Facebook Groups - What You Need to Know When Starting Out
Facebook Groups - What you need to know when starting out
So you just started your business, well congratulations! Weepie! You see, starting a new business isn’t that easy, it might just sound like that, but please, I beg you, count all the periods of days when you are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, thinking of the “pointless” idea you wanted to launch. But this isn’t about this. I wanted to state the fact that nothing is easy at the beginning, but once you already launched the business itself, it’s a huge milestone, and that is why I bow to you right now as you read this. Congrats again!
So after my moral rollercoaster introduction, let’s focus on what is really important as soon as you launched your business - relationships. Yes, one of the most important keys to success is building relationships with different kind of people. It could be working mates, people who are doing the same thing you are, in which you can advise each other with all sort of goods; also people who might be your clients, prospects, leads, you name it! Basically, since you have started your business, you need to build your community. And until you build it, it’s a must to stumble upon other’s communities, integrate, say hello, here’s my new business!
But now you may ask, where should you find those communities. Woa, but this is the internet we’re talking about! With its age of social networking. Remember the days when you were a huge fan of a band or an actor, and you spent all your days to forums, talking to other fans? It’s basically the same, but for this time, we are going to focus on Facebook. Why? Because this is the corner where everybody hangs out, it’s that part of the school’s courtyard where everyone that is cool hangs out. So yes, you will find all you need on Facebook. And I am not talking about News Feed, Pages or Events, I am talking about Facebook Groups.
So what are Facebook Groups? I am sure you are included in at least one! Maybe one from your old work, one from that festival you attended, and maybe, like I said before, even in that group based on that forum you used to hang out! But this time, this is different!
I am talking about some Facebook Groups that you need to hang out to make yourself visible, and not even only yourself, but the business too. Now, I am going to enumerate some steps that you need to take when you are trying to find a group that fits you well.
Step 1: Define your niche.
Step 2: Search your niche communities - add the words facebook groups in the search, trust me!
Step 3: Join, join, join!
Here, simple as that! This is what you need to do when trying to find your people. The niche communities are so important that you must not to ignore, because, you know how many possible clients are hanging out there?
I know I already got you confused but let’s start with baby steps. There are some Facebook groups that are specially formed for startupers. Those Facebook groups are full with online workers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, virtual assistants, managers, you name it! Those Facebook Groups are categorized to be standard for online businesses. Meaning, if your business is based on food blogging, that doesn’t matter for those groups, because you already own the term blogging and that is enough. Sure, obviously, you will in the end need to find a specific communities based only on food blogging. (Trust me, there are a lot).
And one awesome thing is that within those general Facebook Groups, there possibility of finding other communities are pretty high. And this is due to the perfect administrative management that those groups have, meaning that each day has its theme, based on: promotion, collaboration, blog posts, all kinds! And this is where you need to keep an eye out on. Those themed threads that will help you start this group engagement.
Besides monitoring what other people say, I advise you to also say something. Be personal, be authentic, people love that. Every time you join a group, introduce yourself. Even that you only like cats, write that down. Hi, I am Sally and I love cats! Thanks for adding me, looking forward to meet you all! - That might be enough, even if it’s shot! The key is to stand out, be yourself. Don’t do what everybody does, don’t start with those motivational quotes images, while writing a huge text about on single fact. That’s what everybody does, thus you won’t stand out. Be original. The fact that you only tell people that you love cats would be enough. Who knows, maybe there are some other cat lovers that will immediately PM you about that! And who know, maybe that cat lover would also be your next client.
So yes, this is the beauty for being part of communities. It will help you grow your audience, your visitors, your prospect, you can even build new friendships, partnerships, anything! Be consistent, be yourself, and don’t copy the ones that you see that have success. No. Imagine that those people were in your shoes back then. You don’t need to do exactly what they did, it’s not how this works.
Now, if you are all excited to start stumbling through those Facebook groups, let me tell you about some of them that are quite famous, with thousands of members, in which you can start blooming ahead! Those are the groups that I have started with, and helped me alot. With what? With building relationships and also, getting clients! But a tips is: have patience, get to know the rules, the group vibe, the people. Get to know what it is about, and how it works. Then start go crazy! Mind you, those aren’t groups that are based on promotions, those are focused more on engagement and relationships.
Blog + Biz BFFs
This is one of my favorites and on the first I have joined. It has almost 26K members, and its goal is to help online entrepreneurs and bloggers to start their business and also, to maintain it. I strongly suggest to join this one, and get to know all their rules and vibe. You can join here.
Freelance for Freedom
If you are a freelancer this groups is perfect for you. It has themed threads, you can promote your services, you can also engage in authentic conversations. It’s a friendly community with almost 5k members. You can join here.
Campfire
This group right here is also dedicated for online entrepreneurs and freelancer. It has a very helpful community of almost 5k members, and I suggest you should hop in right here.
The Blog Loft
This one here is great for bloggers, if you just started out and want to gather more audience. A friendly community with more than 6k members and you can join it here.
Freedom Hacker’s Mastermind
This group is fairly huge, member-wise, with more than 32k people in it. It can be chaotic sometimes, but it has a very organized administration. This is a group for all, anything that includes online working - business, freelancing, blogging, you name it! It’s a very good one if you just started out. You can join here.
The Blog Tribe
How can we end this without mentioning this awesome group? Sure, it’s smaller, member wise, than the others, but here’s a trick: quantity doesn’t matter in Facebook groups. Why? Because, either if you have 10k members and only 20 engage, or if you have 400 members, and only 10 people engage, I am fairly sure that the one with 400 member would win the battle. A smaller group means that things can get more personal, more authentic, you feel more free to express yourself rather than in a group with thousand of eyes! This group here is an example, and I am sure you’d feel cosy enough! You can join here.
So that’s that, those are my pieces of advice for you when you just started out your business and want to engage and build relationships. Try Facebook Group, and tell me how it goes! I would love to hear about your progress.
Author
Maria Slama | www.dazzleva.com
Project Manager + Business Strategist.
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