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In this book, we're going to examine one facet of information technology - a Facebook group. Specifically, we're going to explore how to create and manage a Facebook group from the perspective of an absolute beginner. To begin with, we're going to look at what a Facebook group is and why Facebook groups are an important way to connect and promote your business, your band, your brand or just about anything.
Next, we'll take a look at the specific steps that you need to take to start a Facebook group. You'll learn how to decide who the group is for so that you can tighten the focus for your reach for even greater connectivity. You'll learn how to utilize the Facebook dashboard to do the actual group creation. You'll also learn how to customize your group by adding specific details, creating a look that's yours and yours alone.
Once your group has been created, we'll turn our attention to promotion. You'll learn how to utilize a Facebook fan page and Facebook advertising to draw an audience to your group. We'll show you how to cross-promote your group in other Facebook groups with similar interests. You'll also learn how to attract people with influence to your group, promote your group on other social media platforms and the secret of using gated content to attract members.
Finally, we'll focus on the care and feeding of an established Facebook group. You'll learn how a Facebook group is an organic entity. You'll learn why engagement is essential to the continued health of your group. You'll also learn why spam, in any form, will stifle engagement, and how to ensure that your group remains spam-free. More importantly, we'll show you how to raise engagement by using a steady stream of entertaining and educating content. You'll learn how to find relevant topics for content, as well as how to mine the active interests of your group's members to produce content that matches those interests.
In the end, nothing is going to stop the forward march of information technology. Things will continue to get faster, larger and, ironically, smaller and easier to use. The key to success, no matter how you define that term, is in learning to use information technology to your advantage. By mastering the art of a Facebook group, you will be poised to use the biggest social media platform to your advantage. That, my friends, is the perfect example of the benefits of technological assimilation.
What Are Facebook Groups and Why Are They
Important?
September 26, 2006, is a somewhat important date in the annals of internet history. On that day, Facebook became available to anyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address.
Originally designed as a centralized website where the students of Harvard University could connect for academic and social reasons, Facebook soon spread like wildfire. The idea the connectivity inherent in internet technology could be used to connect disparate people in real time was not new. Various other platforms were available that did this is one form or another, e.g. chatrooms and instant messaging provided by AOL, Compuserve and others. However, no one had yet integrated a way to combine chat and integrated visuals into one smooth package. This is what made Facebook a game changer.
Within hours of being started, Facebook had 1500 users on the Harvard campus. In less than one month, half of the graduate and undergraduate population of Harvard were Facebook users. Three months later, Facebook had expanded to include the populations of Yale, Stanford and Columbia Universities. The remaining Ivy League schools were next, followed by nearly every university in the United States and Canada. Universities in the UK and Europe were next, followed by the rest of the world.
This phenomenal growth did not go unnoticed by the media. By the time September 26, 2006, rolled around, the non-academic members of the general public were lined up, eager and ready to give Facebook a spin. So when Facebook did open it's doors to the public at large, what was, until then, a phenomenal growth rate quickly became unprecedented. In eleven months, Facebook experienced an extraordinary monthly growth rate of over 178%. By August of 2008, Facebook had 100 million worldwide users. In the coming years, that growth rate continued unchecked. By July of 2010, Facebook exceeded 500 million users. In September of 2012, there were 1 billion people worldwide who used Facebook regularly.
Today, Facebook's numbers continue to be impressive. The site has, on average, 1.86 billion monthly users and 1.23 billion users who are active on a daily basis. No matter how you cut it, that's a whole lot of traffic. The number one billion gets tossed around a lot, so much so that it becomes meaningless. So, here's a quick stat that will help you to pull Facebook's enormous reach into focus - if Facebook's average daily users were a country, that country would be the most populous nation on Earth. That's a lot of people, which translates to a lot of eyeballs that could be looking at what you're interested in promoting.
That last sentence puts what makes Facebook so valuable when it comes to marketing and promotion. Nearly a sixth of the world's total population gathers in one place each and every day. If you have a Facebook presence, then a portion of that enormous population will invariably see your presence and take note of what it is that you're promoting. In short, a Facebook presence means awareness, engagement and, ultimately, conversion.
So, how do you get an active Facebook presence? One of the best ways is by starting, promoting and maintaining a Facebook group. A Facebook group is primarily a place where people who share a specific interest, hobby, problem or concern can gather and exchange information, tips and connect. Members of the group can ask and answer questions, post photos, and videos and follow conversations that interest them. A Facebook group is sort of like a private club. Interest drives membership and interest keeps the individual members engaged.
As a Facebook group owner, you are the proprietor of the club. You, more or less, run the place. You can decide who gets into the club. You can lead the discussion within the club, and you can remove any members who you find problematic. More importantly, a Facebook group allows you, the group owner, to connect directly with the membership of the group. Every time you post content, a message regarding the content, as as well as link to the content, is sent directly to every member's email inbox. Having the ability to connect at will to a relatively captive audience is the key to understanding the importance of a Facebook group.
Facebook groups matter because they tap into the tremendous amount of traffic that Facebook generates on a daily basis. Month after month, Facebook's traffic beats the next three most popular social media platforms combined. Facebook usage accounts for one in every six minutes spent online. This constant flow, while slightly intimidating, represents tremendous potential. All demographics are represented in a cross section of Facebook users. For example, people of every age use Facebook on a regular basis. 82% of 18 - 29-year-olds, 79% of 30 - 49-yearolds and 56% of 50-year-olds and up are regular Facebook users. Even more importantly, Facebook use is intergenerational. 83% of parents with a child between the ages of 13 and 18 are friends with their child on Facebook.
Other demographic statistics show an equal amount of penetration by Facebook. The gender split between Facebook users is relatively even. 44% of all users identify as women, and 56% identify as men. Marital status is also even, with 39% of users reporting themselves and married and 39% reporting themselves as single. It's when we come to education that Facebook's demographic begins to show some disparity. 62% of Facebook users report some level of college education. On the other hand, a much smaller 30% report state high school as their highest level of education. The remaining 8% report some level of postgraduate education.
As a Facebook group owner and administrator, your primary responsibility is to identify and understand your audience. The fact that Facebook's traffic reaches broadly across so many demographic boundaries increases the chances that you will be able to meet that responsibility. In a bit, we're going to be getting into the specifics of how to start and promote a group. At the risk of getting a little ahead of ourselves, Facebook provides group owners with free analytics that help owners understand what attracts and engages an audience. By digging into these statistics, an owner can narrowly focus their efforts on exactly the type of content that is guaranteed to resonate with their target audience. The analytic tools will also help them to define who their primary audience members are. This is invaluable when you are attempting to dominate a very narrow and defined niche market.
