Facebook Groups for marketing your business? Why I don't recommend it -- and what to do instead
Channel: George Kao
Date: 2018-06-04

A couple of years ago I created and facilitated a free Facebook group (called “Our Highest Work”) and in late 2015 decided to put it on hold.

Here’s why I stopped using my Facebook Group:

It had basically become my fan page (without the advantage of FB Fan Pages)

I was posting my new content there, but besides those threads I started, there was little other discussion, since I didn’t allow other members to promote their own content or offerings.

This is a normal rule for Facebook Groups: don’t post your own content or offerings to someone else’s group, unless it is a comment under a thread started by the facilitator, sometimes called a “Share Your Content / Offerings” thread.

The reason for this rule is that if you open it up for anyone to post their content, it becomes a dumping ground of many promotional posts, without much engagement or value. It’s no longer a group… but simply a news feed of random people.

Back to the fact that my free group had become just a place for me to post my content — it was no longer a real community, but a “George Kao’s fans”. It didn’t feel right to use the “group” tool on Facebook.

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FB Business Pages have the advantage of FB Ads

The problem with FB Groups is that you can’t reliably reach your group members. Your postings to your group often don’t show up in members’ news feed.

With a Facebook Business Page (otherwise known as a “Fan Page”) you can reliably reach your fans using Facebook Ads (especially the “Reach” type of ad, if that is your goal.)

If you’re trying to build a business, and want to use Facebook, then I highly recommend that you learn how to use Facebook Ads. It’s the cheapest reliable way to reach both fans and new people who are likely to enjoy your content and offerings. (I’m biased because (1) Facebook Ads have worked amazingly well for me — far greater return than mutual funds or other investments, and because (2) as a result, I decided to teach and sell a course on Facebook Marketing/Ads.)

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Do you have the time or energy to moderate a group?

I’ve seen it again and again — people with good intentions about creating community (and/or ulterior motives about promoting their own offerings) start a Facebook Group, and then they realize how much work it is to moderate a Group.

I always recommend we work towards purity of intentions in marketing.

Every person’s posting in a group has equal weight, unless you use the “Announcements” feature, which seems disingenuous if you’re trying to promote your own offerings yet preventing other members from doing so.

If a group is active, it’ll take you way more time than you think at the beginning, to keep the group’s discussion on point, free of lots of self-promotion from other members, and genuinely valuable to the group.

Smart moderators often try to turn their group into a paid membership. I can respect that, but it’ll still take a lot of time which I’d rather be spending doing this instead:
(1) creating content / building my fan page
(2) getting to know my fans from the standpoint of “You’re in my audience, how can I serve you better with my content and offerings”
and (3) serving my clients and creating courses. Actually, I do use a Facebook Group but it’s not a “membership program” that’s a few bucks a month. It’s part of my Coaching Program which is $111/month per member. That makes it worth my while to thoughtfully moderate the group activity.

If a group isn’t active, well, you’ve come to the same place I mentioned above: you’ve got a blog but you can’t reliably reach your members!

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Reliably reaching your audience

With a Facebook Group you’re at the mercy of the FB News Feed algorithm to reach your members. And if you can’t reliably reach them, what’s the point?

With a Facebook Business/Fan Page, you can reliably reach your fans with FB Ads.

Another tool to consider: Linkedin Group. You can send a “manager announcement” up to once a week, which go into the email inboxes of most of your group members, no matter how small or large your group is. (Group members are automatically opted in to receive Manager Announcement emails, unless they unsubscribe.)

However, I am also too lazy to properly moderate a Linkedin group, even though I own several that have thousands of members. (Instead I’ve delegated the group management to some of my clients, who can benefit from sending manager announcements to the group.)

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Bottom Line: Build up your Facebook Fans instead

To read the rest of this post, complete with links, click here:
https://medium.com/@georgekao/why-i-dont-have-a-free-facebook-group-323d5e29ddc2