How Businesses Can Benefit From Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are a great place for audiences to join each other in a space to communicate about shared interests. You can create a group for about anything — for your high school reunion, book club, or a fan base for a band or sitcom; the feature can be as niche and specific as desired. Additionally, they are becoming more prevalent in people’s social media use, with 1.8 Billion people using the feature every month(Southern, 2021). With this knowledge, how can businesses leverage Facebook Groups to promote their initiatives, target their audiences, and create a space for their loyal customers?
Many businesses and organizations miss using Facebook Groups and tend to focus on Facebook Pages. So what’s the difference? Facebook Pages is mainly one-way communication of the brand advertising to the audience, while Facebook Groups allow the brand and audience members to converse together. As a result, audiences usually view Facebook Pages as more of an ad rather than a place to come together to converse on shared interests. Additionally, it tends to be more difficult for businesses to increase engagement organically with this feature which resorts in major ad spend on the platform (Qdash, 2019).
Just about any business can utilize Facebook Groups to their advantage as each can reap the same benefits. Below, I jump into the main benefits of using this Facebook feature.
Build A Community and Reach Your Specific Target Audience
One of the critical parts of any branding initiative is to build a strong community around the brand. A Facebook Group creates a space for individuals to join who all have the same interest — that interest being your brand! One of the most critical factors for having a Facebook Group is building a long-lasting community. It creates an essence to your brand that can be identifiable and transform how those speak of it. You can even make the page as niche as possible by adding additional private features like a questionnaire screening before joining to get the exact audience you want. Facebook Groups for business or joining Groups related to what your business offers gives you a higher chance of being recognized by the right audience.
Get Feedback and Insight
Through community building, you will hear firsthand from your target audience on ways you can improve your business and strategies. Since casual conversation takes place in Facebook Groups, you will be able to do some social listening of how the audience responds to your brand, what they love or hate about it, and learn what the brand can do to improve. Facebook Groups also has a poll feature where you can gain feedback on specific topics of interest, and since the community will be so tight-nit, you are guaranteed to get responses. You can also gain additional ideas, concepts, and marketing strategies to help down the road.
Generate Leads and Save Money
Though advertisements are consistently effective in generating a good reach on Facebook, they are not always the deciding factor in getting a customer to purchase a service or product. Audiences crave more than a product but a community they can be a part of. Since you’re targeting your prime audience, you will have a better chance to generate additional leads, sales, and conversions from hosting a Facebook Group. Through your group, you can include links to your services, products, or website to make it as easy as possible for your audience to check out. For example, let’s say one of your Facebook Group members makes a post on the page about one of your products or services they love. You can comment below a link to that product or service. Additionally, it will feel like a more real interaction than just an ad yelling out at your audience.
By making your audience feel part of your brand through casual conversation in your group, you have the opportunity to convert casual customers into brand advocates. Additionally, if you post regularly on the Facebook Group, the conversation continues around your brand and if it’s public, Google will pick up on keywords that it will index to promote your page further organically, increasing your reach and saving you money on ad spend.
An example of a brand utilizing all these benefits in Facebook Groups is the Design Brand, Canva. Canva hosts a private Facebook Group called Canva Design Circle with roughly 212.6k members. In this group, members can share designs they created using the platform, tips and tricks, and what they love most about the brand. Creating a space where designers from different industries, backgrounds, and job types can come together and share the interest of Canva is an excellent way for the brand not only to continue to market their services but also sustain, grow and learn from their users.
So, will you be making a Facebook Group for your brand?
