Facebook Marketing: Using Facebook Groups for Business

How many Facebook groups are you in? I bet you don't know the exact number and can't name each one. I know I can't.

There's something else I'm certain of: that there are a handful of Facebook groups you can think of immediately. Those that add value to your life, keep you engaged, and allow you to build relationships with fellow members.

All Facebook groups should aspire to uphold this standard.

Research has shown that Facebook groups now see more engagement than pages. This is mainly because they allow members to start conversations more easily than on brand pages.

If you've never considered using Facebook groups for business, you should. Here's how you can leverage Facebook groups to grow your business.

Join the Right Groups

Don't be in a hurry to join every group that's related to your business niche or industry. Go where your target audience likes to hang out. Since your goal is to grow your business, you should only join groups with your ideal customers.

For example, if you own a graphic design business and you are looking to work with startups or small businesses, you can join groups for small business owners. You must have a target audience in mind when joining Facebook groups.

The good news is Facebook now lets pages join groups. You can join groups with your business page and interact with the members on a personal level. That way, you can quickly build a recognizable brand.

Provide Value

Facebook groups connect individuals who share common interests. When you join groups filled with people who match your target customers, you get to learn more about their unique needs.

Never forget the first law of Facebook group marketing: it's not about you! A group is all about the members and how they provide value to each other. Use Facebook groups to talk extensively about subjects that interest the members.

You can also use groups as a testing ground for novel ideas. Tell people about your new service or product and ask for their opinions. You can also give them exclusive opportunities to review new product features.

Having group-exclusive content gives group members a reason to be engaged and actively pay attention. Always address all comments and questions related to your business niche or get someone from your team to do it. Every member needs to feel important.

Facebook groups are places for people to connect and engage. If the members are a chatty bunch, let them dictate where the conversation goes. You can offer your support or wisdom when it's needed or start a juicy debate with occasional open-ended questions.

Add the Right Content

Before you start posting in a Facebook group, come up with a content strategy that promotes the group's goals. Do you want to sell to group members? Do you want to provide support to people who are already using your products? Decide what type of content you will share.

Remember, if all the content you publish adds value to the group, people will be more likely to engage with it. You can find content for your Facebook groups on two platforms.

Google News

You’ll find the most recent articles on industry news here. Simply type your question into Google and then click on News to find the latest articles. Share any informative and relevant content to the different groups you belong to. When you do this consistently, group members will see you as the go-to expert.

Buzzsumo

This tool shows you what topics are trending. You can search topics related to your groups and Buzzsumo will find the most popular articles and show you which platforms they were shared on. You can then share these articles to a group to educate and inform the members.

Encourage People to Engage

If you want to become the go-to expert in a group, post things that will spark interaction among group members. Here are six ideas that will help you to create and deliver unique content in Facebook groups:

1. Tutorials

These days, many brands use tutorials to interact with their fans. Tutorials give you the opportunity to establish your business as a leader in the industry. You can post a video tutorial each week to help group members or support them.

2. Challenges

These are very popular in Facebook groups. You can create a challenge that spans several days and take people through a series of tasks. During this period, you can show them how to do something they consider valuable.

Let's say you own a fitness company. You could attract customers by suggesting that they join a daily workout challenge, and then post short workout videos in the group every day for a week.

Make sure the challenge addresses their biggest problems and provides actionable information. Set it up in such a way that the members achieve a "quick win" as soon as possible. This ensures they stay involved and engaged throughout the challenge.

3. Live Q&As

During a live Q&A, the audience asks questions that you answer in real time. It is a unique form of video marketing because each party gets the information they want instantly.

Live Q&As are also more personalized because you get to know your audience and they get to know you. They are very popular in large Facebook groups. You can offer one Q&A session every week to help and support group members.

4. Polls

People engage with questions most on Facebook. Everyone loves answering questions about themselves, which is why polls have always performed well online. Polls also help you understand customer profiles – you'll know exactly who you are selling to.

Conversely, people don't like sharing their information with brands, especially with today's privacy concerns. A well-designed poll can greatly increase consumer engagement. Create highly focused, specialized polls to gather valuable information about your customers and prospects. They can be about blog titles, upcoming content, or your new logo. This way, you're still gathering data, but you won't seem like you're infringing on privacy.

5. Daily Theme Prompts

Themes allow people to post about certain topics. Most groups have a promotional day when group members can market their products or services. If you have a Facebook group for your business, you can create different themes for different days of the week.

On a Monday, you can ask members to post pictures showing how they use your product uniquely. On a Tuesday, you can ask them to share their websites or products.

Daily theme prompts are a great way to set expectations for group members. You're also giving them the opportunity to market their businesses – it's a win-win!

6. Quizzes

For many years, quizzes have performed very well on Facebook. Buzzfeed's quiz titled "What City Should You Live In?" has generated more than 20 million unique visitors.

Most people find quizzes fun, and they are also a helpful way of gathering information from group members. You can create quizzes to find out what people would like your next product or service to be. Facebook quizzes can quickly become viral and increase the engagement levels in a group.

Check Insights

No other social media platform gives you as much data as Facebook. The only one that comes close is Twitter. You can get a lot of information on the network about audience demographics and track the performance of your posts and campaigns.

Having all this information available is awesome, but it will only be useful if you know which data matters most to your business. These are the most important Facebook metrics to track:

• Engagement: if you want to know how many times people took action on your posts, check Facebook Insights. You should measure engagement because it shows you whether people like the content you’re sharing or not.
• Reach: this refers to the number of people who see your content on Facebook. Not everyone will see your posts. Visit Page Insights to see an overview of your posts' reach.
• Impressions: Reach only tells you how many people saw your posts. Impressions tells you the exact number of times your posts were seen. Your highly popular post may have been seen multiple times by one person. You'll find this information in your Facebook Insights. Click on Posts>Reach>Impressions.
• Facebook Referral Traffic: referral traffic means the number of people Facebook sends to your website. People may click links in your posts, click on your profile link, or share your articles. You’ll see all this information on Google Analytics. Go to Acquisition>Social>Network Referral.

Use Proper Grammar

More than 3.5 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each week. Let that sink in.

However, not many people use proper grammar and punctuation. In this day and age when conversations happen through Facebook posts, tweets, and blogs, using proper grammar is vital. It reflects on the business you’re representing.

If you want to captivate the members of your group and continue the conversation away from Facebook, you'll need to write well. An editing tool like ProWritingAid can make your Facebook posts stand out in a sea of poorly written posts. ProWritingAid offers excellent writing tips and performs in-post edits. Simply download our Chrome, Firefox, or Safari extension and start writing awesome posts!

Final Thoughts

Facebook groups are a great way to engage with your customers on a personal level. By using groups, you'll build valuable relationships and gain a better understanding of what your clients want.

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