Facebook Groups represent a HUGE opportunity for business owners. And, the secret sauce “success” ingredient is ENGAGEMENT.
Unlike Facebook Pages, groups are all about connecting and engaging with your audience in a two-way conversation…to find out their biggest struggles, offer support and education, and establish familiarity and trust.
Sounds pretty great, right?
Unfortunately, I see too many business owners focused on using groups primarily to promote and broadcast their stuff. And this is a sure-fire way to FAIL at getting engagement in your group!
In this post, I’m going to cover 21 no-fail tactics to boost your Facebook group engagement, AND to keep your Facebook group members around for a long, long time!
Why Facebook Group Engagement Matters
First, you might be wondering exactly why group engagement matters so much.
I mean, once you’ve got people in your group, you’re set, right?
Sadly, this is what many group owners actually believe.
Let’s look at a few reasons why consistent Facebook group engagement REALLY matters!
1. When You Get Lots of Engagement, You Can Become a Recommended Group.
When Facebook’s algorithms notice your group is getting lots of engagement, they are far more likely to promote your group as a recommended group.
This means your group gets suggested to people who have shown some kind of interest in your niche, topic or business.
So, basically FREE advertising…and who doesn’t want that?
2. More Engagement Means More Visibility in Facebook Search
Want your group to get found when people type your topic into the Facebook search bar?
Groups that have high levels of group engagement and new join requests naturally rank better in Facebook Search…meaning people who are specifically needing your help are far more likely to actually find it!
3. A Group Ghost Town Can Hurt Your Credibility
A thriving, growing Facebook group signals to your members that you’re a going concern…that you’re offering value, and growing and building an amazing business.
But a group where no one posts – or worse, where the group admin doesn’t even post?
This can signal that you don’t care about your audience or that you don’t have anything valuable to share or teach.
In this case, it’s probably better not to have a group at all!
4. It’s Engagement and Connection that Builds Trust… Not Promoting Your Stuff
Simply having a Facebook group isn’t enough.
If you’re constantly just promoting your stuff in your group, or not responding to questions, or not posting stuff that resonates with your audience, your group isn’t doing you ANY good.
Your group isn’t going to grow, you’re not going to build up the whole “know, like, trust” factor, and therefore your group isn’t going to contribute to your bottom line in any meaningful way.
So now that we have talked about WHY engagement is sooo important for Facebook groups, the next question is how do you get great engagement, consistently? Keep on reading <grin>!
21 Strategies for Facebook Group Engagement
Okay…now on to the good stuff! Following are 21 really practical strategies you can use to increase Facebook group engagement, and ensure that your members actually STAY in your group!
1. Use Group Insights to Find Out When People are Most Active in Your Group
Facebook group insights are a GREAT way to make sure you are posting when engagement is at its highest. This ensures your amazing posts get seen by as many people as possible!
Simply go to Group Insights on the left side of your group, click on Posts, Comments, and Reactions, and then scroll down to see which days and times your members are most likely to be active in the group.
2. Welcome and Tag New Members
This is a super-cool strategy for making sure every single new member feels welcome and also making sure they actually SEE your welcome post!
After approving new members, you’ll notice a notification on the right side of your screen that says, “You have x new members this week. Write a post to welcome them”.
Click on the Write Post button, and then create a post that explains your group rules, tell them a bit about yourself and the group, and let them know about your freebie that they’ll DEFINITELY want to sign up for!
3. Facebook Lives
These are a great way to put a more personal face to your group and business.
Hold regular Facebook Lives in your group on topics that are of interest to your audience. You can do Lives on anything from “behind the scenes” of your business or family, tutorials, giveaways, live parties, and so much more!
Need some ideas for your Facebook Group Lives? Check out my post, Top 22 Ways to Use Facebook Live to Market Your Business.
4. Warm Them Up With Your 3 Questions
Since Facebook now lets group admins create up to 3 questions to be sent to pending members, make the most of this incredible feature!
Some ideas for your 3 questions could be asking new members to:
- Read your group rules before they post or comment
- Sign up for your freebie (“Leave your email if you’d like to receive my free guide”)
- Tell you a bit about why they want to join the group (This is GREAT for knowing where your members are at and what you can do to help).
5. Turn on Notifications
If your group is still relatively small, it’s a good idea to turn group notifications on…and to encourage your members to do so too.
To adjust the number of posts you get notifications for, simply click on the Notifications button under your cover photo, and set to Highlights. I’d only recommend selecting All Posts if you have a VERY small group, or a group with VERY few posts!
6. Offer a Freebie Right Away
One of your primary goals in your group SHOULD BE moving group members onto your email list. This way you can continue to communicate with them WITHOUT being subject to Facebook’s algorithms!
When people join your group, give them a way to immediately join your email list. I recommend offering a freebie – like an eBook, guide, cheatsheet, etc. – in your welcome post (see #2).
When people join your group, give them a way to immediately join your email list. I recommend offering a freebie – like an eBook, guide, cheatsheet, etc. – in your welcome post (see #2).Click To TweetThis is a great strategy not only for building your list but for helping your group members get to know you – quickly – through your follow-up emails.
7. Ask Me Anything
Via Chris Masterjohn
These are fantastic for boosting engagement and establishing yourself as an expert in your field.
Hold regular Ask Me Anything’s via Facebook Live or simply in written group posts. Encourage members to ask you questions about whatever they’re struggling with or wondering about, and then show up to provide help and expertise!
8. Recognize Top Contributors
Did you know you can see your most active members in Group Insights? Make a point of regularly recognizing your top contributors in a “Thank you” post.
This will help your members feel special and encourage them to participate and engage in the group more often (especially if the “top member” designation comes with a prize!).
9. Have Clear Rules
Having clear, consistent rules ensures your group runs smoothly and everyone knows what’s expected.
To create an official set of rules for your group, click on Moderate Group in the left sidebar, then Create Rules.
The beauty of creating your rules here – rather than in a post or group doc – is that when someone breaks a rule, Facebook actually lets you tell them which specific rule they broke!
10. Respond to Comments
This shouldn’t need to be said…but, I think it does!
While you certainly don’t need to respond to every single post or comment in your group, it’s good form to at least “like” or “love” replies to YOUR posts…and to respond to longer, more involved comments.
While you certainly don’t need to respond to every single post or comment in your group, it’s good form to at least “like” or “love” replies to YOUR posts…and to respond to longer, more involved comments.Click To Tweet11. Educate and Inspire Your Audience – Don’t Broadcast
While people expect to see some promotions and special offers on your Facebook page, groups are much more about connecting, educating and inspiring.
While people expect to see some promotions and special offers on your Facebook page, groups are much more about connecting, educating and inspiring. #JustSayin'Click To TweetSo, while you can certainly share your offers in your group from time to time, make sure the bulk of what you post is aimed at educating, inspiring, motivating or engaging with your members!
12. Have Theme Days
Theme days are a great way to get engagement on a regular basis. Creating themes for different days of the week gives people ideas for how they can be more involved and how they can contribute to the group.
Some ideas:
- Meme Monday
- Promote Yourself Tuesday
- Ask Me Anything Wednesday (See #7)
- Throwback Thursday
- Friday Funday (Post pictures of all the fun things you’re doing on this BEST day of the week!)
13. Use Learning Units
Learning units are a super-cool feature that Facebook added recently. To use them, you’ll first need to set your group type to “Social Learning”.
You can then organize your content into units…meaning members can work their way through your content in a step-by-step way.
This is great for creating little mini-courses for your members, guiding them through a specific process, or simply organization your group posts into a more logical sequence.
14. Do a Poll
Polls are AH-MAY-ZING for getting group engagement! My absolute favorite question to ask is simply this:
What’s the #1 thing you’re struggling with right now?
Not only is this GREAT for getting people involved and talking, but it gives you a great sense of what your members need help with!
15. Set up a Mentorship Program
Another cool feature that Facebook added recently is mentorship. This allows you to match up members so they can connect, learn from each other or work through a program together…all within your group and via Messenger.
To add the mentorship feature to your group, simply go to Group Settings, then scroll down until you see Sections. Finally, click on Add next to the Mentorship box and you’re good to go!
16. DON’T Focus on Your Business…Focus on Your Members
Have you ever joined a group where the admin is constantly posting about themselves, their business and their products? It’s SUPER annoying, am I right or am I right?
Don’t be like that person!
Whenever you go into your group, go in with the mindset of “How am I going to help my members today?”…not “How am I going to promote my business today”.
Whenever you go into your group, go in with the mindset of “How am I going to help my members today?”…not “How am I going to promote my business today”.Click To Tweet17. Have a “Location” Post
Want your members to be able to connect with one another locally? Create a post or file where members can add their location for local meet-ups.
One really cool way to do this – if your members tend to have Facebook pages for their businesses – is to create a “recommendations” post. Members can then tag their business page and it will automatically be added to the little map on the post!
18. Have a “Promote Yourself” Post
People love sharing about their businesses, but this can quickly overrun your group if you’re not careful.
To ensure everyone gets their “moment in the sun”, create a post or file in the group where members can talk about their business or share links to their website or social media profiles.
19. Host a Survey
Like polls, surveys are great for getting engagement in your group. But unlike polls, surveys actually let you collect in-depth info about your members…as well as their email addresses!
I love using Google Forms for surveys, because they’re super easy to set up, and 100% FREE…even if you get thousands of responses!
20. Add Helpful Info to Your Files
Make it easy for your members to learn from you by adding helpful content in the files section of your group.
Some ideas could include:
- An FAQ document
- A list of helpful resources (books, websites, blog posts, etc.)
- Tutorials and “how to’s”
- Helpful guides
- A list of popular acronyms used by your members
21. Use Your Announcements Strategically
Via Gratitude Training Public Facebook Group
Formally known as pinned posts, announcements are posts you want to hold a permanent place at the top of your group.
Use this prime piece of real estate to keep special posts in the limelight. Some types of posts you might want to keep there include:
- A post about your freebie
- Your member location file or post (see #17)
- A list of group rules or guidelines
- An upcoming group event
- A popular, really informative/helpful post so people can find it easily
AND, you can have up to 10 announcements at any given time!
Final Thoughts
Whether you’ve had a group for a while or are just getting started, these 21 strategies are sure-fire ways to increase your Facebook group engagement!
Whenever you find yourself getting discouraged by the lack of engagement in your group, remember this one rule of thumb:
Give support, info and help with what your members are struggling with, and you can never go wrong!
Looking for more help with running your Facebook group? Check out these helpful posts:
How to Start and Grow a Profitable Facebook Group
10 Quick & Easy Ways to Get More People in Your Facebook Group
9 Reasons Why Starting a Facebook Group Should be Your Priority in 2019 and Beyond
How will YOU increase engagement in your Facebook group this week? Share below!
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Very helpful Kim! Thank you for clearing this up.
you always have a way of appealing to me wow this a nice post. I am certainly trying out these tips. and I know there will be an improvement. keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing! I started out with a handful of members and the group is steadily growing. Your tips on group engagement are very helpful.
Hey, Author.
Thanks, for sharing this amazing article with us in which you have covered the 21 best tactics to boost Facebook Group Engagement. Every Facebook Marketer should have to read this article once.
Thank you for this information. I will share it even further,a lot of information given.
Fabulous blog it. I got a lot of knowledge from this. Thank you so much for this information.
Hi, I’m glad I found your blog, I’m here and can only say thank you for a great post. Please continue to do well.
Equally glad! Thank you!
Thank you, Kim, for this helpful information!
Always a pleasure, Pat!