Facebook groups are a wonderful way to build a community around your brand or product. But if you’ve been hesitant to start one because you lack the technical know-how, fear no more. Here’s what you need to do…
- Login to Facebook. Be sure to login to the account where you want to create a group.
- Click groups on the left side. On this page, you’ll see a list of all the groups you’re in
as well as some suggestions on which groups to join.
- Click the “create group” button. It should be on the left side and it’s usually green.
- Name your group. Remember that this group name will be the first impression that potential members get of your brand. You want it to be positive and sound like something that would be fun to join.
- Add some people. In order to create a group, Facebook wants you to select at least one other person to join. You can add a friend or if you’re not ready to show off your new group yet, enter one of your alternative email addresses.
- Select the privacy of your group. There are three options you can choose from – private means anyone can see the group and who’s in it. But only members can see posts. Public means anyone can see the group, who’s in it, and the posts. Secret means no one knows the group exists, who is a member, or can see posts in it (unless they’re a member). If your goal is to create a community around your product or brand, aim for a closed group. You get the best of both worlds with this setting.
- Click create. When you’re happy with your settings, click the “create” button. Facebook will automatically take you to your new group.
- Upload a cover. The cover will be visible to everyone who sees your group, even those who aren’t members. Facebook’s current preferred size for group cover images is 1,640px by 856px.
- Click “More”. This is a small light gray button beneath your cover. Choose to “Edit group settings”.
- Alter your group icon. If you want, you can choose a different group name, too.
- Change your group type. You can view the various group types by clicking ‘change’ and selecting a different one. If none of the other group types sound like yours, then leave “General” selected.
- Add your description. This is where you can include more information about your group. Many moderators describe the type of group they’re building then go on to share any rules they might have. Think about the type of community atmosphere you’re trying to create and set rules that will enforce that. So, if you’re creating a group of people to share their crafting projects, you might want to explain that members can’t spam others with links to their Etsy shop.
- Include a location. If your group is local, such as a flea market, then you may want to set a location to make it easy for others to find you.
- Post tags. You can choose up to 5 tags that describe your group and what it does.
- Add apps. Apps can be a fun and exciting way to add more features to your group. You can use a program like BeLive to make it possible for your members to broadcast live from their mobile devices.
- Link your page. If you have a page for your brand on Facebook, include it in this section. When new members visit your group, they’ll see that there’s a page connected to it and may become followers over there.
- Select a color. If you want, you can choose the color of your group. But this feature is only visible to mobile users and doesn’t affect the way desktop users see your group.
- Customize address. This is the area where you can select a username for your group. It can be difficult to change later so choose carefully. When you’re done, your URL will look like this: https://www.facebook.com/groups/yourcustomizedaddress/
- Change privacy settings. If you’ve made a different decision regarding your group privacy, this is the area where you can change it.
- Add badges. Badges will allow people who post a lot when your group is new to receive a special designation so other members will see it. You can turn this feature on or off.
- Create sections. If you want to include “units” in your group or set up game play within your group, this is the area where you’d do it.
- Decide on membership approval. You can have it set so that anyone within your group can approve new members or you can set it so only admins can approve new members.
- Choose your chat creation settings. You can allow members to create group chats or if you want to restrict this feature, you can set it so only admins or moderators have the power to start group chats.
- Set membership pre-approvals. This can be useful if you have an old Facebook group and you want to encourage those members to join. If you select another group, Facebook will automatically approve new members who are part of the old group. You can also upload your address book and any user with an email address from your book will be automatically added to the group upon their request.
- Add questions. When new members request to join your group, you can have it set so they must answer 3 questions first. Use these questions to gather valuable feedback about your customers’ needs.
- Select membership from pages. You can choose if pages can join your group. On the plus side, you’ll have more members. On the downside, you may see an increase in the amount of spam and other irrelevant content that you’ll have to moderate or delete.
- Choose who can post. Some groups are designed so only admins can post (this is useful if you’re using your group to teach) while other groups allow both members and admins to post.
- Make post approval. You can also have your group set up so before content can be posted it requires approval from an admin or moderator. The advantage of doing this is that you can have more control over what’s posted. However, on the flip side, you may find members are hesitant to post and discussions take longer to develop.
- Set story posting permissions. You can allow anyone within the group to post stories or you can set it so only admins can post stories. Usually, stories are good to invite conversations and they’re not a useful tool for spammers, so this is one setting you’ll probably want to leave on for everyone.
- Choose story post approval. You can set it so ALL videos and pictures must be approved by an admin before they’re posted to the group. As a rule, leave this setting off. If you have a problem later with members posting inappropriate or offensive content, you can always block them from the group or use this setting to create a moderation panel.
- Recommend an existing group. Depending on your business, you may already have an existing group that you want to link to. You can do that easily in the “about” section by clicking on the recommend option.
- Make your first post. Now that you have your group set up correctly, it’s time to get the discussions flowing. Create a post that welcomes new members and shares your excitement.
- Invite members. Now that your group feels cozy, it’s time to start inviting new members. You can do that from within your group. Just start typing the names of your friends to begin adding them.
Good luck with your new group!