Businesses should use both Pages and Groups in their Facebook marketing. However, these latter places require constant activity. How to best use Facebook groups to increase your visibility? Answer in this article!
Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has proven to be useful not only for personal purposes, but also for professional purposes. Today it’s hard to create a marketing campaign without involving Facebook.
There are two ways in which businesses can use Facebook to promote their business. On the one hand, you can create a page that will allow you to use advertising tools and unionize a community of fans. On the other hand, you can create a Facebook group that focuses more on your business expertise and monitoring.
What is Facebook Group?
A Facebook group is a community that comes together around a common topic or idea. This could be an obsession like “modern dance” or “lovers of tome de savoie”, for example. A Facebook group can also revolve around belonging to a brand or company. Another example of interest for group building is the organizational management of a major event. They facilitate communication between the various participating members.
A group is like a platform. It is a means of exchange between members, but is not intended to facilitate communication between a company and its customers, for example, or between an actor and his fans. So it is horizontal communication that is privileged with Facebook groups.
A group can be either private or public. For private groups, it allows you to have control over the people who are members. Then administrators are appointed and most of the time it is through a short questionnaire that they decide whether you can enter the closed circle of the group. In the case of an open group, all you have to do is register.
The relationships that are formed with the members of the group are individual and are facilitated by the fact that they revolve around a common theme.
Benefits of Facebook Groups for a Business
Groups are a great way to gain visibility for a business on Facebook. In fact, this network favored the more personal part by giving family and friendly relationships more space on the news feed.
There are hundreds of millions of groups on Facebook in France. This is evidence of their usefulness and great interest to Internet users.
If your brand or company has the opportunity to highlight a particular topic that can bring people together, this is a great tool. To do won’t matter much!
Here are the advantages:
Go beyond your Page’s reach
Sometimes, your page may hang around a bit and no longer appear on newsfeed. Groups makes it possible to overcome this limitation thanks to a theme that engages people. On the other hand, when you are a member, the information automatically comes to you. So there is very little chance that they will miss it.
Gather members around a common theme
Gathering people around a topic, a passion, common actions is the best way to build links on the network. Since this isn’t always easy on News Feed, the “Facebook Groups” tool seems quite suitable for this exercise.
It also allows people who do not want to post on News Feed for various reasons, to engage in communication on a group.
find representative
When you communicate in groups, you can identify more “talkative” people involved in the communication. These people are likely to be potential ambassadors for your community.
Monitor your community
With a group, you have the opportunity to test the customer experience. Always identify needs, expectations, and dissatisfaction with the group’s favorite topic. Leading a group allows you to get to know your goal better.
build a caring relationship
Give advice, be there to answer any technical issues, and provide support whenever possible. Customer relationships can exist through Facebook Groups. This can undoubtedly be a generous support for your customers and detracts from the normal customer service.
8 Tips to Promote Your Facebook Group
To be successful, businesses must use both Pages and Groups in their Facebook marketing. However, these latter spots can be difficult to feed and require constant activity.
So how do you best use Facebook groups to increase your visibility? Answer in this article!
Make the right choice for your group name
It is important to choose your group name carefully. It should have a clear link with the subject. This is even more important as it should be easily accessible to internet users. Let’s take an example. Your business selling high-protein sports products is called “full-body.” So you might think it makes sense to group a “full body”. Well this is not a good option, because internet users who are looking for this type of discussion would type for example:
- protein
- bodybuilding
- best protein for strong muscles
- have good muscles
- Lose weight with exercise…
Then your group will never come out in their research.
Warning : Only public and closed groups will appear in search results. If you’ve set up “Incognito Mode,” you won’t be visible except to the people you’ve invited.
set up rules
Groups have administrators and moderators. As the creator of the group, you will be able to assign these titles to people in your company.
You must also establish rules of conduct to avoid any abuse, personal attacks against you or your customers, hate speech, harassment, or any other negative and violent behavior that will damage your image.
It is your responsibility to protect yourself and your members from wrongdoing. It is imperative to create order and respect in the group, it is your professionalism that is at stake.
serve customers directly
As a business, the idea is to communicate with your current and potential customers. This way, you can get feedback on your products or services, and address their questions and complaints.
Your group should be a safe place where your customers can discuss issues that interest them or ask for clarification on certain issues. The aim is to interact with them, gently, towards the purchase.
Facilitate your group in person and always be courteous to the customer, no matter the question or tone of the message.
This level of customer service is an essential aspect of your promotion. The advice and communication you share will inspire members to participate and voice their opinions. Plus, it will help you build a database of loyal customers who will be happy to recommend you to others.
Promote your Facebook group
You want your community to grow, you need to promote your group. Talk about it around you:
- Prompt the creation of your group on social networks such as Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn…
- Share resource documents that may be of interest to your group.
- Visit forums that are related to your group topic and comment on posts to share on your group. Be careful though, don’t get into pure advertising… Be kind, give advice!
- Create articles that you can talk about in your group.
create a facebook ad
Creating ads is an investment. Indeed, planning a small budget is essential, but if your objective is to sell something, investing can be a plus. Through advertising campaign, you can make your group known and increase the number of your community and hence increase the number of prospects.
You can start with small campaigns that won’t cost you much. This may allow you to see if there are fallouts. However, be careful to target the people you want to reach. Otherwise, you’ll be kicking water!
be committed to your group
For your group to work, you must be active in it yourself. In fact, it is essential that your community feels that there is content to come to your place. Introduce yourself as an administrator and show that you are there to make this space work. Be the first to comment on members’ posts. Post yourself fairly regularly.
Be innovative, post posts that require answers. Try to limit monotony as much as possible. A golden rule regarding your publications: they should relate to the topic of the group and be qualitative. It’s great to be proactive, but so is being responsive. The subscription request should get a quick response.
Also remember to welcome your new members with a kind word. Encourage her to introduce herself to others to form a bond.
Read also: How to find social listening customers?
request feedback
Content creation is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Content created by your company informs customers about solutions to their problems and promotes your expertise.
However, unlike Facebook pages, groups require something less publicity and more personal.
Instead of delivering impersonal content, create it with your customers. Encourage their comments, suggestions and opinions on your products and how to improve them. This exercise will also allow you to gain inspiration for your next material.
read also Social Media: 7 Free Techniques to Promote Your Brand
avoid self-promotion
Facebook groups are places where people come to interact with people with similar interests. They are not interested in promotional links and advertisements.
If you want to drive traffic to your website or advertise your products, post a link to your blog. Preferably choose an educational article with high added value for your customers and prospects.
In your Facebook group, it’s essential to create an environment where people can see your brand, products and services without feeling like they are in a corporate world.
The advantages of a Facebook group are directly related to the fact that it succeeds in providing its members with a comfortable environment for discussion and exchange of ideas. The more you invest in conversation as a brand, the better your reputation will be.
Read also: Guide to managing your reputation on social networks
our suggestions
To get your Facebook group known, don’t hesitate to ask your community to share about it. People are usually sensitive to this type of request and will share if your group makes sense.
Another tip, when you have people, identify the most active people and create a private group with them. You can then offer to help them grow the community. Remember to explain to them what it can bring them…
The advantages of Facebook Groups are directly related to the fact that it manages to provide its members with a comfortable environment for discussion as well as exchange of ideas. The more you invest in conversation as a brand, the better your reputation will be.
If you have created a Facebook group as part of your business, hire a Facebook community manager to manage it. Find the ideal freelancer on Codeur.com.