How to Use Facebook Groups for Effective Marketing
Social media marketing can be quite influential when it comes to creating and establishing a brand. I often hear people lament, however, that Facebook just doesn’t seem to work for them. Truth is, it can work well for most businesses, but only if you understand how to use it – and the learning curve can be a steep one.
Most businesses have a Facebook Page, but they haven’t explored using Facebook Groups. Wondering what the difference is?
The Difference Between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups:
While Pages were designed to be the official profiles for entities, such as celebrities, brands or businesses, Facebook Groups are the place for small group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion. Groups allow people to come together around a common cause, issue or activity to organize, express objectives, discuss issues, post photos and share related content.
When you create a group, you can decide whether to make it publicly available for anyone to join, require administrator approval for members to join or keep it private and by invitation only. Like with Pages, new posts by a group are included in the News Feeds of its members and members can interact and share with one another from the group.
Groups range widely, from members of a church group or athletic team organizing activities to serious topics on politics and world events or even more lighthearted themes.
Say that you and your friends have a favorite celebrity or cause you want to rally around, but you are not the official representative of either. You can either become a fan of the official Facebook page for the celebrity or cause and show your support there or create your own group on Facebook around the common interest.
Creating a Facebook Group for your most loyal brand supporters (or for a cause that your business feels passionate about) can help to create an engaged community of your target demographic. Curious how to get started? We have a few tips to help you understand basics about using Facebook Groups (verses Facebook Pages) for effective marketing.
Build a Community
First and foremost, you can use Facebook Groups to create a community for your clients, customers, and followers. That might not seem like an important thing on the surface, but it’s actually incredibly helpful when it comes to fostering relationships and creating loyal brand advocates. Use your group to create a home for your supporters to discuss your brand, your news, and your success.
Engage Your Followers
Once you build a strong community, you can use Facebook groups to regularly engage with your followers and customers. This will help you maintain a strong base of repeat customers as well as individuals who would be happy to recommend your services or products. Take your group as an opportunity to get to know your audience, and even encourage them to submit user generated content so that everyone can see just how awesome your products and services are in action. Feeling overwhelmed, simply set aside 10 or 20 minutes a day to visit the group and engage.
Join Other Facebook Groups
Consider exploring other Facebook Groups as well to connect with a new potential audience for your brand. If you’re a clothing designer, perhaps join a group for local fashion bloggers, or if you’re an accountant, consider joining a group about female business owners. Don’t be shy, connect with others who share your brand’s passion.
Create and Promote Your Events
Finally, you can use Facebook to help create events as well as to promote them. It’s truly never been easier to get the word out about giveaways, parties, special deals, and sales. Use that to your advantage and keep your followers up to date about your latest business endeavors!
Please note that we don’t recommend having a Facebook Group in place of a Facebook Page. We just encourage brands to consider having both! Have you had success with Facebook Groups? We’d love to hear your stories and tips in our comment section below!
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Fantastic idea! I do a lot of my direct marketing on Facebook Groups that I belong to; what a wonderful idea to have a group of my own that I can keep customers and friends up to date with.