Facebook Groups are hugely powerful marketing tools for local businesses.
We once took a Facebook Business Page from 300 likes to over 2000 likes by posting in 4 local Facebook Groups.
Those 4 shares ensured the business was permanently busy as we had a very strong marketing plan for the business page once people liked it.
Without Facebook Groups, this business would not been able to expand successfully to 3 separate locations.
But that is just one business, let’s take a deep dive into the stats
WHY FACEBOOK GROUPS ARE POWERFUL
These are 4 key stats that will get you thinking about using Facebook Groups to market your business
- 1.8 Billion People Use Facebook Groups
- 50% of Facebook Users Are Part of Five or More Groups
- Facebook Groups offer a sense of belonging to 98% of members
- Top Groups Have an Engagement Rate Above 80%
IS THAT THE SAME FOR LOCAL OR SMALLER FACEBOOK GROUPS, I’M ONLY A LOCAL BUSINESS?
We can only speak for the way we operate our local Facebook Group
We have around 12,000 members in the group
- In the last 28 days
- 2,345 people have posted & commented
- 154,952 people have viewed the group
And we get around 150-300 new members join each week
Here is How To Contribute To Facebook Groups (and not anger the admins)
READ THE FACEBOOK GROUP RULES BEFORE EVEN POSTING
I run a Facebook Group in my local town.
We have 12,000+ members and its hard work. It takes as much time administrating the local Facebook Group as it does managing my own Facebook Business Page.
So why do I do it?
I wanted a place to help local businesses as our own Altrincham HQ business page only features the highlights of what is happening in the town.
A lot of the admin would be taken out of it if people just read the rules in the 1st place
Facebook groups will often have rules on key areas such as
- If Businesses Can Post
- How often or what days businesses can post
- Are there any subjects off the table – Politics / Religion / Buy & Sell Posts etc
- Are pages allowed to post or just people?
- Are there any geographical restrictions – local groups will often only allow local businesses to post
Before posting familiarise yourself with the rules
JOIN IN THE WEEKLY WELCOME POST IN THE FACEBOOK GROUP
The community is bigger than one person.
Use the welcome post to introduce yourself or say hello to new members.
In every group it should be one of the most popular posts of the week.
Treat it just like a face 2 face networking meeting – you wouldn’t let 1st time visitors come and be ignored.
Be an active member of community and show other people how much you care.
ONLY POST YOUR HIGHLIGHTS – IT’S NOT YOUR PERSONAL NOTICE BOARD
I know that your daily specials for your cafe are really important to you.
I know that filling that 2pm slot at the beautician is really important to you.
I know that you help people with their gardening every day.
But only ever post your highlights once a week (or on certain days if the group specifies that)
Optimise your posts in terms of copywriting and choose the best possible image.
90% of posts in Facebook Groups are not optimised and therefore pass by without engagement
DON’T SPAM EVERY SINGLE GROUP YOU’RE A MEMBER OF
We recently had a post from one business.
So we took a look at their business page – they’d shared the same post to 41 different groups.
It was embarrassing especially as seen as every single post on their page and in these groups got zero engagement.
Being a member of a Facebook Group is about community – it’s not about throwing spaghetti at walls and seeing what sticks.
SUPPORT THE FACEBOOK GROUP ADMIN
Behind every Facebook group there is a hardworking admin
There are always ways to support the admin whether that be on social media, in business or in community
Usually, a group is something the admin does on top of their main business / job role.
Here are 5 ways that I love people to support us
- Be Positive – we don’t like ranters or moaners so keep your posts positive
- Let us know about local news – we love local news, but can’t be everywhere
- Support our fundraising for the Christie and Altrincham VS Cancer
- Come and meet us in person at our Face 2 Face Networking Events
- Recommend our Social Media Training and Social Media Management to businesses you know
We know that businesses get hundreds and thousands of £££s business from our group – all we ask is you try and give a little back to the community !!!
REMEMBER THE 80/20 RULE
80% of your contributions should be helping others.
20% of your contributions should be about yourself.
So, in Facebook group terms that’s 4 supportive comments on other people’s posts for every promotional post you do.
NEED HELP WITH SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR YOUR BUSINESS
Chat to us about Social Media Marketing for YOUR organisation , so we can better understand YOU and what will grow your organisation
We can chat about whether online or Face 2 Face is better for you
We can only find out what is unique to your business by chatting with you
Look at our Social Media Training and Social Media Management services
We offer Social Media Training on
* LinkedIn
* Instagram
* Facebook
* TikTok / Instagram Reels
* Twitter
* Blogging
We can do this
* 121
* Corporate Workshops
* Group Workshops
* Face to Face or Via Zoom / Skype
Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
