For many individuals and businesses, Facebook has been the go-to place for creating hype and marketing content on social media. And because of its sheer user base and because audience likes to associate with a brand socially before engaging, it is safe to say that Facebook Pages became the de-facto standard for businesses operating in the social playground. But over the past couple years, some businesses have slowed down their Facebook operation thanks to a plummeting organic reach after many Facebook news feed algorithm updates. Facebook Pages are old and bulky. Facebook Groups are now hot in fashion.
This is a two-part post. In the first post, we will discuss why we need Facebook Groups now. And in the second, we will look into ways of building a strong group on Facebook.
Why build a Facebook Group?
Facebook Groups are nothing new. They have been around for many years now, and people have been using them for various purposes. For the most part though, they have only rarely been used to drive organic traffic. But more recently, they have started appearing again and businesses who had given up on Facebook marketing are turning to a new ray of hope once again.
1. Facebook is still relevant
The advent of social apps such as Instagram and Snapchat has meant that quite a lot of people who are mostly only interested in connecting with friends (such as youngsters) are not as active on Facebook. Individuals aside, some businesses have given up on Facebook marketing too because of the hopeless newsfeed algorithm updates. This means that there's a lot less clutter out there, and a lot more competing ground.
Around the end of year 2015, Mark Zuckerberg announced that for the first time in history, Facebook has seen over 1 billion active users in a single day. This means that Facebook has become more relevant than ever, despite the sheer number of users. Facebook marketing isn't going anywhere. And it is time for you to fight for new ground which might otherwise soon be lost.
2. Groups notifications are more effective
The major problem with Facebook marketing used to be the Newsfeed algorithm, which Facebook pages rely upon for organic exposure. For any given page, only a fraction of its followers will see its update, wasting a huge amount of organic reach in its wake. In comparison, Facebook Groups send users a notification when someone posts, thus making more people check it out and more organic traffic to flow.
Users may silence these notifications if your group isn't adding value. So be careful about adding content that is really valuable to your followers.
3. Improved credentials
With an active Facebook group, you have a the ability to drive quality traffic with a single post. And that gives you a very good and powerful value proposition. With a Facebook Page, you're an unknown page owner. But within groups, you share ideas and exchange value with your actively engaged followers. And you can leverage this ability of yours to get solid links for yourself.
4. Free content
Facebook Pages are an amazing marketing resource even though they lack as much organic reach. But maintaining a Facebook Page is a job in itself and you have to spend time creating content. You need a dedicated resource to manage it.
Facebook Groups have the edge here, however, because they are crowd-sourced and practically run themselves. They're relatively low-maintenance and free. All you need to do is keep a check on spam.
Although Facebook Groups are nothing new, they're being rediscovered as a far more useful resource than a Facebook Page, and could potentially prove to be a the new trend for this year in social marketing.
