has increased in the past months
- Page admins now have the opportunity to create a group linked to their business page;
- Group admins have received extended analytics tools to measure and analyse their group activity;
- Facebook is looking to launch a new Groups plugin that admins and developers can add to their websites and emails.
3. Gain Group’s interest in your brand by solving members’ needs
- Focus on your audience problems by listening: use all your group’s tools to ask questions and engage with your audience in a meaningful way;
- Offer valuable information and solutions to your audience’s pain points: statistics, infographics, links, videos, emotional support etc;
- Talk like a human, not a company;
- Give back: make your group’s members feel acknowledged by giving them special discounts or free workshops etc.
Let’s look at a few Facebook groups and find out how your business can use a dedicated Facebook group.
1. Pets groups
People profile: People join these groups to share their common love of their furry friends. They share photos and videos of their four-legged family members, ask for vet recommendations when they are sick, look for training advice and the latest pet food brand. When their beloved dog or cat has passed away, people receive emotional support from the members of these groups.
Businesses profile: pet food suppliers, dog trainers, vet cabinets, pet-sitters, hotels that allow pets etc.
2. Weight-loss groups
People profile: Women are constantly wishing they were thinner and are looking for the next diet that will help them achieve their dream. Members of these groups share before and after photos, meal programs and recipes with low calories intake. Losing weight is an ongoing battle and like every soldier, these women need emotional support and encouragement. And they receive support from the other women in these groups.
Businesses profile: nutritional services, meal planners, food caterers, life coaches, therapy services etc.
3. Photography groups
People profile: Photographers are craftsmen; they exercise their craft with every photo they take. They use these groups to show their photos, receive constructive comments about what he or she could have done better to improve the photo’s quality.
Businesses profile: photography equipment suppliers, photography courses, photo editing software suppliers etc.
4. Business groups
People profile: Entrepreneurs and business managers join these groups to look for business ideas or advice, time-management tools, business networking opportunities etc. They use these groups to find suppliers and business partners or to ask questions when they come across a business related problem.
Businesses profile: business loan services, CRM software suppliers, marketing and communication services, accounting services, business consultancy etc.
Important points to take into account when creating a Facebook group
The main reason for creating a Facebook group for your business is to grow a community around your brand.
The purpose of your group is:
- To help its members;
- To provide insightful advice;
- To help its members develop their passions and achieve their goals.
Your business is there to support them in their achievements by providing your valuable products and services. If you succeed, the members will become your buying customers.
Benefits for your business:
- Brand awareness;
- Customer insights: valuable information to help your business improve its products/services;
- Opportunity to build trust and connection allowing your business to influence members’ buying decisions;
- Opportunity to become a love brand by supporting their passions and interests.
Expert’s opinion
Cristiana Andrei, Communication Strategist has shared with us her input on 3 mistakes brands make when when creating and managing their Facebook group.
First of all, I would like to stress that few things are set in stone when it comes to social media. It’s changing so fast that what used to be a mistake in the past can easily turn into an engagement technique soon. Facebook groups are proof of that – some time ago, they were considered intrusive, while today, when brands have a an opinionated voice and work on building strong, direct connections to their audience, Facebook groups make sense, if relevant. Since right or wrong is a shaky territory these days, the mistakes I listed are personal considerations, based on some years of working with brands from various fields of activity.
Mistake #1
So, the first mistake I believe brands can make is step out from their human shoes into their corporate shoes when they enter a group.
Being there requires a human touch. After all, people in the group are brought together for a common reason, passion or objective. They’re not there just to be at the other end of some brand’s advertising messages. They’re not there to hear or read a monologue. I would avoid “in-your-face advertising”, corporate language and a stiff, condescending attitude.
Mistake #2
The second one is forget “what’s in it for them”.
We all know what’s in it for a brand that creates a group: to form a community of people close to the brand. However, we, as marketers have to always have in mind what’s in it for our group fellows, why they are there, what they expect from us as brands and group owners. And deliver. Just like in life, in marketing as well it takes two to tango.
Mistake #3
And finally, something very intuitive and self-explanatory – spamming!
Don’t steal time from your group members. If you have something relevant for them, publish it, if it’s just relevant for you, don’t. Irrelevant content takes away minutes from people’s lives and when those minutes add up, you lose a member and a client. Just like in gaming, you have a limited number of opportunities to reach your audience. Don’t waste them.
Conclusion
As a marketer or entrepreneur, if you understand how to leverage people’s need to belong and share, your company’s Facebook Group may become the most successful tool in your business development strategy!
