Facebook Pages are fast becoming a pay-to-play model. If you want people to see your posts, you have to start running ads to them. Otherwise even people who’ve liked your posts won’t always see all your posts.
Further, Facebook, in an algorithm update announced that it will prioritise posts from family and friends over posts from brands.
So in the face of these changes, is it still viable to market your business on Facebook?
YES!
But the magic is happening not on Facebook Pages, but inside Facebook Groups. Or more accurately, inside private and closed Facebook Groups made up of members with similar interests.
Facebook Groups are a goldmine for marketing, but if you think you can just walk in there and start peddling your products, you’ll be kicked out faster than you can say “Mark Zuckerberg”.
In this episode let’s dive into how to market inside Facebook Groups, make friends and get wonderful customers! And best of all, it’s FREE!
VIDEO SCRIPT
The Power Of Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are powerful because they are made up of a like-minded community. The best groups are those where members can freely talk, share concerns, discuss important topics, give and receive advice and build a community together.
For entrepreneurs looking to market, Facebook groups can give you great insight into your potential customers. Just by listening to their questions, problems, struggles and frequently discussed topics, you’ll gather more marketing intel than you could by hiring a research firm or conducting focus groups.
HOW TO JOIN RELEVANT FACEBOOK GROUPS
This step is easy. Just do a search inside Facebook for what your customer is interested in. So if you are a nutritional health company, look for groups around healthy eating. If you are a yoga instructor, look for groups about exercise and fitness. If you are a local business, look for groups segmented by geographic area. Often you’ll find that in the name of the group.
Click “Join” to apply to be invited. Most genuine group owners will look to see if you are a bot or a regular person using person, and if the latter, approve you.
Facebook will then also start suggesting similar groups for you to join. So you can join a few groups to start your listening phase.
A quick tip: I have personally found that the best Facebook groups are those that don’t allow promotions or only allow promotions inside certain threads or on certain days. Groups that allow advertising without any restrictions quickly become a place filled with spam. So I generally try and stay away from those.
5 WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR BIZ INSIDE A FACEBOOK GROUP TO WIN CUSTOMERS AND FRIENDS FOR LIFE!
1. Start by answering questions. This is the first step to becoming known inside the group. Answer as many questions that fall in your area of expertise and you’ll quickly become known as the go-to-guy or gal for that topic.
2. Start posting helpful tips around your topic. Once you’ve spent enough time listening to people’s problems, you’ll get a good idea about what problems keep coming up again and again. Because Facebook is chronological, older posts disappear, and most people don’t bother using the search function inside Groups, so there’s tons of potential to start new conversations, even if the topic has been discussed before. Get creative and put your own spin on it!
3. Ask for help. Tell people you’re conducting a survey, or need help with a blog title, or how to market xyz product. You’ll see that in general people like to be helpful and will respond to genuine queries. And those who are curious will check out your business.
4. If the Group has a promo day, talk about your products or services on that day only. But don’t get lost in the noise with everyone else talking about their business too! One way to stand out is to not start with the standard “here’s my offer to buy my t-shirts”. Instead start with a disruptive sentence such as “the clothes you chose to wear today reflect your state of mind”. Then, when you have their attention, give them something helpful, such as a free download or coupon code to your offer in exchange for their email address. Now you can start marketing to them inside your email list by providing tons of value interspersed with promotional messages.
5. And finally, make sure to give people an easy way to check out your business! Most Groups won’t allow website links, so you’ll want to make sure that when people click on your name to check you out, your About section on Facebook has a link to your Facebook Page, so they go check out the business-you.
YOUR TURN
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