Are you tired of hearing nothing but crickets in your facebook group? In this post I’m going to share my tried and tested tips to help you create an engaged facebook group.
If you’re struggling to get people engaged and talking in your facebook group I’m going to give you my step by step Facebook group strategy that will help you improve your engagement fast. I’ve used these tips myself to create multiple engaged Facebook groups and now you can too.
Okay, so there should be no doubt about the value of having your own Facebook group. They are brilliant way to build relationships with your audience, to position yourself as an expert, to give value and help people, and also to warm up cooler leads. However, to do any of that, you need engagement and how do you get engagement? Let’s get stuck in.
How to create an engaged Facebook group
- The first step is to have a really clear idea and intention behind what you want your group to be. Do you want it to be full of people promoting themselves or a place of learning? What do you want it to look like? To feel like? This is the first step to creating an engaged Facebook group.
- The second point is cohesive branding. Your Facebook group branding should fit in with that of your website, your social media, the other assets that you have in your business. Don’t forget branding encompasses your colour scheme, logo, fonts etc, but it’s also the voice of your brand.
- When people join your Facebook group, they might not necessarily know who you are. So create a group banner that says ‘hosted by’ and then your name so you can really just set the tone. This lets people know that you’re the person in charge of the ship. You can also put a call to action on your banner too. On my Facebook group banner it directs people to an opt in freebie that’s relevant to the group. Be really clear that you’re the one in charge of that group and share how people will benefit from being in that group.
- The next step is get to know your ideal audience, so you REALLY know who you’re talking to. Getting to know who your ideal group members will be, means you will know more about their struggles, their problems and what keeps them up at night. Then you can create content for the group that’s going to help them. They will want to stick around and they might even bring some friends to help expand your group.
- Now you know who your ideal group member is, you need to create the group that will appeal to them. If you’re trying to attract a sophisticated person, then you don’t want lots of self promotion in the group. Make sure that the tone of the group matches the people that you want to attract into your group.
- Step five is to set the ground rules. You might sound like a police woman or a teacher, but it’s really important. If you say there’s no self promotion, then there’s no self promotion and you have to be prepared to enforce that. If people keep on breaking the rules, don’t be afraid to kick them out. Remember it’s for the greater good of your group as a whole.
- Having a welcome thread is an important part of a group. This gives members a place to drop their business links and to introduce themselves. Keeping these intros in one central place means that the wall isn’t being spammed with people saying hello on the main wall every 5 minutes.
- Another great idea, which I have implemented in my main group, is having a dedicated promotion thread. I don’t allow promo in my group, but once a week I have a self-promotion thread. This means that people wait for that thread, knowing that they’re going to get that opportunity to promote themselves. The spam during the week is reduced. Having one place where everyone can pimp their wares is really useful.
- A super powerful strategy is to go live. Going live helps you create such a brilliant connection with your audience and should never be underestimated. In my group I go live once a week and I also go live other places as well at different times of the week. In the group, however, it’s a set time every single week, plus the odd ad-hoc session too.
- If you want to create a thriving, engaged group you need to lead by example. If you want people to talk, then you’re going to have to get in there and talk. If you want them to be engaged, you’re going to have to do that too. Set the tone of your own group by showing up consistently.
- In my groups I also like to be the connector. Realistically, you can’t know everything and you can’t be the best person to help someone with everything either. For example, my group is all about blogging, but I don’t know about blogger (the platform). I do know that a few of my group members have this knowledge. So if someone asks about blogger, I don’t just ignore them because I don’t know the answer, I connect them with someone who might be able to help. This way people still feel like they’ve been heard. The people I tag feel valued and it means that I have done a good thing too. I fixed up the two people who can help each other, but I don’t necessarily have to be the one with all the knowledge.
- You need to think about filling your group up. One great way to do this is to cross promote your facebook group. Part of the engagement is going to come with when your group grows. The more people you can get in there that are the right kind of people, the more engaged your group will become. Cross promoting is a great way to raise awareness of your group. Use Instagram stories, Facebook Live, all of the platforms you have! Schedule tweets directing people to your group and always be thinking of ways to get more quality people through the door.
- One thing I did to help with promotion was to purchase a special url for my Facebook group. I bought mamapreneur revolutioncommunity.com. I just set up a simple redirect. This means that if I’m ever on a podcast or doing a Facebook live, I can just say that url. It’s a lot easier than having to say Facebook.com/756464838383. It makes my life so much easier.
- As mentioned earlier I do one Facebook live in the group each week, which is obviously members only training. I also have then other educational content and prompts scheduled through the week. We’re always thinking of new prompts so we can mix it up a little and keep it fresh. Having those conversation starters is a really, really great way boost engagement. Even if you’re putting the conversation starter in and then you’re answering it yourself to start with. People will start to know that you’re going to drop some sort of conversation starter in the group and they’ll start looking out for it each day.
- You could run a challenge within your group. The nature of a challenge creates engagement and gets everyone talking and working together. Running a challenge, whether it’s just for a couple of days or proper five day challenge, is a great way to sort of foster community and get your members engaged.
- My last point is to invest in your group. Invest time into your group and make it a priority. A Facebook group is such a brilliant asset to have. Think of the members as warm leads! They know about you and they have chosen to learn more. They’re prime candidates to become super fans and/or buy from you in the future. They’re waiting for you to help them. It’s almost like having a second email list, that you can just drop into on a really casual basis and engage with. Make your group a priority.
At the beginning you have to put more hours into your Facebook group. You’re going to have to answer most of the questions, because there’s not going to be many other people around. As time progresses it becomes an amazing, almost self-sustaining, eco system.
When the group starts to grow and engagement increases, don’t always be the one that’s jumping in there first to answer questions. Let other people show their skills too; this is really important. Let them feel valued and part of the community. You can always jump in when necessary, but it’s really important to let people have their say too. With that comes this self sustaining group that you don’t actually have to do as much with as it progresses.
As your group gets bigger you might have to police it more to stop spammers, but if you develop a great community, which I have in mine, your community won’t tolerate spammers. They report the posts or they just go tumbleweed on the post. That comes from having an engaged Facebook group. They know what’s not acceptable and so they do some of the work for you.
Now you know exactly how to create an engaged facebook group. I bet you know what I’m going to ask you today. I’m going to send you to my Facebook group! Head over the The Mamapreneur Revolution group!
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Let me know if you’ve got an engaged facebook group and what your biggest struggles are?
