EPP 112: How To Use Facebook Groups For Marketing Your Business

In this week’s episode of the Extra Paycheck Podcast we’re talking about using Facebook Groups to promote your own business.

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What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear of “Facebook marketing”? You’re probably thinking of simply sharing your links on your personal Facebook profile and your business fan page. Perhaps you’re thinking about running Facebook ads. This episode will not cover any of that. Today we’re going into marketing your business through Facebook Groups.

Your Own Facebook Group

Starting your own Facebook group can be a great idea. I’ve seen quite a few people building successful businesses from Facebook groups. You can also start a Facebook group on a very specific niche and charge people who want to promote their products within it. Starting and growing a popular and active groups is a challenge and there is a lot to learn about it. This episode isn’t about building groups either. Today we’ll be talking about leveraging other people’s groups as a tool to market your own business, content or products.

Find A Relevant Facebook Group

Three (3) years ago, in 2014 Google indexed over 630 Million Facebook groups. I can only imagine there are over a billion groups in 2017. Someone’s done the leg-work for you because there are several groups in your industry. All you need to do now is find these groups and join them. A simple keyword phrase search within Facebook will help you find active groups in every niche imaginable. I recently joined a group of very passionate people who hate cilantro. A little off-topic, I know, but this should give you the idea how niche-specific these groups can be.

Participate In The Group

You can’t simply join a group and start spamming your links all over. This strategy applies to forums (when forums were popular) and it’s the same thing when it comes to Facebook groups. You need to start adding value to that group. People will post questions, thoughts, images, links, news and you need to actively comment on these post. You need to take genuine interest in what’s being posted. This should be easy since the group is relevant to your industry, right?

Start asking questions and answering questions. Comment, like and share. If someone needs help – try to help them out. Even if it means posting a link that isn’t your own. Become an active and contributing members who provides value, get your name out there. People will start following you and asking you for even more advice/help.

Start Networking

As you’re participating in the group you’ll understand that it’s a goldmine. First of all all the questions will give you ideas for future content for your website. You can (and should) interact with other members because they are your perfect customers. Once again, you did join a group that’s very relevant to your business, right? You might even find a great business partner through these groups.

Be friendly with admins and participate in their conversations. This will help you in the future. Group admins can help you promote your business but they can also kick you out from the group. Your best bet is to get to know them and be-friend them. If you’re very active you might become a moderator as well.

Ask The Group Admins For Help

Finally we’re getting to the good stuff. As you spend more and more time within a Facebook group you’ll start noticing patterns. You’ll realize that many members keep asking the same question. Or that they all need the same solution. This is when you can create the most detailed and most amazing blog post to help them out (or you might already have such piece of content). Remember though, this article that you want to promote (or product, or service) has to be amazing.

At this point you can approach one of the admins and ask them to share your link in the group. Yes, you can (and should) share your own links but the impact if much bigger when an admin does it.

When a group reaches 250+ members, all new members who join will automatically receive notifications of “Highlights”. Most people will not change that setting.

This means that when an admins posts something in the group most members will receive a notification about it. When you post something within the same group, most people will never even get a chance to see what you posted. Do you realize the potential of an admin posting your link? I’ve done that for the Extra Paycheck links as well as links for my other niche websites. Most of the time the results are great.

Bump Your Posts

Once you post an update in a group (or have an admin post it for you) you’ll notice that the post will get buried in the feed. There are many factors that influence this behavior. For example, if you post at the wrong time of the day there might be very little activity in the group. Or the guy that posted right after you shared a very controversial story and the attention of the whole group is now on his post. When this happens you can bump up your post by simply commenting on it.

You can also ask friends and other members to comment on it. I did tell you that you need to start networking with others and this is when that networking can come in handy. If you know of other members in the group who have a say on that subject you can simply tag them in the comments: “Hey @Jay, what do you think about this?”. If the conversation is not happening naturally, give it a push. The more people comment on your post the longer it will stay at the top of the group’s feed and the more people will see it (and click on it, and like your blog, and potentially make a purchase).

Few More Tips

When you first join the group, read their rules. Some groups will kick you out immediately if you post an affiliate link. Some groups really don’t want Youtube links, or blog links or any links for that matter. Spend the time to read the rules and understand them. Sure, sometimes there might be exceptions to this. Last year I joined a few groups and as soon as I was accepted I posted a few Amazon affiliate links which resulted in quite a few commissions. It worked out for me because I stumbled upon an amazing deal and I knew those groups would be very excited about it. Don’t expect this to work every time and in every group.

Don’t spam. Read through this post (or even better, listen to the podcast episode) and understand why you need to become an active contributor before you start marketing your business within the group. This is crucial in my opinion.

Make sure to join only highly relevant groups. If you want to buy furniture you aren’t going to go to 7-Eleven, correct? If you’re promoting dog training there is no point joining a group that caters to cat owners.

Now scroll up and press the PLAY button to hear the full episode!

Resources mentioned in today’s episode:

Groove Learning Facebook Group

Extra Paycheck Podcast # 111: Building Million-Dollar Companies With Rohan Gilkes

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– Alex