Adapted from Hustleburg Episode 12.
What Are the Benefits of Creating a Facebook Group in Addition to Your Business Page?
When it comes to Facebook, you have a lot of options when it comes to creating a community around your business and communicating about your brand. Obviously, with the noted distinction between a personal profile and a business page, you should have a Facebook page for your business in 2020. We know that the page is a communication tool to share with those outside the community you’ve already built. It’s essentially a digital storefront on the largest social media platform. It has the basic information about your businesses, about your hours, your location, any special deals you might have. It rivals your website in terms of importance, and it ranks higher in the search results than many business websites.
Your Facebook Page is a great tool for people that are looking for you already. It’s the social media version of your website that allows you to have a touch of your personality on display. We’ve previously shared the strategy about utilizing your page to share the five focus items:
- The main thrust of your business or brand
- One thing related to the main thrust
- Another thing related to the main thrust
- Something personal that shows your brand has a personality (not necessarily business-related)
- Another something personal that shows your brand isn’t an emotionless robot (again, not necessarily business-related)
Sounds Great! Why a Facebook Group Then?
Facebook groups present you with a unique way to build deeper relationships with your community. These are the true fans you’ve created around your business, not just passersby. Your group is where you’re going to engage in in-depth discussions, generate and foster engagement with the people that are already associated with you, and build the relationships necessary to have evangelists of your brand or your business. While publicly visible, your page is only an opportunity to build many shallow connections, like the depth of a bathtub, but a group gives you the ability to build ocean-deep connections with people who are committed to you and your business. The people that you engage with in these groups are your raving fans, or they’re going to become your raving fans.
Additionally, groups offer a place for you to really let your personality shine online. In addition to the five focus topics outlined above, you can share more of your personality here, as you’re building relationships, not seeking transactions. You will be able to get to know your customers and you can truly connect with them in the environment of a group. In a group, the interaction of real conversation goes deeper just a post on your page and maybe a comment here and there. These relationships turn into a tribe of people who will evangelize for you online as well as in the real world. They are your best marketers, and their efforts are going to be way better than yours, because they are a real-world example of how your business solved their problem and can solve others’ problems. They will enthusiastically recommend you to others and devote themselves to you and your brand, because you have made these ocean-deep connections. It doesn’t take very many of these connections to earn these fantastic marketers and their valuable word of mouth buzz for your business.
