Ok, here’s the thing with Facebook groups: Everybody told you that you NEED a Facebook group for your business, right?
Well, now you got one. Is it creating engagement? Do people comment, like, share? Do they post?
If you can’t say “yes” to any of these, it’s not an engaging Facebook group. And your Facebook group that you “NEED” for your business is actually no use for your business. At all!
So ENGAGEMENT is the keyword here. When people want to come back into your group, want to stay and post and comment and like and share.
That’s what you’re looking for. Having a Facebook group is great, but it’s not of any use without any engagement.
And in order to create engagement, you need to create content for your group to people will want to comment, like, and share. And even post something in the group.
So content is about starting a conversation and creating engagement. You want your group members to start a conversation or want to interact with your content!
Here are my personal tips for creating content for engagement in a Facebook group:
Make it about the readers.
Yep. This is a mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make in their Facebook groups. They open up a Facebook group and talk about themselves. They post about themselves, tell stories about themselves, and post pictures about themselves.
You may just as well stay at home and talk to your hand. Because you’re not getting anywhere.
You opened the Facebook group for others to join, right? So make it about them! Be interested in them, talk to them, like their posts, comment on their posts, and interact with them.
Create content that your group members will want to read and engage with.
It can all start with a simple welcome post and ask people to introduce themselves and why they are here and how you can help them.
Think about how you start a conversation in real life.
How do you get infos from your conversation partner? You ask a question, right? Then you get an answer. It’s the same inside a Facebook group!
You start asking questions. In in the beginning it may feel like you’re talking into a void and no one will answer at first, but people will answer as soon as they feel addressed. Keep the questions coming.
Make the questions as easy to answer as possible. Remember, most readers come to Facebook on their smartphone, so they don’t want to write long answers.
Two examples for simple questions:
“Roll call. Where is everyone located?”
“Fill in the blank: I know my week will be awesome when___”
It may not sound like much, but think about how the Facebook algorithm works.
When a lot of readers comment on a post, Facebook thinks it is an interesting post and will show it in the news feed of more members. When those members comment on the post as well, Facebook will show it to even more members.
So, the longer people comment on a post, the more visible it is. Which will invite more members (who may not have been in the group for a while) back inside the group.
Show up. Every. Single. Day.
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge
Even on bad days. Your Facebook group is your baby now, take care of it. If you leave your fans, they will leave you. You don’t have to come up with a super intelligent post every day, it’s fine if you show up, like other people’s posts, and comment on them.
But don’t leave your readers (who want to see more from you) alone just because you have a few bad days.
Listen closely and give them what they want
Your members will tell you what content they want to see from you. You just need to listen closely (on in this case: read closely).
Every time they are asking a question regarding something they struggle with, read with attention! Read it and feel free to comment and ask more questions what it is that’s bugging them. The more you know, the more infos you have to create a piece of content out of this!
This is what a lot of influencers do. They take questions from their readers and give a solution or an answer via a video, a blog post, a podcast etc.
The content ideas are out there! All you have to do is read carefully and talk to people who are struggling with something.
If you can give them a solution to their problems, they will love you for it.
Content you can post
- Questions – the easier they are to answer, the better.
- Ask them to decide between A and B (I’m not talking about a poll here). Give them two options and let readers decide between 1 or 2 or A and B etc. They have to comment with the number or letter. Polls rarely get comments, though you shouldn’t skip them altogether.
- Post something controversial and ask for readers’ opinions. Controversial topics can create heated discussions, so keep an eye on the comments.
- Share something you learned and you know people will benefit from it as well.
- Livestreams. Share insights, something from behind the scenes, something funny, something educating, share your opinion on a post you read in your group, praise a member of the group who gives out lots of advice or is contributing regularly in the group…
- Create a poll. It’s a quick way for people to select an answer. How about a poll asking your members what kind of content they would like to see from you? Give them a few options and let them decide! This is another way to serve your members.
- A quick win for your members. Share something they can implement within 5 minutes and see results.
Something for you
I’ve created a list of 50 questions you can post in your Facebook group. Questions that are guaranteed to create engagement as they’re quick to answer!