Steven Sieden

Event Producer, Writer
Seattle, Washington

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Facebook Marketing, Do You Have a “Group” or Two or Three

An overview of Facebook Groups and how to use them in your marketing.

Written May 15, 2012, read 1318 times since then.

Most people now have a personal Facebook Page and probably a Page for their business, but do you have a Facebook Group. In the past few weeks, I’ve been delving into the world of FB Groups and found them to be quite useful in business marketing. Like all FB and most Social Media, they are not designed to close the deal or make the sale.

FB Groups are, however, an excellent way to drive traffic to your website, blog or other online presence where the deal is closed or the sale is made. They can also give you and / or your business great creditability and serve as an excellent way to become known as a contributing member in online communities.

Specifically, what my clients and I have found is that posting simple graphics with inspirational or informative messages on a FB Group can increase website traffic markedly - usually double or triple in a couple weeks if you have the FB Group set up properly. And properly means with at least 1,000 members, although 2,000 or more is much better.

To create a group and have it filled with 1,000 members means having at least 1,200 FB Friends that you can put into the group. If you post good content, at some point the group becomes so interesting that other members also put their FB Friends into the group, and it begins to grow on its own. That doesn’t happen, however, if you don’t have good content as well as a decent number of initial members.

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a FB Group and a FB Page, here’s what FB says:

Pages allow real organizations, businesses, celebrities and brands to communicate broadly with people who like them. Pages may only be created and managed by official representatives.

Groups provide a closed space for small groups of people to communicate about shared interests. Groups can be created by anyone.

Other differences include:

Pages

Privacy: Page information and posts are public and generally available to everyone on Facebook.
Audience: Anyone can like a Page to become connected with it and get news feed updates. There is no limit to how many people can like a Page.
Communication: Page admins can share posts under the Page’s name. Page posts appear in the news feeds of people who like the Page. Page admins can also create customized apps for their Pages and check Page Insights to track the Page’s growth and activity.

Groups

Privacy: In addition to an open setting, more privacy settings are available for groups. In secret and closed groups, posts are only visible to group members.
Audience: Group members must be approved or added by other members. When a group reaches a certain size, some features are limited. The most useful groups tend to be the ones you create with small groups of people you know.
Communication: In groups, members receive notifications by default when any member posts in the group. Group members can participate in chats, upload photos to shared albums, collaborate on group docs and invite members who are friends to group events.

Actually, there seems to be no limit to the size of a FB Group, and if you’re using it the way I have been doing for my clients and myself, bigger is better and the restrictions to a big group are not substantial. The unique feature of Groups is that any member can add any of their FB Friends. Then, if people do not like the group, they can opt out. This makes creating a large FB Group pretty easy if you have a decent number of FB Friends.

I created my first FB Group on April 29, and it now has 4,350 members. Since each of my posts is a graphic with my website embedded as part of the graphic, the messages are inspirational, informative and direct people to my website for more. Traffic to my website has gone from about 200 hits per day to an average of 600 per day. Another client I created a group for has also experienced a dramatic increase in web traffic in less than two weeks.

As with all things FB and social media, everything is in constant flux, so what I am writing today, may not be as valid tomorrow. In fact, over the course of just a few weeks, I have found FB making several changes in the Group format. Some things make it easier to use, and some make things more challenging. For me, however, the results are well worth my efforts, and I would be happy to share more with anyone who is interested.

Click Here to read the two-month update on this experiment.

Learn more about the author, Steven Sieden.

Posted by Dr Gabriel Aidra, Portland, Oregon | May 24, 2012

I loved the article but I'm still not clear what the advantage of a group is for those of us who don't have a thousands of friends or likes from the get go.

Can we take a look at some the groups you run?

Thank you, very interesting.
Posted by Steven Sieden, Seattle, Washington | May 24, 2012

Gabriel,

You do need lots of FB Friends to make a large FB Group, but Groups can grow my more rapidly than Pages. Also, Groups can serve more than one business or individual. My Healthy Humans Group is one such FB Group.

The fact that a Group can be of support to many entities is one of the reasons I'm now working with like minded clients to provide them with access to one of my ever-expanding FB Groups that may be in alignment with their needs. In other words, I'm making some of the FB Groups I've built available to clients thereby creating a mutual marketing situation beneficial to everyone involved.

It's a bit complicated to explain in writing, but I did my best in the article. Also, because it's FB, things are constantly changing. Feel free to contact me directly at ssieden@gmail.com if you want to discuss this more.

Meanwhile, here are four of the six FB Groups I currently have running ...

Global Citizens - 4,300 members - Focused on offering solutions to issues both globally and personally.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/218916321556158/

Healthy Humans - 3,200 members - Focused on health and wellness on all levels including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/424408827582885/

Earth Stewards - 1,800 members - Focused on ecology, environment and healthy relationships.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/328212273918520/

Success - 2,000 members - Focused on the mutual success of all people in all areas of their lives.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/235173263258285/
Posted by Steven Sieden, Seattle, Washington | May 24, 2012

We'll be talking about Facebook and much more at our new monthly Biznik Successful Social Media Group in Seattle 6/19 and the third Tuesday of every month. Here's the link ... http://biznik.com/events/successful-social-media-networking-group
Posted by Steven Sieden, Seattle, Washington | May 24, 2012

Yesterday I created yet another FB Group, and I'm beginning to see FB Group names in a way similar to URL's.
Posted by Kate Phillips, Seattle, Washington | May 27, 2012

Very interesting, Steven! I've been wondering about groups... though I realize that I tend to "unsubscribe" from emails of groups, the emails can definitely be "too much", which (if others do the same) probably lessens their effectiveness.

But I have been noticing the diff between pages and groups, wondering if and how to best utilize a group... know you've really got me thinking!

I guess I would not have guessed that groups would grow so quickly. Seems counter-intuitive if someone else has to invite them/place them, but you have some interesting and compelling short-term results. Might have to come to that next event and learn more.
Posted by Steven Sieden, Seattle, Washington | May 27, 2012

All I can say is that FB Groups are working for me and for the people working with me. I agree that the notifications can overwhelm email, and that's why I suggest people change their email settings or opt out of groups they don't want to belong to. That's what I do.
Posted by Vicki Campbell-Mensah, Auburn, Washington | Jun 20, 2012

Steven and Gregor,

What a great event tonight was. I feel completely satisfied in what you both put together and the interaction among the individuals had the same effect for all. I do plan for the next meeting. Thank You
Posted by Steven Sieden, Seattle, Washington | Jun 20, 2012

thanks ...