Should You Keep Your Facebook Customer Groups Private?

You’ve created a Facebook group and now you’re wondering what privacy settings you should have. There are different rules of thumb, however, I am going to share my best practices when it comes to creating a prospect or VIP customer-focused group. 

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𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙥 𝙏𝙮𝙥𝙚𝙨:

𝙋𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 –In this case, anyone, whether he is a part of the Group or not, can see the posts of the Group. He would need to join the Group for posting in the Group or for commenting on the posts of the Group.

𝘾𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 – Most of the Free Facebook groups (By bloggers) fall into this category. The content of this Group can be seen only by the members of the Group. Anyone, who is not a member of the Group, would only see the description, name, and rules of the Group. He can then decide if he wants to join this group or not.

𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩 – A secret group is not listed in Facebook search results. You won’t be able to find this Group unless and until the admin himself sends you the link to join this Group.

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I personally recommend you keep your groups 𝘾𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙙 or 𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩  for a couple of reasons. YES, you want people to locate your group, but you do not want to keep it open for specific reasons.

#1 : Keeping your group somewhat closed is going to keep unnecessary members out. There are a bunch of weirdos and trolls out there that slip into groups just to cause problems or poach people. You do not want this!

#2 : There may be a prospect of another business partner within your company and you do not want to risk them falling into your group. We want to maintain respect and work our businesses ethically. Now, if other prospects do come to your group in other ways and truly appreciate being there, then there is nothing you can do about that. We just want to limit the possibility of that happening if that makes sense.

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I personally have my customer/prospect group set to 𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩 and have been able to grow it and build a wonderful community that way. 

Here are a few best practices when it comes to running your group and growing a similar community. 

• Personally invite 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 to your group. 
• You can ask for referrals from those members already in the group, so do it!
• Run contests to build your group. (Ex: The member that invites and adds the most friends to this growing community “your group” in the next 48 hours will WIN ……)
• Be active in your group 𝙙𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙮
• Lead with 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙚 when you are posting content to your group. Educate your community, share tips, ask questions.
• Set group 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 before members join. I do this in most all my groups. It helps me filter out who is not really there for the right reasons. 

Have you set up a group yet? Do you have one already? How are things going? Do you have any questions on how you can apply these tips to your group? 

𝘓𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 …