Top 7 Strategies to Grow Your Facebook Group

A Facebook Group is one of the most powerful marketing tools available to marketers today. Almost 1 billion people out of the 2.1 billion Facebook users are estimated to have their own Facebook group at the end of 2017.

However, you need to have a huge number of members to get any significant benefits from your Facebook Group. So, in this article, I will tackle the 7 strategies you need to learn to grow your Facebook Group.

Use your main keywords in the name of your Facebook Group

This is perhaps the most commonly overlooked strategy.  Using your main keywords or niche keywords in the title of your Facebook Group allows your group to appear in search results for that specific keywords which can help increase the number of your members.

Add a link to your Facebook Group on your blog

You can add a link to your Facebook Group on your blog to turbocharge your signups. This ensures that each new visitor of your blog would know about your group.  This increases the chances of them joining your Facebook Group.

Ask your email newsletter subscriber to join your Facebook Group

You can ask your newsletter subscribers to join your Facebook Group. Many marketers swear by this strategy which has effectively helped them add hundreds of members to their Facebook Groups by just simply asking their email subscribers to join their group and participate with their discussions.

Add some influencers to your Facebook Group

Influencer marketing is all the rage nowadays.  Influencers can help you in growing the size and reach of your Facebook Group. Try to get some influencers join your group and ask them to share your group to their followers.  You can also encourage them to participate with your group’s discussions.

Ask your existing subscribers to add a few of their friends

Many marketers ask their current group members to add one or two of their friends to the group.  Surprisingly, this strategy seems to work because even if a few hundred or dozens of your existing members add only two of their friends, you would end up with hundreds of more new group members.

Promote your Group in other Groups

Promoting your group in other Facebook groups is another time-tested strategy for growing your Facebook Group. This strategy works well only if you promote your group to those ones related to your niche.

Promote your Facebook Group on other Social Media Platforms

You can utilize the power of other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or Pinterest in promoting your Facebook Group. If you have a YouTube channel, then you can easily create a video explaining about your group and get your existing YouTube subscribers to join in.

Conclusion

Growing a Facebook Group requires a lot of time, effort and patience, but all the hard work pay in the end because a well-managed Facebook Group can be a goldmine for any business. Its impact can also be felt in terms of revenues and profits because you can directly market your products or services to your members. Good luck!

 

Photo Credit

Sources and References:

https://bloggingwizard.com/grow-your-facebook-group/

https://news.oneseocompany.com/2018/07/30/how-to-promote-your-website-in-facebook-despite-demotion-of-business-pages-on-newsfeed_201807301606.html

How to Optimize Facebook Live to Improve Your Video Marketing

Facebook Live has emerged as one of the best marketing mediums of our time. According to statistics, live videos engage 3 times more users compared to normal Facebook videos. Several businesses and brands worldwide have used Facebook Live to build a loyal following of fans and supporters.

But, like anything else in marketing, there are some best practices for Facebook Live, which you must follow to optimize it and improve your marketing results. In this article, we will discuss several of these practices.

Schedule your Live broadcast in Advance

You must plan your broadcast well ahead. Nothing looks more unprofessional than a Facebook Live broadcast arranged in haste. Scheduling your Facebook Live broadcast allows you to inform all your followers so that they can watch you in real-time.

Promote Before Broadcasting

Promotion can make the difference between a successful and failed Live broadcast because you may have thousands of online followers, but you may still end up with few viewers if you don’t promote (in advance) your upcoming Facebook Live broadcast.

You can also promote your Facebook Live events using your email lists, paid advertisements, your official blog and on your other social networking pages. Even if you don’t have a large budget for promoting via paid mediums such as ads, you can always promote it for free through your social media channels.

Time It Right

Timing is very important for Facebook Live events, and plays a crucial role in the success of your Live Video. You must have an idea about your target audience and when they go online. Conducting a Facebook Live-stream when most of your target audience are at work or asleep is not a good idea. In an ideal scenario, you must conduct your Facebook Live-stream during times when most of them are online and have spare time to spend watching your stream.

Troubleshoot Before Broadcast

Failure due to technical issues will make you seem unprofessional.  Technical issues such as lost audio, or worst, loss of internet connection during a live broadcast affect quality of user experience. Remember that your Facebook followers have taken time out of their busy schedule to watch you go live, you must not waste their time with technical problems.

Failure during broadcast must be avoided at all costs, and you must have a contingency plan if that would happen. Troubleshooting everything, including your modem, internet connection, computer, camera, and mics go a long way to avoid any chances of a failure.

Be Responsive

Comments and likes during a Facebook Live event are essential parts of the whole real-time experience. Many live presenters assumed that they can just answer the questions of their viewers later on, once the broadcast is over. Such an approach makes you cold and unresponsive in the eyes of the viewers. So, always be ready to answer their questions in real time.  This makes your Live broadcast more engaging and more fun.

Have you been successful doing Facebook Live? What are the tips and advice you can share to those who haven’t tried it yet? Please share your experience by commenting below.

 

 

Photo Credit

Sources and References:

https://blog.conversionfanatics.com/12-ways-optimize-facebook-live-videos-boost-brand-tip-9-especially-powerful/

https://news.oneseocompany.com/2016/12/12/dallas-social-media-expert-explains-impactful-social-media-trends-in-2016_201612121512.html

Top 4 Things to Know When Setting Up Your Very First Facebook Ad

There are instances when you realize that your organic efforts in growing your Facebook needs to be complemented by another strategy in order to create more traction.  This is when you need to step up your social media marketing game and go get your much needed help by running a Facebook ad.

If it’s your first time, here are the basic things you need to know when you setup one.

Facebook Business Manager

Facebook’s Business Manager is composed of a set of controls to help you manage your pages, ad accounts, and team members.  You can utilize it if you are using Facebook for business.  Here are the aspects of your Facebook that you can control using it:

• Ad accounts and finances
• Pages and posts
• Level of access for users
• Instagram accounts

Your Business Manager provides a layer of protection compared to your personal account because it allows you to transfer ownership and control of your accounts with multiple users.

The advantage of using it, is that, it helps you avoid issues if the person managing one of your accounts is no longer available.  If you compared this with a personal account, once the person that manages it leaves your company, you also lose access to it and need to create a new account again.  This is very time consuming and not practical at all.

The Business Manager is your central hub with layered level of access.  It is an easier, more secure, safer, and more stable option for entrepreneurs who are serious in growing their business in Facebook.

Audience Creation

You can define in detail who exactly are the people you want to show your ads to and also the type of ads you want to show them.

For example, you might have a demographic of young local women for one product, and a demographic of older men across the country for the other.

You have several options as an advertiser.  One of the best ways to start is with Saved Audiences.  This lets you select the characteristics of who you want to advertise to.

If you are a local business, be sure to limit your demographic to people in your locality or local area.

You can also add exclusions wherein you can specify which type of people you don’t want to show your ads to.

Remember that the manner you setup your ads will affect its performance.

How to Create Your Ad

Here is a simple way on how to create an ad from your Facebook page post using your Business Manager.  Let’s assume you have at least one post you can use.

1. Start by selecting your objective. For example, do you want more clicks, sales, video views, leads generated?
2. Create the Ad Set and select your audience.
3. Edit Placements. This is where you decide the scope of the different types of sites your ad will be displayed on.
4. Select the post that you want to use.

Pixel Installation

Pixel is an important tool that helps you monitor the performance of your Facebook ads by utilizing Facebook’s feature in monitoring statistics for your ads to your actual business website.

To use Pixel, it needs to be installed in your website.  If you have a developer who manages your website, he can do the installation for you.

Once it is installed, you can track each page your prospects or visitors visited.  This enables you to know if a prospect purchase something in response to your Facebook ad.    This information is very critical if you want to know the performance of your ad, or if you run multiple ones, helps you determine which one performs the best.

You can also show targeted ads to people who have previously purchased from you.  Your goal this time is to keep your current customers to keep on purchasing from you.

Final Thoughts

Running your very first Facebook ad is a great experience that helps you improve your knowledge about your prospects and customers.  Learning to monitor the performance of your ads helps you determine which ad is working well and which one needs to be removed.

All in all, having a full grasp on how to do Facebook advertising is a great advantage to you as an entrepreneur.  Good luck!

 

 

 

Sources and References:

https://news.oneseocompany.com/2018/07/30/how-to-promote-your-website-in-facebook-despite-demotion-of-business-pages-on-newsfeed_201807301606.html

https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-page-basics

 

How to Drive Traffic from Your Facebook to Your Website

Now that you set-up your Facebook page and you already have enough followers, you can start using it to drive traffic to your website.  But, how can you do this? Does sharing your content in your post enough to prod your followers to check your website?

In most cases though, it’s definitely not enough.  You need to be more strategic and be more creative to catch the attention of your followers and hopefully they’ll find your post interesting and click the link to your website.

7 Ways to Drive Traffic from Your Facebook to Your Website

High quality content is definitely one of the factors that can help you entice your Facebook followers to check out your website, but there are also other important factors you should not forget to maximize.  Here are the ways that can help you drive traffic from your Facebook to your website.

1. Schedule your posts during Facebook’s peak hours.

You need to find out the best time of the day to publish your posts.  This can help you get the maximum attention from your followers.  Getting more attention means higher probability of getting more traffic.

According to Hubspot, 1PM to 3PM is the best time to post on Facebook during weekdays.  Buffer has compiled here the best times according to other social analytics tools.

2. Optimize your page for website clicks.

Make sure every nook and cranny of your page that can be optimized for clicks is filled-in with the right URLs.  The website field in your about page, the pinned post on your timeline, the primary tabs, photo and video descriptions, make sure to optimize them.

3. Regularly update your page with relevant and timely posts.

A continuous publication of posts on your timeline tells your followers that you are committed in bringing value to them.  You can use social media management tools such as HootSuite, AgoraPulse, and Buffer to schedule your posts.

Also, your page is actually equipped with a scheduler that you can effectively use to schedule your posts ahead of time.

4. Make your content is shareable on Facebook.

You can install plugins into your blog to make your content easy to share on Facebook.  Once a reader decided to share your blog post to their Facebook friends, they can easily publish it on their timeline.

You can use these social plugins from this developer.

5. Compose compelling calls to action.

One of the most common mistakes I see in Facebook pages is that they lack calls to action in their posts.  CTAs are very important to guide your readers what to do next.  Click this link, read more, continue reading on our blog, and visit this link are basic CTAs you can use.

You can also be more creative and insert some fun and mystery.  It really depends on you on how you can craft a post that can make your followers automatically click your link before they even finish reading the headline.

6. Use high resolution images and videos.

Of course, these are very important.  People these days love high resolution images and videos.  Invest time in creating high quality images and videos that can give your followers a preview on what content that awaits them on your website.

7. Boost your posts using Facebook Ads Manager.

If you want to reach out to more people aside from your followers, you can use this ad feature.  For a minimal fee, you can boost your post and set the target audience you want to see it.

The good thing about this is, you can see how much your post performed and you can even boost it again if you are still not satisfied with the numbers that you got.

Learning to drive traffic from your Facebook to your website is an essential skill to grow your business.  This won’t instantly increase your leads and sales though, but rest assured that if you keep on reaching out and keep on providing valuable content, your hard work will eventually pay off.  Good luck.

11 Facebook Statistics Every Small Business Owner Should Know

No matter what the critics are saying, Facebook is definitely one of the leading tech giants in the online industry and their net worth ($70 billion) is the tangible proof that they are the most-loved social networking website all over the globe.

Because Facebook has more clout globally and locally, it is the most ideal platform wherein entrepreneurs can grow their small business online.

According to a survey, 70% of marketers have acquired customers through Facebook.  This figure alone is enough proof that you should not ignore it.

If you are still not convinced, may be these following statistics can give you a better perspective about the opportunities this social networking website can bring into your small business.

Top 11 Facebook Statistics Small Business Owners Should Know

1. 62% of Small and medium-sized enterprises chose Facebook over any other social media platforms as their most important social platforms. This figure means that a lot of entrepreneurs have gained confidence in growing their business inside Facebook. This is also because of the fact that most local users are in Facebook.
2. Most Facebook users spend almost half an hour a day browsing the site. This shows that if you want more visibility for your brand in Facebook, you have high chances of gaining it.
3. 66% of all Millennials (15-34 year olds) are active Facebook users. Millennials are currently the trendsetters and decision makers. If they are mostly your target audience, then Facebook is the ideal social platform for your business.
4. 31% of US senior citizens are Facebook users. If most of your target audience are senior citizens, then you can specifically target them on Facebook. They are actually the demographic that have the capacity to spend more compared to millennials.
5. 71% of Facebook users login to use the site daily. Having this kind of dedicated users, you only need strategy, creativity, and time to succeed in building your own following and community.
6. Millennials, 78% of them, discovered a new retail product on Facebook which they have interest to buy. This very enlightening statistics surely gives you a preview on how powerful Facebook is as a platform where you can promote your products or services.
7. A quarter of Facebook users from 14 markets around the globe access the site using their mobile devices. With this fact, you now know how to reach out to your target audience especially those who are mobile users.
8. Facebook users watch 100 million hours of video daily. This means you can boost your brand’s presence inside Facebook through video marketing and increase engagement and following.
9. More than 5 million businesses are actively utilizing Facebook’s paid advertising program. These millions of entrepreneurs must have discovered a goldmine inside Facebook. What’s your excuse not to try?
10. 95.8% of social media marketers revealed that Facebook delivers that best ROI among other social networks that they used. Now, this is the best part that would surely convince you. When almost all social media marketers reported that it delivers the best ROI, then this information for sure is highly credible.
11. Five billion comments are left on Facebook pages monthly. This kind of dedication and engagement from users cannot be found in other social networking sites. Why go there when this one is better?

 

After reading these statistics, I hope you are now well-informed about the importance of Facebook in growing your small business.

If you are still not satisfied, you can do your own research and find out more why you should not ignore the potential value it can bring in helping build your brand and at the same time boost the growth of your business.  Good luck!

How to Grow Your Facebook Group Organically?

Creating a Facebook group is now an important part of your Facebook marketing strategy.  If you haven’t created one for your business page yet, then it’s now high time you start building one.

Making use of your Facebook group as an amplifier for your business page posts is an effective tactic to help push your content to your target audience’s newsfeed.

Benefits of Having a Facebook Group

Aside from using it to amplify the content from your Facebook page, your Facebook group also brings in these benefits:

• Establish closer connections with your Facebook page followers – Because groups are equipped with features that boost interactions, you can build a closer connection with your followers by simply responding to relevant topics that they created. This helps you make them feel that they are not just followers but official part of your brand’s online community.

 

• Provide another venue for focused discussions – Whether a debate or a suggestion, Facebook group can help your members properly interact with each other in a more focused set up. As a community, they can help bring awareness about your brand especially to those ones who are still not sure if they’ll want to buy from you or not.

 

• Helps build trust with your prospects and current customers – Your Facebook group is another channel that can help build trust for your brand because it allows you to maintain transparency by being open to feedback and suggestions from your customers.

 

• Helps in disseminating announcements and events – You can pin your announcements on top of your Facebook group board and also drive more visibility to your upcoming events by posting them in there.

 

Now that you know the basic benefits of creating a Facebook group, you can now proceed on how to grow one once you’re done setting it up.

How to Grow Your Facebook Group from Scratch

Growing a group depends on how well connected you are in Facebook.  If you have a large following and are members in big groups, then there’s a chance you can easily grow your members.

However, if you wanted to grow it from scratch, here are a few tips on how you can do it without spending money or hiring a social media specialist.

1. Add or invite your friends to join

This is probably the simplest way to grow your Facebook group. As much as possible add those friends who you think are more likely to stay and not leave.  This is just the first step in growing your group.

You need an initial number to encourage people to join and start discussing something about your brand.

2. Announce on your business page that you created a group

Of course, this is another basic step you need to do.  Keep on announcing or mentioning on your posts that you’ve created a group for your fan page and encourage all your followers to join. You can also give your followers freebies or rewards once they joined.

For example, a free eBook download or a limited access to your premium content or course.  You don’t need to spend money.  You can just make use of the available resources you already have.

3. Ask your new members to add their friends

Once you have your initial members, you can publish a post on your group and you can ask them to help you out a bit.  Even if you only have an initial member of 50, if at least half of them invite 5 people to join, you can gain 125 new members.

Repeat this step every time a new batch of members join and you’ll grow to several hundred in no time.

4. Join groups that promote groups

This is somehow the “black market” in Facebook groups but yes, there are many like hundreds or even thousands of groups out there that aim to promote pages and groups by liking each other’s page or joining each other’s group.

You only need to post in those groups that you have a group and if they join, you will also join theirs.  It’s a very simple deal that can help you gain more members.

This is only good when you just started though.  It’s just for numbers show.  Once your group has already an established number, you can go back targeting highly relevant people to join.

5. Mention it on your blog, website, and on other social media pages

Of course, you need to promote your group in all your social media channels.  Make sure you highlight how your target audience can benefit from joining.

Growing your Facebook group may feel tedious at first but once you get the ball rolling, it can function on its own.  Just make sure don’t lost that personal touch to make sure your members are always highly engaged.  Good luck!

Top 4 Reasons Why Facebook is the Ideal Social Media for Small Law Firms

Social Media has changed the landscape on how lawyers and law firms communicate with their fellow lawyers, clients, the courts, and their prospects.  But, just like any technology, it doesn’t come without a price.

According to the American Bar Association, despite the marketing and networking opportunities brought by social media, it has also raises new legal and ethical challenges, more especially now that it becomes a ripe source of electronic evidence for litigators and potential sources of risk for those advising businesses.

However, when used properly and accordingly, social media such as Facebook, currently the largest social networking website, actually bring in more benefits than disadvantages.

Facebook and Lawyer Marketing

With the privacy scandal the social networking giant has faced recently, many people who are quite sensitive with data privacy issues have advocated to stop using it. But, do the advantages outweigh the risks?

When it comes to Lawyer Marketing, Facebook has brought many benefits for lawyers, especially solo practitioners and small law firms.

With nearly 40% of surveyed small law firms revealing they don’t have a website of their own, the availability of social networking sites, such as Facebook, solves their immediate need to create a presence and visibility online.

When you are a solo attorney who has just started your practice, getting found online through Facebook (either organically or through ads) by those who need your services can help you drive new business which can help your practice thrives amidst stiff competition.

Top 4 Reasons Facebook is the Ideal Social Media for Your Law Firm

Aside from the fact that Facebook is still the unbeatable social networking website when it comes to the total number of active registered users, here are the reasons why a lawyer or a law firm should use it to gain traction, referrals, and visibility online.

1. Facebook is Where Most Family Members Connect with Each Other

If family law is your field of expertise, then Facebook is definitely a good platform where you start increasing your visibility online.

You can publish contents that are highly relevant to your target audience, thus you can expect better engagement.

2. Facebook has a Cost-Efficient Advertisement Program

Among all advertisement programs in popular social networking websites, Facebook has the best ad platform wherein even those in a tight budget can afford.

Also, you can target geographically the group of people who you only want to see your advertisement.

For example, if you are a solo attorney in Corning, New York, you only need to target people who are living in Corning city. This saves you effort and money because you only have to spend your advertising money on high quality leads.

3. Facebook Pages Appear in the SERPs

If you don’t have the resources to build your website yet, your Facebook fan page can still help you get found by your prospects who use search engines to look for lawyers.

Make sure you include your main keyword as part of your official brand name.  For example, Divorce “Lawyer in Corning New York – John Doe” is better than “Attorney John Doe”.  SEO for Lawyer, Qamar Zaman, said that using your main keyword as part of your Facebook page name, increases the chances that you’ll get higher ranking in the SERPs despite not having a your own domain name yet.

4. Facebook Pages Has Built-In Analytics

The last but not least, are the advantages of having a built-in analytics.  It is easy to read, analyze, and understand.

Facebook page analytics is designed for everyone even the non-techies.  Thus, you can just simply check the updated reports to evaluate if your page is doing well or not.  Reports regarding your latest advertisement are also readily available, letting you know the performance of your ad campaign.

Final Thoughts

Of course, as legal practitioners, vigilance and precautions in sharing sensitive information online should always be observed.  But, when it comes to promoting your business, the benefits always outweigh the risks more especially if you have a tight marketing budget.

Using Facebook to build your presence and authority online can definitely help you gain more visibility and ultimately, create new business.  You just need to be creative, resourceful, and patient.

 

 

Sources and References:

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/departments_offices/legal_technology_resources/resources/social_media.html

https://variety.com/2018/digital/features/facebook-privacy-crisis-big-data-mark-zuckerberg-1202741394/

https://www.slideshare.net/maple-syrup/21-eyeopening-marketing-statistics-for-law-firms

http://lawyerlk.com/how-to-make-your-legal-service-business-more-successful-with-the-attorney-marketing-expert-who-can-get-top-cases-from-linkedin/