How to Build a Good and Engaging Facebook Group

A Facebook Group is a social media channel that can be a valuable tool to reach your target market.If you’ve ever wished to build an online community, then Facebook Group might be your best stop.

However, just creating a Facebook group does not mean that it will thrive and become engaging, to the point that others will be recommending it to
their friends. And that brings us to the topic how to build a good and
engaging Facebook Group.

Table of Content

Choosing a Unique Name

This is one area in which Group admins fail. when choosing a Group name, it should be targeted for it to get to the right audience. E.g of targeted
Facebook Group includes:
* Pen & Ink Masters

* Legal Insights For Business

* Bloggers Helping Bloggers (BHB)

Remember,
your Group’s name should contain your target keywords(as seen in the
examples above), which will make it easy for your targeted audience to
find the Group easily when making a search.

Create the Focus of the Group

“Starting
a Facebook Group is similar to starting a blog. You want to know who
it’s for, what you’re going to provide in the Group, and why you’re
starting one in the first place” – Daniela Uslan

So you need to think; what your Facebook Group is going to offer, what kind of
people you are targeting and what they have in common. When you do all
of this, you’ve created the focus of your Facebook Group.

Define Ideal Target Audience

This has to do with deciding who your Facebook Group is going to serve,.
Describing your Group more effectively which will make it easier to know
what the Group is about and attract other members.

When this is done, you’ll be sure that the people joining the Group are the right types of people – your ideal audience.

Imaging this scenario, you’re looking for a group on “how to be a successful blogger” and after searching, you found two Groups.

A Group called “How to be a blogger” and a Group called “How to succeed as a blogger”. So which will you go for?

I bet you’ll choose the second one right? But why? That’s because the second sounds like it’s more tailored to your need.

So that is why it is always advisable to define an ideal target audience, which also link back to choosing a unique name above.

Give it a Professional Look

Alot
of Facebook Group Owners usually ignore this part of developing a
Facebook Group. The appearance of the Group would either bring more
targeted members or drive them away.

First, you need to upload
the Group’s cover photo and be sure that the image uploaded is in
accordance with the focus of the Group.

Groups with Closed types
always bring in more members than Groups with Open types, because users
can’t see the Group’s conversations until they have joined the group,
giving you an additional targeted members. So start giving your Facebook
Group a professional look.

Make Rules & Group Guidelines

Just like every community have their own rules and guidelines that govern them, and any who fails to adhere to it is punished.

So you creating a Facebook Group should also have Rules that govern it, because the Group is your own online community.

And
just like the physical community makes their Rules known to their
community members, you should also make the Rules known to your Group
members, by sharing it once in a while to new Group members.

Also
make the Group members know that strict adherence to the Rules is
needed, any who fails to adhere will be punished either by expulsion.
And be serious about it.

Create your Content Theme

There
are alot of Groups on Facebook with so much general contents that at
some time, it confuses the audience, so creating content around a
particular theme allows you to get more creative in it, which will help
you get audience attention faster.

It also help you narrow your contents rather than being overwhelm with too many choices of contents.

So don’t be that “Jack of all trade, master of none”, rather narrow your contents by having a theme.

Plan your Editorial Calender

This is another way to make your Facebook Group organized and engaging.

Planning
your editorial calender will let you know which day you’re posting and
which day you’re not, this will help you craft out engaging contents.

It
helps your community(Group) members to know when they’re expecting
something new from you, and they will be present that day to engage with
your content.

Having an editorial calender will also give you
the time time to monitor other conversations in the Group, thereby
maintaining the focus of the Group.
So you need to have an editorial calender.

Use Various Content Format

When creating contents for your Facebook Group, you should not limit yourself to just the text format.

One big mistake Group owners make is posting links right from day 1 of creating the group.

“All
they care about is someone to click that link, join that life changing
program…bla…bla…bla” – Promise Excel

When
you start posting links right frome day 1, your ideal audience will
think that you’re just like the rest of the Group owners, flooading them
with links and have nothing to offer, and this could be a big turn off
for them.

So to get their attention and make them know that
you’re there to help them, you need to experiment with different content
formats which includes:

– Polls

– Images

– Videos

Share Stories

Once
in a while, share personal stories on your Facebook Group wall, as you
share your struggles, it will make your Audience to know that you’re a
human with real feelings. And when you share your success stories, it
will make you stand out as an authority and in turn tighten the bond
between you and your prospective clients.

Monitor Groups Conversation

This is an important aspect as a Group admin, you need to monitor the conversations taking place in the group.

Many
users will come in to spam the Group, and if proper attention is not
given to the conversations, it will gradually devalue your Group’s
focus.

We know quite well that many users do not adhere to the
Group’s Rules and Guidelines, so when this happen you need to take down
such posts and PM such individuals informing them that the post he/she
made was against the Rules, and for that reason it was deleted.

But
when it happens again from the same user, you have the right to kick
him/her away from your Facebook Group, as they are not your ideal
audience/members.

It is your Group and not theirs, you decide who
stays and who leaves. Also conversations that are beneficial and in
accordance with the Group’s focus should be appreciated. Commend the
users, as this will encourage them to do more.

As time goes on,
you may find it hard to monitor all the Group’s conversations due to the
fact that the community(your Facebook Group) is now large.

In
this situation, it is advisable to employ active or a full-time
moderator who will be taking care of spammy users, while you focus on
delivering value through your posts.

Publicize the Group

After creating your Facebook Group and also giving out value in it, you may be thinking of how to publicize the Group.

Spreading the word about your Group can be done in many ways.

You can tell your friends, your mail list by sending the link of your Group to them, asking them to join if interested.

P.S: Never add them to the Group without getting permission from them first, because they have the choice either to join or not.

If
you have a website, you can capitalize on that to drive in targeted
members to your Group, since your website audience might likely be your
ideal Group members.

You can create a great content e.g an ebook
and give it out free, rather than asking people for their emails in
return for the offer, you drive them to your Facebook Group by hosting
that file(e.g ebook) on the “Files” section of the Group, and for them
to download it, they have to join the group. That was what Ryan
Stewart did concerning his SEO Proposal Template. In this way, you can drive massive members to your
Facebook Group.

You can also run Facebook Ad for the Group. Yes, you read that well!

You may be thinking, how can someone run a Facebook Ad for a Group, since it’s impossible to boost Group posts.

Yes, you can’t boost Facebook Group Post, but you can use a Facebook Page to accomplish this.

Now
here is how to do it, write a detailed and captivating post about the
Group on the Facebook Page, mentioning the Group and the focus of the
Group, including the Group cover photo along with a link to the Group in
the post.

Now boost the post targeting your ideal audience, and Congratulations! you’ve just ran a Facebook Ad for your Group.

So those are some of the ways to publicize your Facebook Group that will bring more engaging members.

CONCLUSION

Believing you’ve gone through the post one after the other, you should be able to build your own Facebook Group, not just building the Group, but how to
make it a success with more targeted, engaging members.

Did you find this article helpful?, don’t forget to also share it so more people will learn from it.

Do you have any question? Drop it in the comment below, and i’ll give a reply to you.