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How to Start a Facebook Group

In this blog, I will take you through the “How to” start a Facebook group. 

Facebook groups are an incredible lead generation tool that I use daily in my business and that of my clients. It allows you to create a place that your clients will get to know, love and trust you and there are a few things that I recommend you do when you are launching a Facebook group so that you are optimising them for your service-based business. 

But, first let’s start at the very beginning. 

1. Creating the group. 
1. You can create the group to be connected to a Facebook page or stand out on it’s own. The benefit of it being connected is your clients can easily find it, you can also post as your page in the group. 
2. To create it from a page click on the community tab when you are on the page. 
3. Click create group. 
4. Then select the privacy settings you would like. 

Now the group is made, what to do next? 

Profile photo 

This should be an image of you if it is a personal brand or the company logo. 

Header Image

This is prime real estate, this is when you can give your audience a call to action, a free download or something else. 

Group Settings

Description 

This should be a description of the group, what is involved, what the benefits are and how, if people want to work with you that they can work with you, 

Group Type

Select the right group for you, social learning adds units to the group and is great for groups with lots of learning or steps but usually general is plenty. 

Tags 

These help people find your group, they can be pages that your ideal clients may also like. This helps Facebook understand who to send the group to. 

Web address

This is the URL that you can share for the group, it is great to be able to share a specific URL rather than just a bunch of numbers and looks so much more professional. 

Hide Group

If you have the group hidden then new people will not be able to find the group, this is great for a secret group that you do not want anyone to be able to join. 

Sections

This is where you can add tools to your group that Facebook provide to help make your group run smoother. 

Membership Approval

If you would like other people in your group to be able to approve members then select anyone in the group alternatively approvals will be completed by admin only. 

Pre-approval 

If you have an email list or another group that means people will automatically be added to this one then this is where you can let Facebook know this information. 

Membership Requests

This is where you can ask people questions on entry. A great question is always to capture their email address and you have the permission then to add them to your email list and market to them then. You can also use the questions to pre qualify people for your offerings. 

Membership requests from Pages

I do not allow pages into my groups as I would like them to be personal and for people to interact as real humans rather than pages, but this is a personal choice. 

Posting permissions

I do not like to engage in groups in which admins have to approve posts before you post so I am reluctant to turn this on but it is personal to you and your group.

Keyword alerts

This is useful if people in the group are likely to use keywords to get your attention for example #help 

Moderate Groups and Rules 

It is good to have a set of rules so that everyone knows where they stand and people can obey them or not. You can also remove posts if they do not meet the rules and let clients know about this on removal of the post. 

If you are growing a group and need help with how to market your group then make sure to check out the 11 steps to growing your Facebook group.