Facebook Group Benefits for 2018: Why You Should Start a Facebook Group

Today’s post is going to be all about whether or not you should start your own Facebook group in 2018.

There are many benefits to Facebook groups and depending on your brand, starting a group may be a great move for you to make in 2018!

Facebook Group Benefits for 2018: Why You Should Start a Facebook Group

Back in January of 2018 Mark Zuckerberg  announced some major changes to Facebook’s algorithm  including this statement “the first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups.”

At the time of writing this post it is May 2018.  I did a very informal test to see how much my current news feed reflected the above statement that Mark made.  I reviewed the first of 10 posts in my newsfeed and here’s what I found:

Posts from Friends	Posts from Groups	Ads	Posts from Pages
4	3	2	1

I did this test a few times over and the number of posts from friends and groups did fluctuate however they were always in the top two categories while pages were at the bottom.

 

Benefits of Facebook Pages Definitely Still Exist

Now that’s not to say the pages aren’t important, Pages definitely still have a HUGE role to play on Facebook including:

• Pages are a great vehicle for creating viral content
• Pages can be connected to your group as a great way to cross-promote both the page and the group.
• Pages are necessary if you want to create and run ads
• Many people already have an and engaged Facebook page (regardless of it’s size) and it’s important to continue to nurture that audience to continue to grow your brand.

It’s also important to remember that Facebook’s algorithm has changed many times in the past and is likely to change many more times in the future. So giving up on Facebook pages isn’t the solution as the algorithm could change back to pages being a big focus in the future.

The reason I’m sharing this information isn’t to encourage you to stop using your Facebook page, But rather to encourage you to create an extension of your page in the form of a group as a great way to build traffic and Community for your brand/business.

 

Benefits of Facebook Groups

You Can Poll Your Audience

Although Facebook has created a new option to do polls on Facebook pages, the polls feature within Facebook groups is much more sophisticated and allows for more interaction and insight.  Using polls is a great way to learn about what your community is interested in which allows you to create content that truly caters to their struggles and questions.

Facilitates Conversation

The number of organic conversations that start and continue in Facebook groups is phenomenal and unlike those seen on Facebook pages. This is likely because many groups are closed which allows for more privacy and people feel more comfortable sharing there opinion.

A Place to Share Facebook Page Content

It’s important that you don’t treat your Facebook community/group as a Facebook page. Conversation and meaningful interaction that start organically is extremely important within groups. However, your group is a great way to share relevant posts from your page with an engaged audience.

Tips for sharing page posts in your group:

1. Don’t just drop a link and leave – of course, you can do this but these types of post generally see little interaction inside of groups
2. Ask a question to go along with the post and be sure to respond to people’s comments

Building Website Traffic

As mentioned above you can share relevant blog posts within your group however, there are also other ways that you can share your content:

1. If someone has a question and you have a relevant blog post that may be helpful then pop it in the comments. Tell them what they might find helpful from that post and link to it so people can learn more.
2. Take advantage of the file section in your group. If people are asking the same question over and over and you have a great resource that you know will be a benefit to them then create a resource document in the file section where members can easily access links to these posts in the future.
3. I would still recommend that you share your own posts regularly (once per day – could be more depending on how active your group is).  Just remember to share the post in a way that facilitates meaningful conversation.

These are just some of the many benefits of Facebook groups.  If you haven’t already started a Facebook group, considered starting your own soon!  If you don’t have time to create your own group you can learn more about our Facebook group services HERE