When you’ve invested in social media for your B2B brand, it makes sense that you would want to put your finger in all the pies to fuel further social growth. A good way to approach this is through setting up Facebook Group in addition to your company page to encourage engagement. Facebook Group is an influential way of communicating directly with consumers and creating a community around you brand, writes Matthew Sprague – Green Hat.
Facebook Groups provide your customers with a place to voice their thoughts about your products, ask questions and give real-time feedback. A trend we’ve been seeing for a while shows consumers feeling more comfortable speaking about brands in social media groups rather than directly on official company pages. As a result, organic reach of Facebook Group posts grows significantly; Facebook also has a separate feed showcasing recent posts from the groups individuals are members of.
Social media, Facebook, groups are also a great way to discover influencers and gain insights about your customers. These groups provide valuable statistics on engagement, information on top contributors and demographics. Additionally, they are easy to set-up and get going with just a few clicks within Facebook. But, you only get one chance at launching your group and getting a solid start will keep the momentum building. Groups can quickly slip off people’s radar and sink with rough or bad starts.
To get the best start possible, start by answering the following questions that will ensure you group has the best chance at success:
Purpose
- How will success be measured?
- Who are the target market of this group?
- What value will it provide for the user?
- What value will it provide for your brand?
- What is your competitive advantage?
Pulling and attraction points
- Are you willing to run a paid campaign to attract people?
- Will you provide an incentive to join the group?
- Do you have a list of current customers to invite?
Content (from the brand)
- What sort of content will you post?
- What differentiate your content from other groups?
- Who will be responsible for planning, creating and posting content to the group?
Content (from members)
- How will you promote members to post content?
- Limits of posts per questions?
- How and who will be responsible for answering these? (be aware that group members are likely to provide their answers and opinions too)
- What rules for content will you have in place?
- Set limitations for appropriate contents?
- Procedures and policy towards the group in general?
Who will moderate the group?
Auto-moderation will remove posts with flagged keywords, but everything else is manual.
- How many hours per day are you willing to dedicate to the group.
Public vs. closed groups
The only other option you may want to consider is whether you want your Facebook group to be public or closed.
Public groups will net the most reach since posts, stories and comments can be viewed by anyone and members activity will appear in their friends’ feeds. They are searchable within Facebook and anyone can request to join.
Closed groups are very similar, however, only members of the Group can view the posts within. This can lead to members feeling more comfortable posting and commenting. It also allows you to post exclusive content and offers for members.
The setup
Well-planned groups can build brand loyalty and increase in consumer engagement. Heavy work goes into planning and management, but the payoff can be worth the investment. Here is a personal example from Matthew Sprague.
As a member of a couple of home brewing groups on Facebook, yet he only checks on regularly. The group members post everything in the group, from memes to recipes, but the majority of posts are Q&A about products sold by the brand. The questions are easily answered by the community itself, it’s rare to see group admins having to answer basic product questions.
Group admins post product updates, tips, requests for product feedback, offers (some are member-only offers) and they participate in group discussions and provide professional advice.
This article was originally published by Matthew Sprague, published by Green Hat.
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