Building Your Community Online With Facebook Groups

Are you looking for ways to continuously grow your audience and keep them engaged? Building a community via Facebook Groups can help you expand your reach and build a better relationship with your audience. 

 

Facebook is the biggest platform in the world. They have almost 3 billion active users. Brands and content creators alike find this extremely appealing because it gives them an opportunity to reach a wide global market. This ultimately gives them a lucrative opportunity to grow their business or their channel. 

For content creators like us, having a Facebook page is mandatory because it’s where we post our content, engage with our followers, and it’s what we use to expand our reach. 

However, as more and more content creators jump into the platform, Facebook pages have lost their potency in helping brands grow organically. If you’ve been in the game for as long as we have been, you’ll notice how your posts would rarely show on your followers’ feed. And if you want to appear in more feeds, you’ll have to pay for boosted posts or ads. 

Through time, Facebook has become a Pay-to-Win platform and it’s making it harder for new content creators to grow their audience. Even for veteran content creators, keeping their audiences engaged has become extra challenging. 

Despite all these, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Facebook’s Groups feature is slowly becoming the newest trend that helps content creators build a community and grow their reach organically. 

In this article, we’ll teach you how to build your community with Facebook groups. 

 

1. Creating a Facebook group

The first thing to consider when creating a Facebook Group is knowing what purpose it serves for your community. If you’re just going to create a group where you’ll just repost what you’re posting on your page, then forget about it. 

Facebook groups are a more personal way to engage your audience. This means you need to give them more than what you’re posting on your feed to make it more enticing to join. 

Most groups are created to: 

• Provide exclusive value and promotions to loyal followers. 
• Encourage interaction amongst fans and build a tribe around the brand. 
• Create a safe space for interactions between the fans and the content creator.
• Distribute exclusive content to die-hard fans to build loyalty. 

Now if you have a clear idea of what purpose your Facebook Group will have, then you can proceed with creating it using Facebook’s page creator feature. 

Here are a couple of things to remember when you’re creating a group: 

• Use a name that’s connected to your channel’s name. Moreover, make sure to have a brief description about what the community is about. (ex. GGWP Academy – Streamers Hub, GGWP Academy League of Legends Group). 
• Make sure your group is visible to the public by choosing the public setting in the Group Privacy Setting. This would make your group easily discoverable by potential fans. 
• Have a detailed description portion about the group, so new members would know what to expect. This would also help accidental visitors discover if your group is something that’ll interest them. 

Once you have your Facebook Group, it’s time to increase your members and build a community. 

 

2. Inviting people

The first thing you need to do when you create your page is to invite your existing fans to join. They are your lowest hanging fruit and the easiest to bring into the group because they’re already affiliated with you, that’s why it’s best to start with them. 

You can do this by manually sending invites via Facebook, creating a post containing the link to the group, or promoting the group in your content. You can even host exclusive giveaways to the first members of your group. 

 

3. Creating content

The secret to onboarding your existing fans and getting new fans in the group is to make it enticing for them. Usually, the key here is exclusivity. Provide them with something they can’t get anywhere else and they’ll be clamoring to join the group. 

For most content creators, this means having exclusive content posted on the group. 

Here is some sample content you can post in your group: 

• Unpublished works
• Exclusive e-books
• Raw footages
• Full-length interviews
• Bloopers
• Personal tips & advice

This exclusive content is enticing to fans, especially your most loyal ones because this is a glimpse of your personality. It makes them feel like they have a better relationship with you because they know something casual fans don’t. 

Aside from exclusive content, you can also explore doing weekly live videos where fans can hop on a live stream with you. This would make your fans more excited because they’ll get a chance to have a personal moment with you. 

If you’re a streamer, you can organize a play-with-fans stream event every week. This would keep group members engaged because they’ll be waiting to get their chance to play with you and be featured in your stream. 

 

4. Encourage discussion

One of the main purposes of having a Facebook Group is to create a safe space for your fans to interact with each other. However, most people can be shy to engage at first. That’s why it’s important for you to keep the ball rolling. 

Have different engagement prompts posted throughout the week. Questions about your niche, memes, and polls are a good way to spark conversation. Keep on doing this regularly, so your fans would feel comfortable interacting with one another. 

Over time, people would start posting their own questions or conversation prompts and you won’t have to put in much work anymore. When this happens, it’s important that you keep on engaging with them, so they’ll feel more encouraged. 

You can do this by answering questions, pointing them to the right resources, or featuring their prompts in your next content. They would find your response rewarding, and it’ll encourage them to be active in the community. 

Finally, another important thing about building a community is moderating the interactions between fans. It’s inevitable that people would have heated discussions and arguments because of their different opinions. That’s why it’s your role to keep these interactions civilized. If someone makes your fans uncomfortable, it’s your responsibility to reprimand them by either suspending them or permanently banning them. 

 

5. Growing the community

Aside from posting content, moderating discussions, and engaging with your fans, it’s important that you’re proactive in growing your community. 

Although a lot of Facebook groups grow organically through invitations and Facebook suggestions, it’s still important to do your part in driving more people in your group. Here are some ways you can promote your Facebook Group: 

• Post teasers of your exclusive content with the link on how to access the full version. This would create curiosity that would lead to traffic towards your page. 
• Join in forums and communities related to your niche. Promote some of your best exclusive content together with a link on how they can get more. 
• Continuously promote your group across your different platforms. This would help introduce it to those who are still unfamiliar with it. 

 

These 5 ideas will surely help you grow your community on Facebook groups. All you have to do is to execute them well. 

Best of luck in building your online community with Facebook Groups!