Dorien Morin-van Dam
When I think of community, I think of Facebook Groups! As a community manager, it’s where I hang out, get information, share content, and meet new people.
Communities are also a great way to:
- Meet potential customers
- Retain current customers
- Gain warm leads
- Conduct market research
- Receive industry updates
- Stay up-to-date on trends
- Grow an online network
- Have fun
- Make new friends
- …and sooooo much more!
For this article, I’ll be talking about the role Facebook Groups should play in the overall organic social media strategy for your small business.
Your Group or Mine: Owning a Facebook group vs being a member
Other people’s Facebook groups
Joining someone else’s group is a great way to get the lay of the land in your industry. In other people’s groups, you do well to start by listening.
- What questions are people asking?
- Who is joining?
- How active is this group?
- Where do people live?
- What is the expertise of the average member?
- What questions are NOT addressed?
Tapping into someone else’s network by meeting their audience can be a great way to get insight into your own audience.
Caution ahead: when joining a community as a member, it is important you know and understand their rules, what is allowed, what the code of conduct is, and if (and how) you can network.
Only after you’ve listened, learned the rules, and fully understand what’s expected of members, you may also be able to gain leads from other people’s groups.
Your Facebook group(s)
In your own group, you can pretty much do what you want!
That also means you need to set up your group correctly.
Community Management tasks may include:
- Setting and enforcing rules
- Approving new members
- Approving posts
- Keeping an eye for spammers and trolls
- Creating and posting content for engagement
- Commenting and moderating
- Hiring, training and monitoring moderators
- Checking and reporting on insights
- Implementing a growth strategy
- Keeping the peace between members
- Creating resources within the group
- Files
- Guides
- Live videos
The two Facebook group strategies for small businesses
Why would a small business need one, let alone two Facebook groups?
Here is my strategic thinking.
I’ve seen it work for realtors, restaurants, SAAS companies, training schools, event coordinators, and wedding planners. This strategy can be applied to almost any business.
(leave a comment below with your industry if you don’t think it will work for you!)
1. General topic groups (top of funnel)
Groups such as:
- Pizza Lovers of NY
- Wedding Tips for Bostonians
- Learn How to Knit with Dorien
- Local Attractions for Kids in Chicago
- The best local eats - Dallas Texas
- Basic French for Non-Natives
…could be groups at the top of your funnel. The idea is to grow and engage with lots of people who have a common interest.
Wow them. Entertain them. Supply them with fun. Give them a reason to trust you to the point they are your biggest fans.
Then, implement the next phase:
2. VIP member group (bottom of funnel)
This is where you brand ambassadors, your team, and your VIP+ paid members meet! This group wants access to the team that runs your small business. They want to learn, gain insight and access, and are willing to pay a monthly fee for it!
This is the perfect group for sales, specials, beta launches and research!
Organic social strategy and Facebook groups
(Neither are Organic LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest!)
Groups should be a (huge) part of your overall organic strategy. It might take some time to build your community, but it is so worth it.
Doing it right means building trust slowly and sticking with it! Consistency and delivering on your promise are both key.
Other community platforms
While I love to sing the praises of Facebook, quite a few small businesses are migrating away from Facebook and building their communities elsewhere!
- Slack
- Discord
- Mighty Networks
- Mighty pro
- Hivebrite
- Tribe
These community platforms each come with their own set of features and ways to build community.
Dorien Morin-van Dam @dorien
Organic Social Media Specialist | International Keynote Speaker | Certified Agile Marketer | Community Manager | Content Marketer #StrategyTalks