Episode #131: Is it time to delete your Facebook Group?
When do you throw in the towel and delete your Facebook Group?
For a while now online marketers have been saying that Facebook Groups are dead, that they don’t matter anymore, that they are a waste of time, and I think that’s soooooo not true.
With Facebook’s recent changes to cast a deep net instead of a wide net within the world’s largest social media outlet, they are now emphasizing Facebook Groups as a way to facilitate those deeper connections. They are more private, more intimate, and much more focused on relationships.
As an online entrepreneur, it’s never been a better time to monopolize on this new emphasis.
But time and time again mompreneurs start Facebook Groups with the best of intentions, only to let them fall to the wayside when they stop working. Usually what happens is there is a flurry of activity when the Group is first started, but eventually over the course of a month or two, engagement starts to dwindle, so it is assumed that no one is interested anymore and the Facebook Group Admin slowly starts to fall out of love with their Facebook Group.
On the other hand, you see the bigger names in your industry shutting down their Groups of tens of thousands of members. Why would they walk away from all of those potential clients? It seems crazy to do such a thing!
So first, let’s talk about your Facebook Group and then let’s talk about the strategy behind shutting down Groups.
When is it time to shut your Group down? There are a couple of things to think about when considering this decision. Let’s talk about some things to consider:
Consideration #1: Have you recently changed your ideal client or your business?
Now I’m not talking about have you recently shifted your existing business. I’m talking about have you shut down your business and re-opened another one in a drastically different area of expertise? If that’s the case, shut it down. If your Group isn’t full of ideal clients, there’s no sense in keeping it open. Open up a new one that attracts your ideal client to it.
Take action: make sure that the name of your Facebook Group is centered around your new ideal client, either pain point or pleasure point focused.
Consideration #2: Are you showing up to your Facebook Group in a way that reflects how you want your Group members to act
A lot of times when things start to not go our way (or the way we think they should go), we show up in a different way. It’s totally a subconscious thing, but it happens. And really, you need to work on your mindset around this. Your Facebook Group (just like your business) is a long-term game. Growth can happen quickly, but it shouldn’t be expected. You should be concentrating on delivering INSANE value to those in your Group, and not expecting anything as an outcome. Now I do want you tracking the results from your content to determine what your Group wants more of and what content converts better, but really, it’s all about value here.
As the leader of your Group you cannot expect others to go above and beyond how you’re showing up. Your members are going to follow your example, so if you want them showing up daily, you sure as heck better be showing up daily, if not two or three times a day.
If you want them to be doing Facebook Lives, do Facebook Lives on the regular.
If you want them engaging on one another’s posts, engage on theirs. Tag them, ask them a question regarding the content they share, and get the conversation going.
Take action: create a content calendar at the beginning of each month so you’re never guessing what you’re going to post about each day OR use the scheduler tool to schedule out your content.
Consideration #3: What’s special about your Group?
Now this consideration might hurt a little, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
What is the point of your Group? Why should someone show up to your Group? What is unique, special, exciting about it? Are you being lazy with your Group?
Not everyone should have a Facebook Group. Now, I do think that everyone can have a Facebook Group that is highly engaged and ridiculously profitable, but do you really want to put the effort that it takes into a Facebook Group?
Groups have ups and downs, there is a definite ebb and flow to a Group, sometimes your Group is going to feel weird, sometimes it’s going to feel wonderfully right, but most of the time, you’re going to rest somewhere in-between.
Again, your Facebook Group is a long-term game.
Take action: dig deep and figure out what is unique about your Group. What’s the point in someone joining your Group, spending their precious time in there creating content for it, and ultimately, deciding it’s worth their time. There has to be a reason as to why people join, stay, and engage and create in your Group, what is it?
Now remember, your Facebook Group should be used like a lead magnet. The function of your Facebook Group is to develop the “know, like, and trust” factor and then once that is done, roll it’s Group members over onto your email list. This is how and where you’ll sell to them. People are already used to buying from email, so keep what’s working and sell in email.
Now this brings us to our next topic, influencers in the online space shutting down their massive Facebook Groups. Wouldn’t it be CRAZY to shut down a Facebook Group of tens of thousands of potentially ideal clients?!
If this is how you’re feeling, you’re stuck in a lack or scarcity mindset and here’s why.
Think about this strategically. An influencer emails their list and posts on social media about their brand new Facebook Group and BOOM! immediately they have 10,000 members. Let’s say about half are from their email list and the other half are from social media.
They deliver CRAZY value for about 30 days. Help their Group members to get some results, then announce that they’re going to be shutting it down. They then announce one of two things:
They have a special offer for their Group members for a program or course that they offer.
They can get a “free gift” which is a freebie that enters them into a funnel for a program or course.
What they do here is grow their email list like crazy. By opening up Groups and shutting them down, they are serving their existing email subscribers in a bigger way by delivering crazy value for 30ish days AND they are leveraging the power of social media to build their base. They’re not only getting their followers to go into their Group, but they can leverage Facebook’s algorithm to get their Group pushed to new people, and then ultimately rolling those new people over onto their email list.
This is a growth strategy that can work really well and be very effective. It’s a surge of activity around your brand and allows you to grow really quickly by pulling people from all of your platforms and putting them into one place. It can be a great way to gain momentum around a program, service, or product that you have as a part of your offerings and to grow your audience.
If you’re worried about losing members as a part of this strategy I’d argue those members were never really your people and weren’t ever going to actually buy from you. Not that we need to be concerned about who’s going to buy from you and who’s not, but you need to let go of the idea that expectation and lead from a place of service. Focusing on who’s going to buy and who’s not going to buy doesn’t serve you and it puts an unnecessary pressure on you to perform in a certain way, which I don’t know about you, but absolutely doesn’t work for me or most people I know. Your ideal clients are out there, so show up in a way that is fully yourself, and forget about the details.
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