Is it worth starting a Facebook group for my online business?
Starting a Facebook group is a great way to connect with your ideal clients, build your community, and simplify your marketing strategy. But is it worth the effort?
The simple answer is yes. Although many sales and marketing gurus will tell you Instagram is where you need to be for your business to do well and thrive, I beg to differ that Facebook is a better social media platform for mom entrepreneurs to use their marketing strategies more effectively.
Instagram and other platforms require you to create content constantly to win in the algorithm’s favor for your audience to see anything you post. These platforms are a highly competitive space that does not lend themselves to fostering a genuine community where conversation can happen.
Why are Facebook groups important?
Facebook is my favorite place to hang out because it doesn’t feel overly competitive, daunting, and when done right, helps to automate your marketing.
Business is people. If nobody is buying your stuff, then you just have a hobby. People naturally want to gather in a community and it is there whether you choose to manage it and cultivate it or not.
When you have a community, you can leverage the other members of the Facebook group to be your marketing and your sales force while lifting them up, training and supporting them, and creating a really fruitful space for everybody.
As a Boss Mom, you probably stumbled upon this post because you have a business and you can’t figure out why it’s not growing the way you want it to. Trying to find steady leads, steady clients, and steady sales, so you don’t go through the feast and famine cycle in your business is exhausting and time-consuming. You don’t want to search for your clients or wait for referrals. Instead, you want a marketing system that will bring clients to you so you can have the freedom you want from your business.
Starting a Facebook group will help you in your sales and marketing strategy more than you realize and is a better platform for your unpredictable, inconsistent schedule.
What are the benefits of starting a Facebook group?
A Facebook group is like when a friend tells you about this amazing guy that she knows who will be perfect for you to go on a date. She’s already vetted him and can speak highly of him.
Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are like the dating apps of marketing. You create your profile with a gorgeous profile picture, put out helpful content, check it daily, sometimes multiple times a day hoping someone wants to talk to you about your business and service and hope you attract the right client who actually wants to pay for your service. These leads are not vetted before finding you.
We have to use the time we have wisely because it is already inconsistent as it is. And as mom entrepreneurs, we got into the business because our schedules can be flexible so we don’t feel the need to choose between working on our business over making memories with our families.
There are many benefits to starting a Facebook group for your business.
- Facebook groups can grow your email list. When people ask to join your group, you can prompt them to insert their email in order to enter the group (Facebook allows you to create a set of questions before gain acceptance to your group). Between 40% and 60% of new members will provide their email, so this is a smart way to increase your email list.
- You can use your Facebook group to promote a new product or new service. There will be a need to do a warm-up period to prep your audience for the launch, which we teach our members in NTCS how to do in a four to six-week buzz plan.
- Starting a Facebook group will help you with decision support for your own business. You can include your members in your business decisions when you feel stuck by asking them questions for market research. Your members will feel valued that you asked them their opinion and you will get the answers you need from the people you want to serve with your business.
Last, you won’t have to search far for clients because your Facebook group primes your ideal client to know, like, and trust you and eventually buy from you. As your Facebook engagement grows, the algorithm will play in your favor and recommend your group to other people, helping it grow organically and bringing in more leads for you.
How do I know I should have a Facebook group?
Now we’ve seen the benefits of starting a Facebook group, and you are thinking, “Facebook groups sound great! But how do I know if I need one?” The real question to ask is, does your business lend itself to a community?
There are some businesses that would benefit from a community and others that wouldn’t. A divorce support group may not thrive in an online community because the topic is too sensitive and the members might find it difficult to engage publicly online because they themselves are still healing. As opposed to a mom entrepreneur group like Boss Mom, where 70k+ moms come together in the community and not only ask for business help but feel comfortable asking about potty training and sleep training. Motherhood is an easier topic to build an engaged community around where members will want to talk.
Facebook groups are a way for members of a community to come together online for a common purpose. But if the group is started around a topic that is difficult to encourage conversation, then it won’t naturally lend itself to the community. Think about it this way: when you are at an in-person social event, what are the topics that people typically avoid? If you said divorce, death, politics, and religion, then you are on the right track. Really controversial or sensitive topics do not lend themselves to building a community around. Not that you can’t have a business to support divorcees or someone who is grieving. You can. Building a community around it will be more difficult than it’s worth to achieve your sales and marketing goals.
How will starting a Facebook group help you as a business owner?
Starting a Facebook group is not only beneficial for your business, but it will help you personally as a business owner.
When you start a Facebook community, you become a leader. It takes a little more mental strength to be a leader. I would challenge anybody who wants to be the CEO of a company and have employees to learn how to run a community. Starting a Facebook group gives you an opportunity to lead and the test of growing a community is not only good for your business but gives you invaluable skills at the same time.
Running a Facebook group will fulfill you in other ways that are not just monetary. It also feeds the revenue because you get what I call an Appreciation Loop.
I want every single week for at least one person to message me and say, “This is exactly what I needed to hear this week”. I think when we see that Appreciation Loop comes back, then we feel fulfilled in not just the fact that we made good content and we’re smart people solving problems, doing things, and growing revenue, but we’re actually affecting other people by what we do.
Last, your business will love you back. Too often, I see mom entrepreneurs get burnt out by their businesses, especially if they only use social media to market their business because their business never loves them back the way they want it to.
The replies and messages I get back from people in my Facebook group are the fuel that I need to stay up till two in the morning and get that one thing done or to go that extra mile when I don’t have to just for the community.
What are some challenges to starting a Facebook group?
Facebook has made starting a Facebook group extremely easy. Although the tech part of creating the group is easy, there are a few challenges that many mom entrepreneurs face. The first challenge is knowing what to name your new group.
Naming your new group is like the way you would think of SEO for creating a headline for a blog, a title for a podcast, or anything else. You want to choose a name that is both functional and tells your audience who the group is for. Boss Mom works because our audience is full of moms who are trying to start a business. Our name makes sense for the audience and the function of the group.
The most common challenge Boss Moms face once they’ve started a Facebook group is knowing what to post. Groups that do not have members that comment or engage or are not growing are very common because no one teaches how to strategically grow a group in a way that works on a mom’s inconsistent schedule and still gives the group’s members what they need in terms of value and community. There are different social posts you can create to engage your members, help your members, ask your members for feedback, and so on.
We organically grew the Boss Mom Facebook Group up to over 70k+ with one of the highest consistent engagements on Facebook. Our members in the Nurture to Convert Society learn our strategies for simplified sales and marketing, including how to create a community using Facebook groups.
Starting a Facebook group feels right for me, now what?
I’ve been in business for a very long time and I know this to be true. Facebook is the best social media platform to build community, grow your business, and grow you as a business leader.
Growing a Facebook Group is an important matter, but I think we should have fun along the way. When you are having fun, you become a magnet and attract more people to you.
If you feel like having a Facebook group of your own is scary and overwhelming, then you are not alone. It can feel a little like having a new baby in your life; one where you get really attached and cry when it looks like your baby isn’t getting the love it deserves. While I can’t guarantee the ultimate success of your group, I can tell you that the tactics I use in my group and also teach all of my clients–work.
If you need help to start and grow your Facebook group, we have a course that shows you the exact steps to start and grow your own community in our Nurture to Convert Society. Check it out here.
