How can Facebook groups help your marketing strategies?
With more than 2.5 billion users, Facebook has become an essential element of marketing efforts. And while many brands have created their Pages and created their Facebook Ads Campaigns or increased their number of posts, not many have explored or even taken the time to understand the wealth of marketing opportunities available to them through Facebook groups. In 2019, 1.4 billion people use Facebook groups with a total of more than 10 million Facebook groups in existence, so it is very likely that your buyer persona is participating in a group.
Benefits of Facebook groups
They offset recent Facebook algorithm changes by helping drive engagement and increase organic reach. Facebook admits that it prioritizes content in groups that users frequently engage with.
They can foster a stronger sense of community around your brand.
They can increase customer satisfaction and sales with word of mouth recommendations.
What is the difference between a Facebook page and a Facebook group?
A Facebook page is where you present your business: who you are, what you offer, contact information, links to your content, and so on. Groups, on the other hand, encourage you to engage in two-way conversations between your business and your potential customers. They are designed to be active forums where members can ask questions, post events, follow conversations, share photos and links, and much more.
The sole purpose of joining or creating a group is not to promote your content, but rather to build a community of people (potential customers) and offer valuable content.
Here are some tips to help you succeed in using Facebook Groups:
1. Do some networking
Nobody joins your Group because they want to be sold, but rather joins because they want to participate in the interesting and relevant discussions you have there. Instead of promoting your business or brand, focus on the value and benefits that you can give to the members of your Group. To do this, you should be able to answer these questions: What are they looking for? What problem can you solve for them? What benefits can it provide?
2. Use your group as testing ground for new content
Although the main goal of your Group is to generate discussions with your target market, it can also be a safe place to try out new content ideas - such as a new blog idea, a social media post, or a complete content marketing strategy - before to release them to the general public.
In addition to testing your own ideas, you can develop new content ideas from the conversations and comments that occur on your page. You want to take advantage of the conversations and comments that you like the most and that you interact with.
3. Provide amazing customer service
Facebook groups give you the opportunity to offer incredible customer service, especially when you have groups dedicated to customer inquiries, which increases your availability to your customers and potential customers and gives you another outlet to connect with them in a more personalized way. Just make sure you have a system to answer member questions as quickly as possible. Assign multiple administrators to your Facebook group if necessary.
4. Incorporate your group into your global strategy
Create a content strategy that includes a content calendar, goals, campaigns, an engagement strategy, optimization tactics, and content testing strategies (user generated content, Facebook Live and videos, interactive content such as polls, and images such as gifs, memes, photos and infographics).
If you put the time and effort into building an amazing Facebook Group, be sure to promote it so that your audience knows about it. You can do this in your email newsletters, on social media platforms, through invitations to your current customers, and on your website.
Facebook Groups are an amazing way to increase your social media presence. They allow us to have more direct contact with our buyers and potential customers. It should definitely be part of your marketing strategy. As we have previously mentioned, the content posted on Facebook groups should be well thought out, with a strategy behind it so that you create valuable content and people feel as part of a community instead of exposed to another ad. At Century Digital Marketing we implement social media strategies to help your business grow. Let us know if you are interested in our social media management service.