Despite growing competition, Facebook remains the most used social media platform with 2.91 billion monthly active users –that’s 36.8% of the world’s population. However, a recent decline in organic reach has been a cause for concern for marketers who rely on the platform to target customers with organic content and ads.
Fortunately, savvy brands have discovered the value of the platform’s Facebook Groups to attract new customers and engage with current ones. More than 1.8 billion people say they use Facebook Groups’ opt-in communities every month. Facebook Groups enable brands to bypass the news feed algorithm and connect with audiences that are predisposed to like their products by providing exclusive content, community, and support.
If you’re not already taking advantage of Facebook Groups, you should. Growing a community of loyal customers enables you to turn them into brand advocates, test new strategies, get valuable feedback, and sell!
1. Establish Group Rules
Facebook Groups can quickly take on a life of their own, so it is crucial to set some ground rules from the start. This is especially true for Groups representing brands. Facebook allows you to create up to ten rules in your Group’s settings.
Your rules should layout a basic code of conduct. Defining your rules can help you down the road in the event you need to ban or delete a member for bad behavior. Basic rules such as encouraging discussion and reminding people to refrain from bad language or be civil are no-brainers. But as a brand you should also consider discouraging the mention of competitors, advertising or promoting third-party products, and spam comments.
Ultimately, rules should be common sense and not too onerous. Let the inmates believe they run the asylum, but make sure you hold the keys.
2. Grow Your Group
Growing your Group can be relatively easy for brands. For starters, you should invite everyone who makes a purchase to join yourGroup. This can be as simple as adding a link to your order confirmation or receipt.
You can also add an invitation to join your Group to your email sequence to attract new Members from your existing customer list.Your email might include an incentive such as a discount on next purchase for joining the Group.
You can even use public social posts to promote a special offer or give-away that is available for Group Members only.
3. Engage Members
While it is important to encourage Members to start conversations and express their feelings, it is important to keep the Group productive and on-topic. That means engaging regularly. Welcome messages are a good start.
A welcome message can be used to recognize the new member and set a warm tone. It can also be used to ask a few simple questions such as, “What is your email?” or “Do you agree to comply with the Group rules?”, to verify the new member is a real person and not a bot.
After the welcome message, pop-in regularly with questions, memes, or polls designed to keep topics and conversations on the right track. The trick is preventing Members from going rogue and bashing your brand, while not appearing to be overly controlling.
4. Provide Unique, Valuable Content
One of the keys to attracting loyal customers to join your Group is the promise of special, Members-only content. After all, participating in a Group requires a greater level of commitment than the average customer would take unless given something in return. Some examples of Group-only content include:
• Exclusive previews of product photoshoots
• Special member-only discounts
• Early access to new products or services
• Product polls to that enable Members to give feedback on new features
• Surveys that identify what customer want by asking questions related to your product, its benefits, or the problems it can solve.
• Livestreams or podcasts
5. Selling to Your Facebook Group
“The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club.”
The same can be said about selling in a Facebook Group. After all, your Group is supposed to be a community whose topics and discussions are driven by its Members – not an overt sales channel. So, if you want to sell inside your Facebook Group, the first rule is don’t talk like a salesman.
Selling in a Facebook Group takes a more subtle approach than just posting a link to your product page and saying, “Buy Now!”
If you followed some of our other recommendations, you should already have plenty of feedback from comments, reviews, surveys, and polls that tell you – in their own words – exactly what your most loyal customers want. All you need to do now is use that information to position an offer in a way that makes Members feel like they are getting access to something of special value that nobody else can get.
One of the best way’s we’ve found to sell to FacebookGroups is with a Facebook Live event. Structure it along the lines of the Home Shopping Network. You’re not selling a product. You’re hosting an interactive showcase with your most loyal customers.
Your Facebook Live event should highlight a selection of products in which your Group has shown interest. Having a host can make the event more dynamic. Invite a guest to participate such as a popular Influencer who can try the product live and endorse it.
Describe the products, demonstrate their features, and mention how member feedback helped in their development. Provide customer testimonials and acknowledge the Members who submitted them. Make your Facebook Live event interactive by allowing Members to comment during the event.
Once you have established your event as an informative, interactive showcase, your Members should be ready, even eager, for a member-only, limited-time offer that ends by the end of the event. Add a countdown clock to add urgency just for good measure.
Selling via a Facebook Live event enables you to build anticipation among your Group leading up to the event, engage with them during the event, and enlist Influencers and Members to encourage others to purchase.
If you’re not ready to produce live content, consider some of these options:
• Post new product drops to the Group for purchase before they are made public
• Post Member-only promotions on Member-favorite products
• Create a Group segment in your email list and send Member-only promotions
No matter how you decide to proceed, our social media team can help you integrate Facebook Groups into a comprehensive social media strategy that includes organic social, paid ads, Influencers and more. Give us a call today!
