February 27, 2024 • 24 mins
Creating and managing a Facebook Group may sound like a time sink with little reward, but did you know it can be one of the most effective ways to create community and brand loyalty? In this episode, we will be going over the benefits of using Facebook groups to grow your business and how to keep it manageable!
Whether you are wanting to use your Facebook Group more effectively or are just testing the waters, tune in to learn how to make Facebook Groups work for your business!
Mentioned Resources
- Join my Facebook Group: Website & Tech Tips for Online Business Owners
- Listen to Episode 37: Using Social Media Marketing to Grow your Business with Tracy Beavers
Join entrepreneurs and online business owners just like you in my Free Facebook Group “Website & Tech Tips for Online Business Owners”
Where we help break down the tech and hurdles Online Business Owners encounter!
Simply to go ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com/facebook/ and answer the membership questions so we know you are a real, warm-hearted, online business owner.
Be sure to subscribe to our podcast where ever you are listening!
You can find our show notes at:
https://www.ecommercemadeeasypodcast.com
Find more of our resources and newsletter subscription here:
https://linktr.ee/bcsengineering
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie (00:01):
Growing your online or e-commerce business using
Facebook groups may sound atfirst like potentially just
extra work for you, but did youknow it could be one of the most
effective ways to createcommunity and brand loyalty.
In this episode, we will begoing over the benefits of using
Facebook groups to grow yourbusiness and how to keep it
(00:22):
manageable.
Welcome to the e-commerce madeeasy podcast.
I'm your host, Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
(00:42):
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the e-commercemade easy podcast.
In a previous episode,interview with Tracy Beavers, we
(01:02):
touched on the potential ofFacebook groups helping you
engage with your audience andgrow your email list and
customer base.
In case you missed it, we willlink to that episode in the show
notes, but today we're going tocontinue with more tips in this
episode, as well as how to makeit simple for you to manage.
As I know, with online businessowners and just business owners
(01:25):
in general, we are super busy,right, and so we want to make
sure it's something that we canmanage and is effective.
So Facebook groups can be apowerful tool for attracting
customers to your business forseveral reasons, and we're going
to go briefly over each reason.
For one, you can grab yourtarget audience in there.
Facebook groups allow you toconnect with a specific audience
(01:47):
that is already interested inyour niche or your industry.
By joining or creating groupsrelated to your business, you
can engage directly withpotential customers who are more
likely to be interested in yourproducts or services.
For example, I'm in severaldifferent business Facebook
groups and they each have alittle bit different variety and
flavor to them, and I reallyuse it to help refine my
(02:12):
messaging, especially as we'rerebranding the business, because
we've been in business for over20 years, as most of you know.
Thank you.
It's a lot different now, in2024, than it was in 2002 when I
started this business.
So being active and engaged incurrent communities is very
helpful as a business owner,because we want to make sure
(02:34):
we're up to date, right.
Also in these Facebook groups,you can potentially be promoting
your business in there.
So, while it's important not tobe overly promotional in any
group out there, you can stillshare relevant content, offers
and announcements about yourproducts and services in a
subtle and non-intrusive manner.
Some of these groups actuallylet you promote yourself on
(02:57):
specific days and some let youpromote any day, but of course,
you do want to be reasonable andnot be promoting every day.
That gets a bit spammy, right.
But if you're in there helpinglike we've talked on in several
episodes this can really helpraise awareness about you, your
brand and your company andpotentially attract customers.
(03:18):
This is how we started ourbusiness, which was with online
forums, and we just naturallyattracted customers to us
because we were helping out inthere.
You can do similar in Facebookgroups.
It's also a great communitybuilding tool.
It groups help foster a senseof community among members who
share common interests and goals, and by actively participating
(03:40):
in relevant groups relevantbusiness groups, irrelevant
groups in your area you canbuild relationships with
potential customers andestablish trust and position
yourself as an authority in yourfield.
We all want to be in acommunity and I find that, with
my experience in social mediaover the past I don't even know
(04:01):
how 10 or so more years Facebookgroups is the one place I find
over and over again that peoplewill share and most share more
personal things and I'm nottalking about security, wise
personal things but really shareabout their thoughts and their
feelings and their preferences.
They will more openly talk in aFacebook group than they would
on a business page, for example.
(04:22):
So it really does create areally good community there.
Also, engagement groups providea platform for meaningful
interactions Excuse me with yourtarget audience.
You can ask questions, sharevaluable content and respond to
comments and queries, whichhelps to keep members engaged
and interested in your business.
(04:43):
So you, if you do create yourown Facebook group, which we'll
talk about a little bit later inthis episode you don't want to
post it and forget it.
So you don't want to like justpost and ghost.
Really, you want to interactwith anybody who has commented
on any of your posts.
Similarly, if you're eithercreating a post and another
(05:04):
Facebook group that's not yours,or you're helping somebody and
creating comments, if somebodyreplies to any of that, you're
going to want to make sure yougo back in and reply.
It's just one, very polite.
And two, it shows that you'reengaged and really care and
you're not just throwing stuffout there to be noticed.
You're actually there to engageand to be helpful.
(05:25):
And then also word of mouthmarketing.
So satisfied customers who arepart of your Facebook groups in
particular, may recommend yourproducts and services to others
within the group or just withintheir own social network, so
maybe even outside of your group.
Positive word of mouth referralscan be highly effective in
attracting new customers andbuilding credibility for your
(05:47):
business.
This is one of the ways that wegrew very early on was
basically word of mouth, andit's a very, very powerful
business tool.
I know as a business ownermyself, I like to promote and
recommend other businesses thatI find value in and that I enjoy
.
I feel like it's just a one wayto give back, and many of us
(06:10):
want to do that too.
You know, if you're a femaleand you found your favorite,
favorite pair of shoes, forexample, you want to tell all
your friends about it, right?
Or if you're a guy and I'm justtalking generalities here, like
typical here, because honestly,I wouldn't want the shoes, I
wouldn't want the tools.
So if you're a guy, or ifyou're like me and love tools,
then and you have your favoritetool and it's really neat You'd
(06:32):
want to tell all your friendsabout it too.
So referral word of mouthreferral is just so perfect for
getting your name out there too.
And then if we want to get alittle bit deeper into what
Facebook itself can do for youfrom a statistic standpoint is
Facebook groups offer valuableopportunities to gather feedback
(06:52):
from customers and gaininsights to their needs,
preferences and pain points.
This feedback can help informyour product development,
marketing strategies and overallbusiness decisions.
I know for us I had this freeGoogle Analytics, for course, to
help people with a transitionfrom universal analytics to
(07:13):
Google Analytics for and it wasgreat and people really liked it
and really needed it.
Well, I was wanting to revampit in the fall 2023.
I was realizing, looking in allthese groups, that people were
asking about Google Analyticsfor anymore.
They just want a general searchengine optimization help.
So I created a free course onthat.
(07:34):
You can find the links on ourwebsite and our show notes if
you need that.
But what being in these groupshelped me realize is that I
didn't want to target the GoogleAnalytics for anymore.
I wanted to target in generalsearch engine optimization.
So I got some really goodfeedback from being in in these
other business Facebook groupsAlso, facebook provides tools
(07:57):
and analytics that help youtrack the performance of your
posts and interactions withinthe groups, and this is very key
here.
This data can help youunderstand what contents
resonate most with your audienceand you can then use it to
refine your marketing strategieseven more based upon that.
So not only make sure that youare posting regularly in other
(08:18):
groups or in your own group, butthen take some time, maybe once
a week, to review.
You know, take 15-20 minutes,set a time or don't get too far
down in the weeds, but try tofind those trends.
You know what are people morecommenting on, what are they
querying about, what are theycurious about, and that's going
to really help you with yourmarketing and your sales.
(08:39):
All right.
So also, last but not least, onas far as the topic is how this
can benefit you, is itscost-effective marketing.
So you can just use what I justtold you in this pre the little
previous segment for this anduse it to then further your
marketing efforts.
Otherwise, and compared totraditional marketing
(09:00):
advertising methods.
Leveraging Facebook groups formarketing purposes can be
relatively low cost.
It's going to cost your time,or maybe one of your employees
time, and as long as you boundthat time to what you can afford
time wise none is prettyeffective and it doesn't cost
you a whole lot.
So obviously it requires sometime and effort to actually
(09:23):
engage with group members, butthe potential return on
investment in terms of customeracquisition and retention can be
very significant.
I know I've met some of my bestbusiness friends this past year
as I started to get engaged inthese business groups, and some
of them, honestly, I feel likewe're like best friends and
we've known each other forever.
(09:45):
That's just kind of how we havethe synergy and really sync
with each other.
So one is great as a businessowner to not feel alone in
running a business.
But two, I'm also seeingpotential customers too in these
groups and being able to reallyunderstand their current needs
and the current market better,and it's really helping me as a
business owner from thatperspective as well.
(10:07):
Okay, so that was a briefoverview of all the reasons you
may consider doing your ownFacebook group or at least
picking a few to actuallyparticipate in, or potentially
both.
So how do we keep it from beinga black hole of time?
Because, as we all know, socialmedia can definitely be a black
hole of time if we are notconscious about it.
So, first off, if you're new tohaving a Facebook group and you
(10:31):
want to make one, first startsmall, and I really mean that
start small.
Pick which days of the week youplan to post.
This could be one time a week,it could be two or three times a
week.
Don't overwhelm yourself andfeel like you need to post every
single day when you're firststarting your Facebook group.
I know I didn't when I firststarted our Facebook group and
(10:52):
I'm still not, as of thisrecording, posting every single
day.
Yet in there I'm building up toit.
I'm, you know, I create allthis content with the podcast
and we create content with ablog post and things like that.
So we can repurpose all thiscontent, like I've talked about
in previous episodes too, and Ican repurpose it for my Facebook
group.
So this is one thing that we'reworking on building even more
(11:15):
momentum in our Facebook groupand posting more than once more
than posting daily, I should say, and then I want to go to more
than once a day, too, and thenas you grow, like I'm just
talking about already, I dorecommend you post daily.
Facebook only shows a verysmall fraction of what is
(11:35):
actually out there to differentusers, so the more you post, the
more likely your post one ofyour posts is going to get seen
by potential clients.
So once you get in the rhythmand are posting daily, I could
really actually recommend youposting, if possible, up to
three times a day in yourFacebook group.
I like to do morning, afternoonand evening in one of my other
(11:58):
Facebook groups.
That's been established forgosh almost eight years now.
It's my side gig business thatI do for fun, and I find that
when I post three times a day, Ireally keep that momentum and
the engagement up.
Now, one of the things you cando, though, to make this not
overwhelming is utilize toolsthat already exist in Facebook.
(12:19):
Facebook has a Facebookschedule, and you can schedule
your posts in groups, in caseyou didn't know that.
So one thing I like to do,especially in my side hustle
business that I do that I'm nowtrying to transition my
knowledge I've generated fromthat the past almost eight years
into my main business is I willbatch schedule posts and that's
(12:44):
, and when you think about that,try not to think of it as being
in personal.
What you want to think about itas a business owner.
And something I had to reallythink about as a business owner
for this side hustle businesswas that I am planning ahead.
I'm planning my content aheadto serve the people that I have
(13:07):
around me.
I did it to entertain them, Idid it to them form them of new
products coming out, and wegenerally have a lot of fun and
for me, if I'm scheduling theseposts out, then I'm not worrying
daily what I'm going to postand what I could do instead is
go in daily and interact andhave conversations and make it
(13:28):
be a community.
So don't feel like you'recheating by scheduling your
posts.
There's absolutely nothingwrong with that and in fact,
it's probably going to create abetter, more engaged community
if you do plan ahead, becausethen you can think about what
you're doing right and then youcan have the time to interact.
It's very important to beinteracting right and whenever
you do post in your groups, makesure you're creating posts of
(13:51):
varying types.
Facebook likes us to use allthe different ways they have to
create posts, so you want someof them to be photo posts.
You want some of them to betext-only posts.
Some people think text-onlyposts are dead and they actually
aren't.
You may want some of them to bereels, live videos, if you are
to that point where you'recomfortable doing live videos,
(14:13):
or even recorded videos, etc.
Now you can schedule all ofthose except for the live videos
.
You would need to use asoftware to schedule live videos
if you wanted to do that.
But having the differentvariety of posts not only gives
people with different learningskills a different way to
(14:33):
consume your content, but italso pleases Facebook and you're
going to get a lot moreengagement, and so Facebook does
reward you for doing all thesetypes.
So another thing that you can doin your Facebook groups is to
plan out daily themes.
You want to be entertaining,engaging and educating your
(14:57):
consumers, and you want to dothis across a variety of
different posts, and you canhelp yourself do this by doing
themes.
So I like to, for example, myFacebook group do motivational
Monday posts.
Every Monday, I put up amotivational quote or something
motivating to help us start offour week right.
I find mindset is key, as I'msure many of you know it's very
(15:19):
important to our success and ourpersonal lives and in our
business.
So I like to set the week offwith a motivational Monday post.
Now some other examples youcould do, depending upon your
target audience.
You could do tell a Tuesdaywe're going to probably be
starting up a Tech Tuesdaybecause it's more appropriate
for our audience.
I like to do a wacky Wednesdayin my side hustle group.
(15:42):
The ladies in there always havefun, always have a wacky fun
game.
Or you can do win Wednesday.
If you're a bit more of abusiness side and I'm still
trying to decide in our Facebookgroup, I might do a wacky
Wednesday because, honestly, I'dlove to have fun and I feel
like we should have fun in ourbusiness.
So I might find some funentertaining wacky Wednesday
posts for our Facebook groupsthat are still relevant to what
(16:04):
we're doing.
Another idea is throwbackThursdays Some people like to do
that and fun Fridays, and thenyou can pick whatever you want
to do on Saturdays, sunday, soyou can really make any day of
the week a theme that relates towhat you do or and it also
helps create engagement is whatI really want to say there.
You can use Google or chat GPDto give you some ideas and to
(16:27):
create some themes around it.
Some people find doing thesethemes really helps them stay
focused per day.
And then your consumers knowwhat to expect.
They know on Mondays they'regoing to get a motivational
quote and they actually might goin their group to go find that
motivational quote in case itdoesn't show up in their
Facebook feed, right.
Or maybe they love to have somefun and they want to
(16:48):
participate in your wackyWednesday, so they always show
up for your wacky Wednesday ifyou decide to do one of those.
So having a set theme andregularity to what types of
posts you're posting can alsohelp the engagement and the
happiness of your Facebook group.
And one thing to remember isthat your customers really want
to talk about themselves, so youneed to make sure you're
(17:11):
providing opportunity for themto do that.
So every time you post, ask aquestion, and the simpler the
question the better.
What's your favorite color?
That might not be appropriatefor your niche or your customer
base, but for some of you itwould be.
What's your favorite color?
That's a super simple, easyquestion to ask and answer.
(17:32):
Right People are going to sayit.
I would say purple, and then mysecond favorite color is blue.
If you're a tech company likeus, you could be like what's
your favorite tech hack orwhat's your favorite app that
you like to use on your phone?
You know, think about questionsthat are engaging, that aren't
directly necessarily related toyour business.
On the motivational Monday,sometimes I like to ask a
(17:54):
question about the motivationalquote.
You know whether it resonatedwith them or what other types of
quotes I mean the, what othertypes of quotes, a little bit
more complicated question toanswer.
So you do want to limit, likeI'm saying, those more
complicated answers.
You want a bit more simple, butit is something you can ask.
But always have your posts,have a question.
That's going to encouragepeople to engage with you,
(18:18):
because then they won't feellike they're being talked at,
they feel like they're beingtalked to and with and they will
be more likely to respond andgive you feedback back to you.
And the more you get yourmembers talking, the more other
group members will see yourposts, and so then you also get
to know your customers betterwith their answers to, and it's
(18:39):
kind of like a sick little thingas soon as you can start
getting some people commentingand posting in your group, more
people are going to see yourposts, more people are going to
comment and it's just thiswonderful big snowball effect
that the snowball is runningdown the hill and getting more
snow and getting bigger andbigger and bigger.
So the more you ask questions,especially the simple ones, the
more you're going to getengagement, the more other
(19:00):
people are going to see it andengage and it just keeps going
on and it's great.
And we have our own Facebookgroup, just so you know, and, as
I've already alluded to alittle bit in this episode where
I break down the tech, we haveentrepreneurs of all types in
there.
I do let you promote in mygroup anytime too.
I regularly am going live toanswer any technical questions
(19:22):
the community has and we have alot of fun in there.
I want this to be a group wherewe're just having tons of fun
and learning and it's veryvaluable.
I don't want a group just tohave a group.
So if you would like to join itbefore we keep going on our
episode, it'secommercemadeeasypodcastcom
forward slash Facebook and thatshould redirect you to my
(19:43):
Facebook group.
So just go ahead and go toecommercemadeeasypodcastcom
forward slash Facebook to joinour Facebook group.
Ok.
So let's back up a little bit.
Let's say you're not ready tocreate your own Facebook group
yet, and there's nothing,absolutely nothing wrong with
that.
I didn't create our businessFacebook group for BCC,
(20:03):
obviously, right away.
I just created it at the end of2023.
So what you can do instead isyou can search for groups where
you think your ideal clientswill be hanging out.
Make sure you read and followthe rules and the directions
that are in that group.
Some of them let you promote oncertain days, as I've talked
about a little bit earlier inthis episode.
(20:23):
Some will let you promote anyday I'm letting people promote
any day in my group and somedon't let you promote at all.
Even if it's a group thatdoesn't let you promote at all,
you can still comment onpeople's other questions and
give answers and help them, andthat's a way to do a soft
promotion.
So don't think that thosearen't valuable as well, because
(20:44):
sometimes those are.
So your interaction and yourengagement in the group will get
your name out either way andit's going to create curiosity
around you and your potentialclients will likely look at your
Facebook profile or look you upin general.
So getting your name out there.
Helping and really interactingin these groups is a great way
(21:06):
to organically grow your reachin your audience.
It's obviously not going to be aquick fix.
That's not what this is.
This is a long term strategyhere and it will build a ton of
momentum once you get it going.
Now I do recommend setting atimer or setting aside a
specific time that you do this,because you don't want to get
(21:28):
sucked in and spend all day inFacebook groups.
Obviously, we need to berunning our business too, right,
but a power half an hour or apower hour of this a day, or
maybe if three days a week, youknow, you know what you have
time for, and start that up andmake it something.
It's make it part of yourroutine.
(21:48):
So, even if it's soft marketing, like I'm talking about in here
, it's going to have long termbenefits and if you're able to
handle both having your ownFacebook group and participating
in other Facebook groups, thenew reach will magnify even more
and a lot faster.
So keep that in mind.
Obviously, I don't want tooverwhelm you.
(22:09):
I want you to take this slowand do what you can at first.
Pick one if you have.
If you're not doing any of it.
Pick one Facebook, your ownFacebook group or find two or
three really high qualityFacebook groups and post in
those and then, as you have moretime and ability, start adding
the other one in and work onboth, and that's going to really
(22:30):
help propel you All right.
So that's all I have for thisweek's episode of the eCommerce
made easy podcast.
I hope you learned a lot aboutFacebook groups and how to
utilize them to grow yourbusiness.
Be sure to visit our show notesat eCommerce made easy
podcastcom.
If you're watching this on theYouTube channel, make sure you
hit that subscribe button and ifyou're listening on the podcast
(22:52):
, hit that follow buttonwherever you're listening.
If you're listening to this andyou found value in today's
episode or any of our otherepisodes on the eCommerce made
easy podcast, we want to hearfrom you.
What other content do you wantto hear on our show?
Drop us an email at podcast atbcsengineeringcom, or leave us a
review.
Thank you again for listeningand we will see you next week.
Growing your online or e-commerce business using
Facebook groups may sound atfirst like potentially just
extra work for you, but did youknow it could be one of the most
effective ways to createcommunity and brand loyalty.
In this episode, we will begoing over the benefits of using
Facebook groups to grow yourbusiness and how to keep it
(00:22):
manageable.
Welcome to the e-commerce madeeasy podcast.
I'm your host, Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry and
even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech and to easily
(00:42):
understandable bits to helpothers be successful in their
online business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place.
So sit back, relax and let'sdive into the world of
e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the e-commercemade easy podcast.
In a previous episode,interview with Tracy Beavers, we
(01:02):
touched on the potential ofFacebook groups helping you
engage with your audience andgrow your email list and
customer base.
In case you missed it, we willlink to that episode in the show
notes, but today we're going tocontinue with more tips in this
episode, as well as how to makeit simple for you to manage.
As I know, with online businessowners and just business owners
(01:25):
in general, we are super busy,right, and so we want to make
sure it's something that we canmanage and is effective.
So Facebook groups can be apowerful tool for attracting
customers to your business forseveral reasons, and we're going
to go briefly over each reason.
For one, you can grab yourtarget audience in there.
Facebook groups allow you toconnect with a specific audience
(01:47):
that is already interested inyour niche or your industry.
By joining or creating groupsrelated to your business, you
can engage directly withpotential customers who are more
likely to be interested in yourproducts or services.
For example, I'm in severaldifferent business Facebook
groups and they each have alittle bit different variety and
flavor to them, and I reallyuse it to help refine my
(02:12):
messaging, especially as we'rerebranding the business, because
we've been in business for over20 years, as most of you know.
Thank you.
It's a lot different now, in2024, than it was in 2002 when I
started this business.
So being active and engaged incurrent communities is very
helpful as a business owner,because we want to make sure
(02:34):
we're up to date, right.
Also in these Facebook groups,you can potentially be promoting
your business in there.
So, while it's important not tobe overly promotional in any
group out there, you can stillshare relevant content, offers
and announcements about yourproducts and services in a
subtle and non-intrusive manner.
Some of these groups actuallylet you promote yourself on
(02:57):
specific days and some let youpromote any day, but of course,
you do want to be reasonable andnot be promoting every day.
That gets a bit spammy, right.
But if you're in there helpinglike we've talked on in several
episodes this can really helpraise awareness about you, your
brand and your company andpotentially attract customers.
(03:18):
This is how we started ourbusiness, which was with online
forums, and we just naturallyattracted customers to us
because we were helping out inthere.
You can do similar in Facebookgroups.
It's also a great communitybuilding tool.
It groups help foster a senseof community among members who
share common interests and goals, and by actively participating
(03:40):
in relevant groups relevantbusiness groups, irrelevant
groups in your area you canbuild relationships with
potential customers andestablish trust and position
yourself as an authority in yourfield.
We all want to be in acommunity and I find that, with
my experience in social mediaover the past I don't even know
(04:01):
how 10 or so more years Facebookgroups is the one place I find
over and over again that peoplewill share and most share more
personal things and I'm nottalking about security, wise
personal things but really shareabout their thoughts and their
feelings and their preferences.
They will more openly talk in aFacebook group than they would
on a business page, for example.
(04:22):
So it really does create areally good community there.
Also, engagement groups providea platform for meaningful
interactions Excuse me with yourtarget audience.
You can ask questions, sharevaluable content and respond to
comments and queries, whichhelps to keep members engaged
and interested in your business.
(04:43):
So you, if you do create yourown Facebook group, which we'll
talk about a little bit later inthis episode you don't want to
post it and forget it.
So you don't want to like justpost and ghost.
Really, you want to interactwith anybody who has commented
on any of your posts.
Similarly, if you're eithercreating a post and another
(05:04):
Facebook group that's not yours,or you're helping somebody and
creating comments, if somebodyreplies to any of that, you're
going to want to make sure yougo back in and reply.
It's just one, very polite.
And two, it shows that you'reengaged and really care and
you're not just throwing stuffout there to be noticed.
You're actually there to engageand to be helpful.
(05:25):
And then also word of mouthmarketing.
So satisfied customers who arepart of your Facebook groups in
particular, may recommend yourproducts and services to others
within the group or just withintheir own social network, so
maybe even outside of your group.
Positive word of mouth referralscan be highly effective in
attracting new customers andbuilding credibility for your
(05:47):
business.
This is one of the ways that wegrew very early on was
basically word of mouth, andit's a very, very powerful
business tool.
I know as a business ownermyself, I like to promote and
recommend other businesses thatI find value in and that I enjoy
.
I feel like it's just a one wayto give back, and many of us
(06:10):
want to do that too.
You know, if you're a femaleand you found your favorite,
favorite pair of shoes, forexample, you want to tell all
your friends about it, right?
Or if you're a guy and I'm justtalking generalities here, like
typical here, because honestly,I wouldn't want the shoes, I
wouldn't want the tools.
So if you're a guy, or ifyou're like me and love tools,
then and you have your favoritetool and it's really neat You'd
(06:32):
want to tell all your friendsabout it too.
So referral word of mouthreferral is just so perfect for
getting your name out there too.
And then if we want to get alittle bit deeper into what
Facebook itself can do for youfrom a statistic standpoint is
Facebook groups offer valuableopportunities to gather feedback
(06:52):
from customers and gaininsights to their needs,
preferences and pain points.
This feedback can help informyour product development,
marketing strategies and overallbusiness decisions.
I know for us I had this freeGoogle Analytics, for course, to
help people with a transitionfrom universal analytics to
(07:13):
Google Analytics for and it wasgreat and people really liked it
and really needed it.
Well, I was wanting to revampit in the fall 2023.
I was realizing, looking in allthese groups, that people were
asking about Google Analyticsfor anymore.
They just want a general searchengine optimization help.
So I created a free course onthat.
(07:34):
You can find the links on ourwebsite and our show notes if
you need that.
But what being in these groupshelped me realize is that I
didn't want to target the GoogleAnalytics for anymore.
I wanted to target in generalsearch engine optimization.
So I got some really goodfeedback from being in in these
other business Facebook groupsAlso, facebook provides tools
(07:57):
and analytics that help youtrack the performance of your
posts and interactions withinthe groups, and this is very key
here.
This data can help youunderstand what contents
resonate most with your audienceand you can then use it to
refine your marketing strategieseven more based upon that.
So not only make sure that youare posting regularly in other
(08:18):
groups or in your own group, butthen take some time, maybe once
a week, to review.
You know, take 15-20 minutes,set a time or don't get too far
down in the weeds, but try tofind those trends.
You know what are people morecommenting on, what are they
querying about, what are theycurious about, and that's going
to really help you with yourmarketing and your sales.
(08:39):
All right.
So also, last but not least, onas far as the topic is how this
can benefit you, is itscost-effective marketing.
So you can just use what I justtold you in this pre the little
previous segment for this anduse it to then further your
marketing efforts.
Otherwise, and compared totraditional marketing
(09:00):
advertising methods.
Leveraging Facebook groups formarketing purposes can be
relatively low cost.
It's going to cost your time,or maybe one of your employees
time, and as long as you boundthat time to what you can afford
time wise none is prettyeffective and it doesn't cost
you a whole lot.
So obviously it requires sometime and effort to actually
(09:23):
engage with group members, butthe potential return on
investment in terms of customeracquisition and retention can be
very significant.
I know I've met some of my bestbusiness friends this past year
as I started to get engaged inthese business groups, and some
of them, honestly, I feel likewe're like best friends and
we've known each other forever.
(09:45):
That's just kind of how we havethe synergy and really sync
with each other.
So one is great as a businessowner to not feel alone in
running a business.
But two, I'm also seeingpotential customers too in these
groups and being able to reallyunderstand their current needs
and the current market better,and it's really helping me as a
business owner from thatperspective as well.
(10:07):
Okay, so that was a briefoverview of all the reasons you
may consider doing your ownFacebook group or at least
picking a few to actuallyparticipate in, or potentially
both.
So how do we keep it from beinga black hole of time?
Because, as we all know, socialmedia can definitely be a black
hole of time if we are notconscious about it.
So, first off, if you're new tohaving a Facebook group and you
(10:31):
want to make one, first startsmall, and I really mean that
start small.
Pick which days of the week youplan to post.
This could be one time a week,it could be two or three times a
week.
Don't overwhelm yourself andfeel like you need to post every
single day when you're firststarting your Facebook group.
I know I didn't when I firststarted our Facebook group and
(10:52):
I'm still not, as of thisrecording, posting every single
day.
Yet in there I'm building up toit.
I'm, you know, I create allthis content with the podcast
and we create content with ablog post and things like that.
So we can repurpose all thiscontent, like I've talked about
in previous episodes too, and Ican repurpose it for my Facebook
group.
So this is one thing that we'reworking on building even more
(11:15):
momentum in our Facebook groupand posting more than once more
than posting daily, I should say, and then I want to go to more
than once a day, too, and thenas you grow, like I'm just
talking about already, I dorecommend you post daily.
Facebook only shows a verysmall fraction of what is
(11:35):
actually out there to differentusers, so the more you post, the
more likely your post one ofyour posts is going to get seen
by potential clients.
So once you get in the rhythmand are posting daily, I could
really actually recommend youposting, if possible, up to
three times a day in yourFacebook group.
I like to do morning, afternoonand evening in one of my other
(11:58):
Facebook groups.
That's been established forgosh almost eight years now.
It's my side gig business thatI do for fun, and I find that
when I post three times a day, Ireally keep that momentum and
the engagement up.
Now, one of the things you cando, though, to make this not
overwhelming is utilize toolsthat already exist in Facebook.
(12:19):
Facebook has a Facebookschedule, and you can schedule
your posts in groups, in caseyou didn't know that.
So one thing I like to do,especially in my side hustle
business that I do that I'm nowtrying to transition my
knowledge I've generated fromthat the past almost eight years
into my main business is I willbatch schedule posts and that's
(12:44):
, and when you think about that,try not to think of it as being
in personal.
What you want to think about itas a business owner.
And something I had to reallythink about as a business owner
for this side hustle businesswas that I am planning ahead.
I'm planning my content aheadto serve the people that I have
(13:07):
around me.
I did it to entertain them, Idid it to them form them of new
products coming out, and wegenerally have a lot of fun and
for me, if I'm scheduling theseposts out, then I'm not worrying
daily what I'm going to postand what I could do instead is
go in daily and interact andhave conversations and make it
(13:28):
be a community.
So don't feel like you'recheating by scheduling your
posts.
There's absolutely nothingwrong with that and in fact,
it's probably going to create abetter, more engaged community
if you do plan ahead, becausethen you can think about what
you're doing right and then youcan have the time to interact.
It's very important to beinteracting right and whenever
you do post in your groups, makesure you're creating posts of
(13:51):
varying types.
Facebook likes us to use allthe different ways they have to
create posts, so you want someof them to be photo posts.
You want some of them to betext-only posts.
Some people think text-onlyposts are dead and they actually
aren't.
You may want some of them to bereels, live videos, if you are
to that point where you'recomfortable doing live videos,
(14:13):
or even recorded videos, etc.
Now you can schedule all ofthose except for the live videos
.
You would need to use asoftware to schedule live videos
if you wanted to do that.
But having the differentvariety of posts not only gives
people with different learningskills a different way to
(14:33):
consume your content, but italso pleases Facebook and you're
going to get a lot moreengagement, and so Facebook does
reward you for doing all thesetypes.
So another thing that you can doin your Facebook groups is to
plan out daily themes.
You want to be entertaining,engaging and educating your
(14:57):
consumers, and you want to dothis across a variety of
different posts, and you canhelp yourself do this by doing
themes.
So I like to, for example, myFacebook group do motivational
Monday posts.
Every Monday, I put up amotivational quote or something
motivating to help us start offour week right.
I find mindset is key, as I'msure many of you know it's very
(15:19):
important to our success and ourpersonal lives and in our
business.
So I like to set the week offwith a motivational Monday post.
Now some other examples youcould do, depending upon your
target audience.
You could do tell a Tuesdaywe're going to probably be
starting up a Tech Tuesdaybecause it's more appropriate
for our audience.
I like to do a wacky Wednesdayin my side hustle group.
(15:42):
The ladies in there always havefun, always have a wacky fun
game.
Or you can do win Wednesday.
If you're a bit more of abusiness side and I'm still
trying to decide in our Facebookgroup, I might do a wacky
Wednesday because, honestly, I'dlove to have fun and I feel
like we should have fun in ourbusiness.
So I might find some funentertaining wacky Wednesday
posts for our Facebook groupsthat are still relevant to what
(16:04):
we're doing.
Another idea is throwbackThursdays Some people like to do
that and fun Fridays, and thenyou can pick whatever you want
to do on Saturdays, sunday, soyou can really make any day of
the week a theme that relates towhat you do or and it also
helps create engagement is whatI really want to say there.
You can use Google or chat GPDto give you some ideas and to
(16:27):
create some themes around it.
Some people find doing thesethemes really helps them stay
focused per day.
And then your consumers knowwhat to expect.
They know on Mondays they'regoing to get a motivational
quote and they actually might goin their group to go find that
motivational quote in case itdoesn't show up in their
Facebook feed, right.
Or maybe they love to have somefun and they want to
(16:48):
participate in your wackyWednesday, so they always show
up for your wacky Wednesday ifyou decide to do one of those.
So having a set theme andregularity to what types of
posts you're posting can alsohelp the engagement and the
happiness of your Facebook group.
And one thing to remember isthat your customers really want
to talk about themselves, so youneed to make sure you're
(17:11):
providing opportunity for themto do that.
So every time you post, ask aquestion, and the simpler the
question the better.
What's your favorite color?
That might not be appropriatefor your niche or your customer
base, but for some of you itwould be.
What's your favorite color?
That's a super simple, easyquestion to ask and answer.
(17:32):
Right People are going to sayit.
I would say purple, and then mysecond favorite color is blue.
If you're a tech company likeus, you could be like what's
your favorite tech hack orwhat's your favorite app that
you like to use on your phone?
You know, think about questionsthat are engaging, that aren't
directly necessarily related toyour business.
On the motivational Monday,sometimes I like to ask a
(17:54):
question about the motivationalquote.
You know whether it resonatedwith them or what other types of
quotes I mean the, what othertypes of quotes, a little bit
more complicated question toanswer.
So you do want to limit, likeI'm saying, those more
complicated answers.
You want a bit more simple, butit is something you can ask.
But always have your posts,have a question.
That's going to encouragepeople to engage with you,
(18:18):
because then they won't feellike they're being talked at,
they feel like they're beingtalked to and with and they will
be more likely to respond andgive you feedback back to you.
And the more you get yourmembers talking, the more other
group members will see yourposts, and so then you also get
to know your customers betterwith their answers to, and it's
(18:39):
kind of like a sick little thingas soon as you can start
getting some people commentingand posting in your group, more
people are going to see yourposts, more people are going to
comment and it's just thiswonderful big snowball effect
that the snowball is runningdown the hill and getting more
snow and getting bigger andbigger and bigger.
So the more you ask questions,especially the simple ones, the
more you're going to getengagement, the more other
(19:00):
people are going to see it andengage and it just keeps going
on and it's great.
And we have our own Facebookgroup, just so you know, and, as
I've already alluded to alittle bit in this episode where
I break down the tech, we haveentrepreneurs of all types in
there.
I do let you promote in mygroup anytime too.
I regularly am going live toanswer any technical questions
(19:22):
the community has and we have alot of fun in there.
I want this to be a group wherewe're just having tons of fun
and learning and it's veryvaluable.
I don't want a group just tohave a group.
So if you would like to join itbefore we keep going on our
episode, it'secommercemadeeasypodcastcom
forward slash Facebook and thatshould redirect you to my
(19:43):
Facebook group.
So just go ahead and go toecommercemadeeasypodcastcom
forward slash Facebook to joinour Facebook group.
Ok.
So let's back up a little bit.
Let's say you're not ready tocreate your own Facebook group
yet, and there's nothing,absolutely nothing wrong with
that.
I didn't create our businessFacebook group for BCC,
(20:03):
obviously, right away.
I just created it at the end of2023.
So what you can do instead isyou can search for groups where
you think your ideal clientswill be hanging out.
Make sure you read and followthe rules and the directions
that are in that group.
Some of them let you promote oncertain days, as I've talked
about a little bit earlier inthis episode.
(20:23):
Some will let you promote anyday I'm letting people promote
any day in my group and somedon't let you promote at all.
Even if it's a group thatdoesn't let you promote at all,
you can still comment onpeople's other questions and
give answers and help them, andthat's a way to do a soft
promotion.
So don't think that thosearen't valuable as well, because
(20:44):
sometimes those are.
So your interaction and yourengagement in the group will get
your name out either way andit's going to create curiosity
around you and your potentialclients will likely look at your
Facebook profile or look you upin general.
So getting your name out there.
Helping and really interactingin these groups is a great way
(21:06):
to organically grow your reachin your audience.
It's obviously not going to be aquick fix.
That's not what this is.
This is a long term strategyhere and it will build a ton of
momentum once you get it going.
Now I do recommend setting atimer or setting aside a
specific time that you do this,because you don't want to get
(21:28):
sucked in and spend all day inFacebook groups.
Obviously, we need to berunning our business too, right,
but a power half an hour or apower hour of this a day, or
maybe if three days a week, youknow, you know what you have
time for, and start that up andmake it something.
It's make it part of yourroutine.
(21:48):
So, even if it's soft marketing, like I'm talking about in here
, it's going to have long termbenefits and if you're able to
handle both having your ownFacebook group and participating
in other Facebook groups, thenew reach will magnify even more
and a lot faster.
So keep that in mind.
Obviously, I don't want tooverwhelm you.
(22:09):
I want you to take this slowand do what you can at first.
Pick one if you have.
If you're not doing any of it.
Pick one Facebook, your ownFacebook group or find two or
three really high qualityFacebook groups and post in
those and then, as you have moretime and ability, start adding
the other one in and work onboth, and that's going to really
(22:30):
help propel you All right.
So that's all I have for thisweek's episode of the eCommerce
made easy podcast.
I hope you learned a lot aboutFacebook groups and how to
utilize them to grow yourbusiness.
Be sure to visit our show notesat eCommerce made easy
podcastcom.
If you're watching this on theYouTube channel, make sure you
hit that subscribe button and ifyou're listening on the podcast
(22:52):
, hit that follow buttonwherever you're listening.
If you're listening to this andyou found value in today's
episode or any of our otherepisodes on the eCommerce made
easy podcast, we want to hearfrom you.
What other content do you wantto hear on our show?
Drop us an email at podcast atbcsengineeringcom, or leave us a
review.
Thank you again for listeningand we will see you next week.
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