Facebook Groups can be a valuable tool for your business – if you use them correctly!
A Facebook Group allows you to connect with a community of Facebook users over a shared feed and a common interest. The interest could be your business, your type of products, your general industry, or any related topic. Some brands are hesitant to jump into Groups, so we’re going to look at several of the benefits they hold for businesses that take the time.
Facilitate Conversation
It’s tough to manage a Facebook Group, especially if you already have a Facebook Business Page to worry about. But one of the most useful aspects to a Group page is the ability to just help people talk. You don’t need to be always on or always engaging with people to use a Group properly: Instead, stop by to ask questions, talk about the latest news, and offer new info about your brand. A healthy group will take care of a lot of conversation itself after this. Later on, when time opens up, you can go through the latest conversations and answer any specific questions or issues that may have arisen. The goal is to give your customers a sense of community, which increases loyalty and brings up any shared problems to the surface.
Offer Guides and Instructions
When any questions or problems do arise in the group – and are within your ability to deal with in an expert way – the Group also gives you an effective place to answer questions correctly where other interested parties can see what you are doing. If a question or topic comes up frequently, then you may want to consider posting a fuller guide or description to help the Group out. This is particularly useful for companies that sell consumer products, but there are applications for most industries with a little imagination.
Link to The Proper Page and Website
Do you have a Business Page on Facebook? If not, you should get one: They add a whole lot of value, including significant SEO when they are properly built and described. One of the advantages that Business Pages bring is the ability to link a Group to your specific business profile, essentially identifying it as the business in charge. When creating a Group of your own, always make this step a priority: You can link the two in the settings on your Business Page.
Reach Out on Social Media as a Business
One of the more recent updates that Facebook has made to the Business profiles is the ability to post in the Group as the business itself. This should be one of your first steps when setting up or entering a Group! As long as your Page is linked to a Group (described in the previous step), you will be able to post as your business page. This keeps your comments from showing up as one of the team member’s accounts, which can be quite confusing in a Group. Posting as the business adds a lot of authority, and shows valuable competency in social media too.
Create a Group Chatbot
Another change Facebook recently unveiled was work with developers to create more Group chatbots. These automated bots can be opened up in the Messenger window, where they can do…well, whatever conversational tasks they are programmed to. For most Groups, that means the ability to provide basic information and new, and for Groups focused on specific brands, that could extend to answering questions about products as well. This is a newer tool, but still very exciting for automated conversations and spreading information among newcomers.
Discuss Ideas and Productions
If you want to be a little more adventurous with your Facebook Group, then use it as a mini test lab to discuss the application of new ideas, services and products. This is a great step after brainstorming, because collected partners and customers will almost always be able to provide different angles and valuable opinions that would not have been available otherwise.
Use Facebook Live More
Does livestreaming have a place in your business? We encourage you to look for one, because the benefits of well-done livestreaming are myriad. For one thing, your Facebook Group is an excellent place to advertise your livestream before it takes place, answer questions after the livestream, and post the video once you are finished. Don’t let that synergy go to waste!
Find out more about how to use Facebook for your Alliance Technology Partners business today by contacting Alliance Technology Partners at info@alliancetechpartners.com or (314) 391-9888 to talk about how our services can help out!
