When it comes to using Facebook groups for business, there's one pop-up group that really struck a chord with me.
Now, I belong to several Facebook groups that are all valuable to me. But since my aim is to build online courses in content strategy, I seized the opportunity to join this particular group. It would help me with the key planning aspects of launching a digital course.
The group was a 30-day social learning group run by Amy Porterfield and her team. It was called Digital Course Kickstarter: A 30-Day Bootcamp.
Like I said, this group had a huge impact on me because it demonstrated the effectiveness of using Facebook groups for business.
So in this article, I’m translating my experience with the group into key takeaways and ideas on how you can truly maximise Facebook groups for your own business.
But first, let’s take a quick look at why Facebook groups are important, the advantages of using them, and how to set one up.
The rise in importance of Facebook groups
In 2019, Facebook announced plans to prioritize groups in the fb newsfeed. They discovered that over 400 million people belonged to Facebook groups. So they looked for ways to make it easier for folks to discover and engage with people having similar interests.
By now, you would have noticed that more and more group posts are showing up in your regular newsfeed.
Also, you now have a dedicated feed for your groups. This means you can now jump from your regular newsfeed to your private groups with relative ease.
You’re also now seeing many more recommendations from Facebook to join different groups.
Plus, you can share content directly to groups like you could have done before with your friends.
The advantages of using Facebook groups for business
Using Facebook groups for your business has many advantages.
Some groups are set up specifically to provide training. These are called social learning groups. To me, this is the number 1 way to start and attract persons to a Facebook group as a coach or consultant.
If done correctly, you can easily evolve your relationship with your group into a paying one. It's a matter of communicating an offer that's an upgrade to the free training you deliver in the group.
How to create a Facebook group for business from your desktop
Facebook makes it easy to set up a group.
Key takeaways on using Facebook groups for business based on my time in Amy Porterfield's pop-up group
Define your 'Big Promise'
Back in September, I decided to join Amy Porterfield’s Digital Course Kickstarter, A 30-day Bootcamp. It was basically a pop-up social learning Facebook group.
My first big takeaway was that my experience with the group started long before I even entered it. Amy Porterfield did a masterful job communicating her big promise. She primed my expectations.
She didn’t promise that I’d learn everything about running a digital course. That's what she presented as her paid offer (more on that later).
What she did promise, though, was that she’d help me get clear on 7 key decisions.
All course creators need to make these 7 decisions first before launching a course. So, essentially, she positioned her free course truthfully. And as we all know, truth is the key ingredient to building credibility.
Communicate your value
Amy did a great job positioning her course too—by that I mean she communicated the value I would get from joining.
Now there’s a difference between communicating features versus the value of an offer. Amy did it in three stages going from broad to narrow.
She started off by communicating the overall value of launching a course. Here's a snippet from one of her emails where she communicates the broad value of launching a course:
Next, she communicated the value of joining her Facebook group. This messaging was narrower in focus than her message about the value of course creation in general.
Third, she drilled further into the value you would get from the training to be delivered in the group.
For example, her 30-day plan would help you overcome confusion and overwhelm. Plus, the group course assignments would help you create momentum towards setting up your course.
Do you see how communicating your value works at different levels?
You turn now! How can you communicate the value of joining your group?
Address your audience's self-limiting beliefs
People achieve a lot more when they get rid of their self-limiting beliefs. As a coach or consultant, you know more about that than I do.
Amy certainly helped in that department. She did it by using a quiz as her tool.
Her 2-minute quiz solved the problem that most people have when thinking of launching a course: Where do I begin?
After answering questions about our audience, goals, experience, and vision, we each got 1 of 3 different quiz results.
Our quiz results were what Amy called our “personal path” to course creation. This personal path was simplified into 3 steps. The simplicity of it all helped address possible feelings of overwhelm and confusion in moving forward.
Next, we all got examples of other course creators who followed our designated personal paths to course creation.
But the most convincing strategy Amy used to address our self-limiting beliefs was her message on having the 10% edge.
The message is that you don’t have to know everything about your course subject area (and you never will). All you need is a 10% edge. In other words, you only need to be a few steps ahead of those you’re serving and teaching.
Why? Because these are the persons who are most interested in knowing how you got your results and are open to you teaching them.
Follow?
Now over to you. How can your messages help your audience address their self-limiting beliefs?
Use units to organise content
Once inside Amy's group, you soon realize how well the content was organized for you.
Facebook gives you the opportunity to create units. It's a tool for organizing your training content into modules. It also makes it super easy for members to find specific content.
Each unit comprises individual posts which can use to deliver one training lesson.
The cool thing about units is that group members can mark the completion of a lesson. This makes it a great motivational tool for group members who want to visibly track their progress.
You as the admin also get to see who has completed each unit and/or post. This is fantastic for tracking member engagement.
In Amy’s group, there was a Welcome Unit which included short video introductions from Amy and her team. This Welcome unit also contained explanations on how to complete certain tasks.
(Key note: Having more than one admin is absolutely necessary when managing a large group. They can help you admit new members, approve or delete posts, and respond to member questions.)
There were 14 Admins and moderators in Amy's group.
Other than the Welcome unit, there was a Community Unit for community-building posts as well as units dedicated to each module of the training.
The main idea here is that you need to think carefully about how you will Facebook's units tool organize the content in your group.
Go live
Amy dripped her course content each week. When it was time to deliver a lesson, she showed up live with video. She remained consistent by appearing on a particular date and time each week.
She’d have a 10-minute countdown before starting to give folks enough time to tune in. She kept her videos to no more than 45 mins. inclusive of the countdown. This was perfect as you didn’t feel overwhelmed with too much information.
She interacted with viewers by asking questions and reading a few responses live. This recognition spurred people on to comment even more.
I also liked her Hot Seats. These were specific lives where she answered select burning questions.
Create shareable content
Team Amy came up with badges that members could share in the Facebook group.
These badges are not to be confused with Facebook badges.
Facebook gives you the opportunity to turn on badges for members who comment in your group.
When they post, you can see a notification next to their names. These let others know if they’re a new member, conversation starter etc.
Team Amy’s badges were “course badges”, i.e., downloadable templates accessible via Canva or direct download. Group members used them to complete action items related to the lessons Amy taught.
For example, one of the lessons was identifying your Ideal customer. To put the lesson into practice, there was a course badge to fill in your ideal customer and share it with the group.
Persons would share their badges as a proud statement of their progress.
Others would post their course badges and ask persons for feedback. This generated tons of engagement which kept the group encouraged, pumping, and active.
What shareable content ideas can you come up with for your group?
Cross-promote
Amy used the Facebook group as an avenue to cross-promote her other groups. One of them was a group on Telegram. Telegram is an instant messaging app that allows you to access messages via different devices.
Amy used the Telegram group to give behind-the-scene access to the Facebook group members. For example, she once showed her studio set-up. This was a bonus for persons looking for insight into the tools she uses to deliver her courses.
For the most part, though, she used Telegram as another avenue for group members to get to know more about her as a person.
What other accounts or channels can you draw attention to using your Facebook group?
Leverage social proof
Social proof is one of the best ways to attract leads and clients online. The truth is most people will not trust you right away but they are much more likely to trust what others have to say about you.
Think of social proof as the online equivalent to referrals in your business.
Our brains are wired to take short cuts when it comes to making decisions. Social proof provides a short cut for assessing credibility.
For example, Amy pointed to the success of her group using IG reels. By mentioning the 18,000 persons in her group, she used social proof to attract more interest.
She also leveraged social proof to announce the roll-out of success stories in a post to the group. These were web pages showing a range of stories from persons who had taken her course and gotten results.
Team Amy also made a confetti wall with the names of persons who enrolled in Amy's paid course. They shared it in a post composing 8 images of the confetti wall.
They encouraged folks to find their name in the numbered photos and then post the number in the comments. This created quite a buzz and inspired lots of people to sign up. Again, this is another stellar example of social proof at work.
How can you leverage social proof in your Facebook group?
Give!
The best takeaway I got from Amy’s Facebook group was how much she gave. It’s a wonderful example of how you can give to your audience without giving away your core paid product.
Remember, Amy's Facebook group was a social learning group. In it, she gave away her time and expertise for 30 days.
Then, there were the actual weekly giveaways and prizes for commenters chosen by random.
But the biggest giveaway was the sneak peek we got into her paid course. In this sneak peek, we got access to module 1 of the course over a limited period (I forget how many days).
Module 1 closely resembled the free training she shared in the Facebook group except for some extra content shared.
With this sneak peek, you could see the titles of the other course modules. So this gave you a pretty good idea of the material she was going to cover. It was a genius and generous move that definitely paid off.
How about you? What would you be willing to give away in your group?
Conclusion
So that’s it. Those were my key takeaways on using Facebook groups for business. Here’s a quick recap on what you can replicate for your own Facebook groups.
- Define your big promise
- Communicate your value
- Address your audience's self-limiting beliefs
- Use Facebook units to organise content
- Go live
- Create shareable content
- Cross-promote
- Leverage social proof
- Give
So what do you think? Will you be using Facebook groups for business? And how will you be using it? Let me know in the comments below.
I’m a content marketing specialist and owner of C.D BLACKMAN SOCIAL REBELLION MARKETING, where I make it easy for professional service-based business owners to create content marketing strategies that attract leads and clients more predictably.