Facebook is the top social media platform in the world. It is also one of the 5 most visited websites in the world. With more than 2 billion active users, many of them spending 45 minutes per day on the site, Facebook gives you the potential to reach out to a huge global audience in order to market your business.

 

But with 2 billion users, how can you ever stand out in the crowd? More importantly, how can you connect with the people most likely to be interested in your products and services? And to establish your brand as one worthy paying attention to? A Facebook Group might be just the solution you are looking for.

 

What is a Facebook Group?

As the name suggests, groups have been allowed by Facebook in order to gather people together who are interested in the same topic, niche or industry. From cooking to cocker spaniels, there is a large number of groups on Facebook you can join so you can connect with like-minded people.

 

You can certainly join any existing group you wish and market yourself subtly there whenever there is an opportunity. However, starting and running your own Facebook group gives you an online space to broadcast your message and interact with your market on a more personal and targeted level. It gives you almost complete control over the messaging and activities in the group. As the administrator, you can decide who has access to your group. You can also appoint moderators who can help you manage the group and ensure it is not taken over by spammers.

 

There are many features in groups that can help you build a really impressive and authoritative presence on Facebook. You can share photos, documents, and files with group members. You can create polls, quizzes and events. You can allow them to share content with the group on a moderated basis, that is, with your reviewing it to make sure it is acceptable. And you can block anyone who is not following the rules.

 

Facebook groups can be an invaluable marketing tool, and best of all, they are free to use and simple to set up. They are ideal for establishing relationships with your target audience, and for lead generation, that is, traffic and getting people onto your email marketing list. Through the content you will be publishing on a regular basis, you can position yourself as an authority figure in your niche or industry and build your brand. All the content created is mobile-friendly, thanks to the Facebook interface.

 

You can get likes, shares and comments, with these forms of engagement signaling to Facebook that your content is worth paying attention to. You can also automate your publishing through Facebook’s calendar, or a third-party tool like Hootsuite, so you and/or your moderators don’t need to be glued to Facebook 24 hours a day to market your business well. You can administer your group efficiently in around 30 minutes a day once you get organized.

 

Best of all, Facebook will market your group for you. Whenever anyone searches for certain keywords in the search box, they will get a list of results. One of them could be your group.

 

Let’s start by looking at how to create a group.