Facebook Groups is a great way to have a forum to get together with like minded people to have discussions. There are some great benefits for companies using Facebook Groups but do all the features fit any and all businesses? Marketing techniques that are used for international corporations may not be suitable for a smaller home bases business.
The following are some benefits for using Facebook Groups to connect with fans:
- Member Limitation – The maximum membership amount is five thousand so a larger corporation may that this feature is too limiting. Medium and smaller companies find that they don’t need more members than the maximum amount. The size of the group allows for moderators to pick and choose who they include. Those who do not want to have any limitations placed on their membership amount should consider a fan page rather than a group as a fan page can have an infinite number of likes.
- Full Control Over Membership – While a fan page does allow for more followers, businesses have no control over who can like the page and/or participate. With groups, the business sends out invitations and has control over who is chosen to be included. This is similar to a forum style of set up where the administrators choose who can belong to the forum. There is also more control over the content of the group and there is less chance of trolling by people who are not committed to the company or brand.
- More Personal Communication – Since the group is private, companies can have more personal communications with the customers. It allow them to get opinions and to have focus group types of discussions on products that are currently on the market or on products that are set to be released at a later time. For smaller companies, this is a huge plus because there is no payment being made to a market research company, to the participants or both. A business can have a better idea on the current trends just by having conversations on their Facebook Group page.
- Messaging Members – When a company wants to run a sale or promotion for just the group members, they can send out a mass message o all members at one time. For the person responsible for social media, this is a huge time saver. Rather than having to find each member individually, all names can be chosen at once. This is a great way to offer specials to those who are loyal to the group.
- Searching on Facebook – Potential members can search for the group through Facebook. They can message the moderator for an invitation to join the group. Again, the moderators make the final decision on membership.
Don’t forget to invite all of your Facebook fans to your private group if they want more personalized interaction. You will connect in a new, more intimate method and build a strong community. This is key for online marketing, as it will create loyalty and help your Facebook page get shared. Therefore allowing you to connect with your existing fan’s network and getting more Facebook likes for your page. This will save you the trick of buying Facebook likes for your page. Although the trait of buying Facebook likes is used quite often it doesn’t do anything for building trust and connection among friends. Therefore buying Facebook likes should be left as a last option when considering marketing options. Also rethink the need to buy Instagram followers as purchasing any social packages won’t help with building brand awareness.
Facebook Groups can be a great way to connect with customers for any business. While huge corporations may find them a bit limiting, it can be a great forum for smaller companies. There are so many features that make the time it takes to set up the group well worth it. Those who want can even have their group go public to get a broader base of customers.