In today’s episode, we’re going to be talking about being totally OVER Facebook groups.
If you’re over Facebook groups – if you’re done with it and you just can’t get it working for you – you are going to find this episode super helpful.
Here for the links referenced in the show notes?
$0 Facebook Marketing Plan free training: tashcorbin.com/zero
Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs community: tashcorbin.com/group
Let’s dive in!
If you’ve been in Facebook groups quite consistently – you’ve tried to promote your business, grow an audience, connect with people and get some sales – but you’re feeling so frustrated with it – you feel it’s too hard, it’s too much work and it’s not going to happen – I want you to know that you are not alone.
I think every entrepreneur who ever discovers Facebook groups as a potential platform for making sales goes through the process of being really excited, and then maybe finding that it’s either too much work or there just aren’t enough results in order to justify the work that goes into being known in Facebook groups.
The most common issues that are raised with me about why someone might be totally over Facebook groups are:
- They feel as though there are the same people in all the groups and they’re not making sales because of it.
- It feels like there’s this huge pressure to be in all the groups every single day, and that’s just too much time investment for them.
- They’re in the groups but they don’t really know what to say each day – how do you find something new to say to a different group every single day? Being able to create content or find things to post each day just feels as though they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
- For some general reason, they just don’t feel like being in Facebook groups is working for them as a business strategy.
Here’s the thing (and it might be a tough thing for you to hear): Generally, if you are having trouble getting a platform to be effective for you to make sales for your business, the problem is not the platform.
Eeek, it feels so yucky to say this but it is absolutely the truth, and it is sometimes a hard truth to swallow.
Being in Facebook groups is one way to be able to reach a fairly warm audience, connect with them, and present offers that potentially have the opportunity to make sales in that space.
Being in Facebook groups is one of many, many strategies that you could choose from, and one of many platforms that you could choose to promote on when it comes to growing an online business.
You do not have to be in Facebook groups at all.
If you find the idea of being in a Facebook community abhorrent – if you’re just over it, you don’t want to do it anymore, and you’re not interested – that is totally your decision. HOWEVER, if it doesn’t work in groups, chances are the platform is NOT the problem.
Before you decide to throw your hands up in the air and claim that there are just the same people in every group and you’re not making sales, or you don’t want to show up daily, or you don’t know what to say and it just doesn’t work because Facebook groups are dead, I want you to STOP and ask this question: Could it be that the problem is not the platform, the problem is what I’m posting?
Facebook groups are an opportunity to be in front of such a warm audience. They are so favoured in terms of algorithms, and they have so much potential for you to be able to connect, nurture and convert an audience.
If you can’t make it work in Facebook groups, chances are it’s also going to be a struggle for you on other platforms.
It might not be as much of a struggle if the content that you’re sharing in Facebook groups is better suited to other platforms, but of all of the audiences you could access quickly and effectively online for free, Facebook groups are actually one of the best.
When it comes to the content and posts that you’re sharing, as well as the strategies that you’re using in Facebook groups, if we address the issues that you have with those things FIRST, then chances are that you’re going to love Facebook groups a little more.
Think about the time and energy that you’re putting into Facebook groups right now, and the reasons why you’re feeling like it’s just not working and you’re going to throw it all in and no longer use Facebook groups.
If you were making $20,000 worth of sales a month in those Facebook groups from those activities right now, would you feel the same way?
If your answer is that would totally feel like it’s worth it if you were making $20,000 a month from sales, then I want to invite you to give Facebook groups another chance.
My second question is if you were able to fix your content, messaging and the way that you showed up in Facebook groups so that it was absolutely effective and doing its job, would you still be sick of Facebook groups?
If the answer to that is no, then I want you to give Facebook groups another go.
But this time, I want you to be much, much more strategic about the way that you show up in those groups.
Here are my top tips (and I have a great free resource for you at the bottom if you want to go deeper with this one today):
1. Hyper-niche
I talk about niching and needing to be really specific all the time.
When I say niche, I don’t just mean niche to the people in that group, I mean that you need to find a niche WITHIN a group.
If you’re in a group of 34,000 amazing entrepreneurs (Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven-Entrepreneurs Facebook group for example), your content should not be written for all 34,000 of those people. You would think that even myself, as the facilitator and creator of that group, would have all those people as my audience, but in reality, they’re not.
When I create content that goes into those groups (or even into my own group), I know that only about 10% of the people in that group are my niche.
I want you to be very niched when it comes to what you share in those Facebook groups.
2. Think about your strategy in those groups
Showing up and posting something each day that’s in the theme and makes you look good is actually not a strategy.
I want you to be very strategic about what it is that you’re doing in that group, and what the job that those posts need to do is.
Not all posts need to do the same jobs.
Some posts that you put into Facebook groups create lots of engagement, while other posts that you do in Facebook groups are high conversion posts – they’re going to get people signing up to your list, checking out your podcast or signing up and buying something from you.
If you are constantly in Facebook groups thinking that every post needs to make sales, then you are actually not being strategic enough with your engagement in that Facebook group.
You are completely misunderstanding the role that Facebook groups play in your marketing strategy.
The resource that I have for you is my $0 Facebook Marketing Strategy.
It is a free training on how to make money from Facebook WITHOUT spending any money on ads, and there is a big focus on being in Facebook communities in that free training.
You can register for this free training and gain instant access at tashcorbin.com/zero.
Let’s get you giving Facebook groups another go, but through the lens of being more niched and more strategic.
If at the end of the day you decide that Facebook groups are not the platform for you, don’t take your problems with you to the new platform.
Make sure you are taking a strategy with you that is niched and strategic for that new platform.
If you take all the posts you’ve been sharing in Facebook groups and put them all on Instagram, and they haven’t worked in a high connection, high conversion community, chances are that on a less connection, less conversion oriented platform, they’re also not going to do that great either.
The problem is usually not the platform.
Hopefully this hasn’t been too harsh, but it’s given you some strategies and ideas to think about in terms of what you want to do if you are feeling like you’re completely over Facebook groups.
The last thing I want to do on this podcast episode is also addressed those four main reasons for being totally OVER Facebook groups.
1. You’re seeing the same people over and over again
On Facebook and in Facebook groups, that’s actually a good thing. We know that people need to see things over and over again before they’ll take an action.
If you’re in three Facebook groups, and a large chunk of the people in those Facebook groups are in all three Facebook groups, the odds of those people seeing more of your content more consistently is actually way higher.
You’re building a high connection, high conversion audience by having that overlap.
The goal is not to find Facebook groups that have a bunch of very different people in them, and then try and magically create one strategy that’s going to work for all of those platforms.
I think overlap in Facebook groups is actually a really good thing from an algorithm perspective, from an engagement perspective and from a conversion perspective.
2. You don’t want to show up daily
This is a big permission slip from me… you don’t have to show up daily.
What I recommend is that you try and show up in your top three groups four days a week minimum. That’s it.
If you are trying to work only four days a week, pick four days a week that work for you and that works for the groups that you’re in. Or pick groups that work for the days that you work.
Let’s say that you work Tuesday to Friday. The Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group is a fabulous group for you to be engaged in because if you’re mostly just posting on Tuesday to Friday in the Heart-Centred group, you’re getting your market day post up, you’re getting some really good engagement posts up and you’re getting a freebie post up as well.
You’re getting most of the benefit and most of the engagement parts of the Facebook community covered.
You don’t have to be posting in Facebook groups every day for it to be powerful!
If you happen to be on Facebook on a Saturday and you want to jump in and share a selfie, you can. But you don’t need to be in Facebook groups sharing a post seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Near enough is good enough.
If you get four days a week, most weeks, you are still going to have more chance of reaching a bigger audience and a more connected audience than if you were posting four days a week on a cold audience platform.
Facebook groups still have enormous power, even if you’re not in there every single day.
3. You don’t know what to say
Usually that comes down to:
a. Not being niched
b. Not having a strategic content plan (the Facebook marketing plan training will be really helpful for you)
c. You’re trying to be in too many spaces at once
Just refine it down to your top three groups four days a week and link your content that you’re sharing in Facebook groups to the content that you’re sharing on your normal content platform.
If you’re also posting on your Facebook page, or you’re also posting on Instagram, then you can repurpose some of that content to be effective for the Facebook groups.
I find Facebook groups with theme days are way easier for me to know what to post because the theme days really help to drive the conversation, but I also have a huge content bank from all of the other places that I’ve posted content over the years. Being systemised about the way that I collect, reshare and repurpose that content makes my life waaayyy easier.
You can create a really simple and effective content bank or strategy for yourself that’s going to help you be very strategic about how you share and engage in those groups more consistently.
4. It’s just not working in general
I want you to come and watch that $0 Facebook Marketing Strategy training because I think that you will find that you’re not necessarily being as strategic as you need to be, or there are other elements of your strategy that are meaning that your content when you’re showing up in Facebook groups isn’t working for you.
It could be that it’s not niched enough, your messaging is not resonant enough, your offers aren’t compelling to your audience, or you’re not being tangible enough.
Those pieces are what make an epic strategic approach to posting in Facebook groups.
Hopefully you’ve found this episode helpful. As always, come on over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let me know you’ve been reading episode 252, and I want to know:
- Have you had this feeling of being totally over Facebook groups?
- Have you got a renewed approach or a way for you to test whether the problem is actually the platform?
Make sure you come on over to tashcorbin.com/zero to grab the $0 Facebook Marketing Strategy training!
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
