How to Create a Successful Facebook Group
Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, September 04, 2007
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Facebook is one of the most powerful social networking services currently available. Its interface and framework allow a person to spread news virally as quick as any social bookmarking service. Facebook Groups, communities of friends with similar interests, are also becoming extremely popular. But, why create a Facebook Group??? Well, Organizations and bloggers should create Facebook Groups to further promote brand presence, share news/events with their community and stimulate relevant discussion all in one spot. A prime example of an organization leveraging Facebook Groups is Contiki - through their group they share brochures, the trip/video of the week, contests, and polls to their 37,000+ members.
Tips to Grow a Successful Facebook Group:
Tips to Grow a Successful Facebook Group:
- The Right Configuration: Make sure you select a title, category and description that is relevant to your brand because this will entice people to join your group. I also suggest that you be as transparent as possible and offer information such as contact information, website, phone number and location. This allows group members to associate the group to an actual person rather than any old computer generated content.
To offer a real community appeal, enable the ability for anyone to post discussions, wall posts, pictures and videos. Initially you should make the group public which allows anyone to join and invite people to the group; remember you do have the ability to remove members if needed. - Leverage existing Facebook Friends: It's important to attract a strong base of members to your Facebook group, so invite existing friends that may find your group valuable and who could become evangelists for your group. This is where the viral part comes into play: your friends' friends will notice that they joined a new group which will spark interest from them to check it out as well.
- Use your email contacts: Don't forget about your friends outside of Facebook because Facebook Groups provides the ability to import and send group invitations to your contacts from Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.
- Press Releases/Blog Posts are other methods which you can use to invite new members to your Facebook Group. Personally, I created a call to action and placed it above the fold which reminds my readers to join my group.
- Keep the Content Fresh: Update your group's Recent News, photos, videos, events and links regularly so that members have a reason to return. Another simple tactic is deploying a welcome message which greets new members and enforces the 'human factor' of the group.
- Create relationships with new members: If you have a group which is open to the general public then you will notice people who are not your 'friends' join your group. These are the types of people are there to get a feel for the quality of the group therefore make it a habit to personally address them.
Tracking Your Group's Success
Here are some metrics and tactics you can use to measure the success of your Facebook Group:
- The number of members you have in your group.
- New members who join per day/week/month.
- Ratio of new members to people who left the group.
- Ratio of members who are your Facebook friends vs. not.
- Engagement: Activity on Wall Posts and Discussion Boards.
- Members who also accepted invitations to join your events.
- Links posted in your group back to your blog/website should have parameters appended to them so that they can be segmented in your analytics separately.
Labels: Facebook
Anyone know how to add my blog to my facebook group?
Hi Daniel,
You can't really add your Blog to your Facebook group, but you can post a link to it on your wall, in the "posts" section or in the description of your group.
HI IS THERE A WAY I CAN ADD A WHOLE GROUP TO MY GROUP ?
The only way you can kind of do it is to send a mass email to all the members in the first group telling them about the new group.
Hi!
Thanks for the post.
I started a group for people from my hometown and got 170 members right away. Now I am unsure how to continue, I do not live in that town anymore so I cannot publish small videotrails och pictures from there.
What I would like to do is to create a welcome message that every new member gets. is that possible ?
regards, Ingemar
Hi
I created a Facebook group. It is Global and open to anyone to join, but when searching on the exact name of it, it does not come back in the search results.
How do I make my group searchable?
thanks
Rita
Rita,
Have you looked in the "customize" section and checked the box which reads:
Show this group on the Networks page and in search results.
Ingemar,
What you could do is post something on the wall or in your description. Additionally you could email a message to every member in your group.
Hi, I have the same problem as Rita: I created a group on facebook and it does not show up in the search result for groups no matter if you search for only words in the title or the entire title. I HAVE as you suggest to Rita, enabled the "show this group on the networks pages and in search results", but it does not help. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Can you guys post the name of your group so I can look into it. Thanks.
Can you invite your facebook group to your event or post an event on the group page?
Hi, the name of my group is (in Danish): BALLROOM TILBAGE PÅ ROSKILDE!!!
Thanks again! :)
I sent a message to Facebook support:
"A colleague of mine can't find their group in the search results (in Facebook), the group is:
BALLROOM TILBAGE PÅ ROSKILDE"
they replied with:
Hi Manoj,
We are aware of the problem that you described and hope to resolve it as soon as possible. In the meantime, please note that your group should show up in searches shortly. Sorry for any inconvenience. Let me know if you
have any further questions.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
Cassidy
User Operations
Facebook
Is there a way to specifically look at what new members just joined my group ?
It tells me how many but I can't figure out to look up who are the new members.
I am the admin for the group.
Thanks !
The best way is to go into your Facebook Group and then click "Edit Members" on the right. This will show you a list of your members in descending order of date joined (so newest members first)
my group isn't coming up in search results either, only i don't have the option in customize for 'show this page on the networks page and in search results' as you suggested to rita. my group is called "Ronconi-how many of us are there?"
help!
Hi Kate,
I submitted a support request on your behalf. Similar to Rita's Group, I submitted her issue to Facebook Support and now her Group can be found in the search results (I believe it took a couple of weeks).
Help
How do I make a group public - so that you don't have to be logged in to see the group - like this one for example: http://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton
I believe what you're looking for is a sponsored Facebook group:
These groups are paid promotions by outside companies. The sponsor controls the look and feel of the group, but does not have access to personal information or profiles. The money from these promotions, like the money from all our ads, goes towards the Facebook's server and operational costs. Sponsored groups help us keep the service free and fast.
You might want to contact support to see what the cost is: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact_generic.php
hi, I have made a group, but would like to know if I can change the name. I click on edit and I can edit stuff like description and so on, but no the name. Is it even possible to change the name?
Hi Darren,
I don't think it's possible.
Hi, I have a group. Had it for a few days now, but doesn;t come up in the search results. Any reason for this. Is it because it;s my group and that Im logging in.. or something else? I first thought that it needed a few days to show up but guess not. Any ideas?
Name of group - Lets get the party started - Music Appreciation Group
Link - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14293579034
I sent the following request to Facebook on your behalf:
A colleague of mine can't find their group in the search results (in Facebook), the group is:
Lets get the party started - Music Appreciation Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14293579034
==============================
It should take a week before your group is in the search results
I was just wondering if it was possible to make the members of a group invisible? So that no one can see who is in the group and that the names are hidden.
Hi there, I have a group in FB and I am trying to create an event to invite the members of muy group to but since the members arent my friends it seems i cant invite them. Any suggestions? Thanks, great post! ~JC
how do i make my groups event (that i created) appear in the events column of the group's page?
JC, your best bet is to send a message to the entire group and to paste the link of the event in your message.
To make a group event look in the top right section of your group's homepage for the link "Create Related Event"
I don't think it's possible to make the members invisible
Hi i have created an event using that button as well as create a related event, neither event appear on my groups page? any ideas how to make it appear on that application,
Hi Manoj,
Can you tell me how I can create a link to my facebook group... similar to what you have done with your facebook icon above. when i click on in and login to facebook i go directly to your group page not my profile.
Thanks,
Cherry
Hi Cherry,
The key to doing this is to use the URL to YOUR group. Login to Facebook, then go to your group and then copy the URL of the page you're on and link using that.
- Manoj
I have just joined an IT startup, and wish to start a group related to it.
I also want to promote it through this group.
Could you provide me with a few tips to make it a success.
Thank you.
Hey
I have a group with more than 10,000 memebers and I can no longer invite them to my event etc. Is there anything I can do?
Mischa
I have one group that I started that is doing well. I was able to invite people to join by their e-mail address. I then started a new group but only 5 of my friends come up when I try to add members and I don't have the option to invite people by e-mail like I did with the first group. Needless to say my new group has only me the admin. :-( What did I do wrong with this second group?
GOM
Mischa and GOM, can you please specify your group names so I can look into your issues a little better.
I have a facebook group as well, but it's not easy to get members to join. I have tried all your methods. Would you like to check out my group. Thanks!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18901177694
When I search groups they seem to be ordered by the date that they were created. Is this correct. So if I start a group with a similar name to many others, even if my group has more members, my group will not be displayed until many pages down the search.
I created a group in facebook but for some strange reason, I can't edit the group information. I keep getting an error message that says some of the information you entered is not allowed on facebook, please try again but when i'm keep trying it's not working and I had contacted the customer service department and got no response yet.
For those of you who had trouble searching for your group, you can go to edit group and then customize than make sure your group is enabled to be in the search box or something like that.
My group is in the search box but I can't edit the group information and open anymore groups.
For the person who left the comment about: "OurWorldTalks." After looking at your Facebook Group I think it's quite generic and therefore people have a hard time understanding its purpose and the benefits of joining.
The greatest thing about a Facebook group is the ability to create a very UNIQUE experience. Something Generic (unless you're a big brand name) isn't going to work.
Crown, I don't believe it's alphabetical. I did a quick Facebook Group search on "SEO" and there seems to be some type of relevancy algorithm applied.
hey, i have a group that has been up for about a week, but i can't get it to come up in the search results even when i type in the exact name of it. any ideas on that?
group name: World Team
Organizations - Religious Organizations
thanks for any help!
Is there any way to post documents to a group, as opposed to just posting a link to a document on my own server space somewhere?
How does one go about creating a customised look for a Facebook group. I saw a link on the web to a Jeep sponsored facebook group, http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/graphingsocial/JeepGroup.jpg
HOW DO YOU DO THIS???
You need to create a Sponsored Facebook Group. Your best bet is go to the help section >> Groups >> Select My question is not listed above >> submit a request to Facebook
Regarding Posting Documents:
I believe linking and posting items is the only way.
i have created a group but i cant edit it again. how can i do it??? like upload photos, add more officers and stuff
I am trying to invite a wider base of people beyond my friend profile; is it possible to invite people who are not your friends, but to search for a certain criteria? Thanks!
Anastasia,
I don't think that is possible. Your best bet is to promote your group on your blog/website, forums or on other groups.
I've made a typo in my group name!!!! Does anyone know how to edit it?
Hi Poochey, I don't think you can edit a group name. You can delete and start again or send a message to Facebook Support.
Thanks for quick response. I've contacted Facebook to see if they'll change it...I don't expect they'll be as quick. :)
useful post. thanks.
one question: you said: "Links posted in your group back to your blog/website should have parameters appended to them so that they can be segmented in your analytics separately."
Can you tell us more about how to do this and what parameters to use?
thanks!
Hi Hanoi,
What I meant was to use query-string parameters, ie:
http://www.example.com?campaign=facebookgroup&linktype=toptextlink.
From that referring link you should be able set up your anlaytics to parse the URL and better identify which link within your facebook group visitors clicked.
Hi Manoj
I wrote to Facebook a week ago asking them how to add a "Yes" vs "No" voting tool and counter on my group site. This is to allow members to vote once and it will show the number of "yes" vs "no". They sent an acknowledgment email but have not anything else.
Can you pleas help?
thanks
Ken