facebook likes – Alan Spicer – YouTube Certified Expert

Whether you are just heavily interested in a particular subject and would like to find like-minded individuals to socialise with, or you are looking to build a community for promotional reasons, Facebook groups are an excellent tool in your arsenal. Still, as useful as Facebook groups can be, they have to have members—often lots of them—to achieve that potential.

There are several ways to grow a Facebook group, and, fortunately, the majority of those ways have nothing to do with spending any money. In this post, we’re going to take a deeper dive into what Facebook groups are, why they might be useful to you, and what you can do to ensure the success of your group or a group you are part of.

What is a Facebook Group?

A Facebook group is essentially a place for people with a common interest to get together and discuss that interest, much like any other internet forum. The interest in question can be anything that doesn’t break Facebook’s rules and guidelines, and anyone can set up a group.

The reason Facebook groups are so popular is, ultimately, down to the popularity of Facebook. With billions of people already on the platform and familiar with how it works, it is often far easier to set up a new Facebook group and get new members interested in joining than it is to build a community on places like Reddit, even as popular as Reddit is.

Group admins have the ability to set the rules of their Facebook group, removing members if they don’t follow them. They can also have the group be public, private, visible to all but only members are allowed to participate, invite-only, and more.

All standard Facebook rules apply within groups, so doing or saying anything that breaks Facebook’s terms of service can still get you in trouble, even if the admins of a group allow it.

Are Facebook Groups Worth It?

The natural question you should be having at this stage is; are “Facebook groups worth the effort?” The answer very much depends on what you are trying to achieve, but we’re going to hazard a guess that, yes, they are worth it if you are reading this page.

Firstly, if you are just looking for a community to talk about something you are interested in, Facebook groups will certainly be able to give you that. That being said, there is a strong chance that a group already exists, and you might want to consider joining one rather than making one. We’ll get into whether you should start a group a little later on.

If you are looking to Facebook groups as a tool for promotion, it is certainly worth it, but you will have to put the time and effort in to make things work. Like most things in life and online promotion, there’s no quick fix to reaching your goals.

Things to Consider Before Starting a Facebook Group

It’s all well and good concluding that a Facebook group can get you what you’re looking for, but that doesn’t automatically mean you should make one. Running a successful Facebook group is not without effort, and even if you’re willing and able to put in the effort, there’s still no guarantee of success.

Before we look at how to grow your Facebook group, let’s take a moment to ponder whether you should be starting or running a group at all. And, remember, this is independent of whether a Facebook group could be good for you in terms of goals. A Facebook group might be an amazing tool for promotion, but if you don’t have the time and willingness needed to make it work, it won’t help you.

Do I Have a Good Subject Matter for a Facebook Group?

This is especially important if you are planning to use your Facebook group as a promotional tool. If you just want to create a community to talk about something you’re interested in, it doesn’t matter what that interest is, because your only goal is to find people to talk to about it. If you are promoting something, however, your subject matter needs to be relevant but still interesting enough to foster genuine discussion.

For example, if you are promoting a YouTube channel about technology, such as new gadgets, that subject may be too broad to create a successful Facebook group around. Remember, the beauty of these groups is the ability to find people with the same specific interests as you, not general interests. But, if you zero in too far and create your group around, say, a specific type of technology, like mobile phones, you run the risk of people in the group not being interested in your general technology YouTube channel.

Do I Have the Time to Run a Facebook Group?

Running a successful Facebook group, whether for personal or promotional reasons, takes time. This is especially true in the early days of the group, where you will need to get out and about to garner interest and draw attention to the group. As things progress, the group will need less and less of your time to keep ticking over, but you will need to be actively working to get to that stage.

And, if promotion is your goal, this applies even more to you. If you just want to talk, you can always get the group started and then dip in and out as you please. If you want to promote things, you’ll need to keep your hand in constantly, or the members of the group will stop seeing you as someone of interest.

What Rules Should My Facebook Group Have?

There are two types of rules to consider; Facebook enforceable rules, and arbitrary rules. Facebook enforceable rules are things that Facebook provides a mechanism for, such as having the group be private and invite-only. Arbitrary rules can be literally anything you want, but you have to enforce them yourself, such as by kicking people from the group.

The best rules will vary from group to group. The only advice we can really give here is to be as unrestrictive as you can within the scope of your group. For example, it wouldn’t be wise to allow misogynist language in a group for survivors of domestic abuse. On the other hand, it would be unwise to ban adult language in a group about alternative comedy.

How to Grow Facebook Group

So, you’ve decided you want to start a group and you have the time and willingness to do so. How do you make it grow?

Have Compelling Reason to Join

The first thing you need to do is make sure your potential members have a compelling reason to join your group. The most effective way of achieving this is by offering something they can’t find elsewhere.

Of course, if you have a topic that there is no other group for, that would be the ideal situation… but it’s an unlikely one. There are a lot of groups on Facebook. If you haven’t got a unique subject matter, have a good look at the competition, and see if there is anything you can offer that they can’t. This could be more relaxed (or stricter) rules, or even just your expertise if the subject matter is something you are particularly knowledgeable about.

Leverage Your Existing Audience (if you have one)

If you already have an audience—perhaps you run a YouTube channel or blog—be sure to promote your Facebook group to them. This may seem counter-intuitive if the main reason for creating the group is to promote the thing your audience knows you for, but having a larger number of members gives your group more legitimacy in the eyes of newcomers.

We’re not suggesting paying for fake members, of course. That rarely works. Bought users will not engage, and a large group with no activity often looks less appealing than a small group with no activity.

Branch Out to New Audiences

Obviously, you will want to stay within the subject matter, but when letting people know about your group, don’t limit yourself to things like your own audience from other places. Reach out to other communities and try to find new people.

Always be sure to be respectful when you do this, however. Just barging into a subreddit or a YouTuber’s comment section and spamming about your group is unlikely to win anyone over.

Encourage Members to Promote the Group

Once you have members, encourage them to let others know about the group. Don’t just tell them to go get more members, of course, they’re not your employees. Just politely mention it from time to time, and be sure to emphasise the fact that everyone benefits from more members, as there will be more discussion.

Final Thoughts

Whether you want to talk about your favourite series of novels or promote your YouTube channel about miniature castle building, Facebook groups are a powerful tool to achieve your goals. And, what’s more, it’s free! All it takes is a little time and effort on your part to build an active community.

Facebook pages can easily be seen as Facebook’s attempt to break out of the personal headspace that Facebook occupied for so long, and, if that was Facebook’s goal, it’s been quite effective. Pages have become an almost essential part of any online presence, be it an individual, company, or brand. But, like any too for promoting something, Facebook pages are only effective if they are used correctly.

Simply creating a page and calling it a day might be the kind of thing someone with millions of followers on other platforms can get away with, but if you are trying to build up a following from, shall we say, more modest numbers, you’re going to have to work a little harder than that.

This brings us to the purpose of this post. We’re going to look at a number of methods to grow Facebook page followings, but before we do, we’ve got a little crash course on Facebook pages for you.

What Are Facebook Pages?

The easiest way to think of a Facebook Page is as a public-facing profile alternative. Now, if you are a public figure and make no attempt to keep your Facebook profile private, this may seem a little strange to you, but you should try to remember that Facebook is mostly used as a platform for keeping in touch with friends and family.

The vast majority of Facebook users have a friend list full of people they know in real life, such as colleagues, friends, and family members. They don’t necessarily want their posts and comments to be visible to the wider world. Especially if they have any kind of notability. This is why a large number of Facebook users make their profiles and content only visible to people they are friends with.

Facebook pages allow those users to maintain that separation between the wider world and their private lives, but still have a public presence on Facebook—the largest social media platform in the world.

Do I Need a Facebook Page?

If you’re a reader of this blog, there’s a good chance you need a Facebook page. If you’ve stumbled here from a search engine looking for information on Facebook pages and are not looking to promote anything or boost your online presence, you probably don’t need a page.

For the people who are promoting things—perhaps a YouTube channel, or a podcast—we would recommend having a Facebook page even if you don’t feel the need to separate your private life from the public eye. You may feel that way now, but things can change. And there’s nothing stopping you from sharing anything you would have put on your Facebook wall onto your page as well.

That’s the key element here. You will be making a conscious choice to share something publicly, and that should protect you from unintentionally sharing anything that you wouldn’t want public, such as personal matters, or controversial opinions.

10 Tips to Grow Facebook Page Followings

And now to the meat of the article. Please note that our tips are in no particular order. Let’s go!

1. Post Regularly

One of the biggest tips we can offer for growing a Facebook page’s following—or any following on a social media platform—is to post regularly. This is especially true for smaller pages.

There are two main reasons that regular and consistent posting helps grow your Facebook page. The first is that it will mean anytime a new person arrives at your page, they are going to be seeing relatively recent content. If they get to your page and the last thing you posted was eight months ago, they might understandably conclude that the page is inactive and move on.

The other reason is that every post you make on your page increases the chances of someone new discovering your page. Whether it’s through your content being shared or through Facebook organically showing it to users, the more posts you have, the more things there are for people to stumble across.

Just be careful not to let your drive to post regularly affect the quality of what you’re posting.

2. Share Inherently Useful Content

Continuing on nicely from that last sentence, it’s not enough to just post anything on a regular basis, you also need to make that content worthwhile for your potential followers. For most of us, that rules out just posting links to your latest show/video/song/book/etc.

Of course, if you are already an established personality or brand with a huge following, just having a Facebook page that posts updates like that is useful and will get plenty of engagement. If you’re trying to grow a brand, however, you need to give those users a reason to come to your page other than… well, you.

An example of this might be an author who writes books on interior design. They could post tips on interior design, giving people a reason to follow your page for that content. Then, that author has a new book out, they’ll not only have a following but one that is primed for that product.

3. Focus on a Niche

Once again following on nicely from the end of the last point, we have your niche. While this may not be possible for everybody—it’s hard to stick to a niche if you’re a pop musician, for example—if you have an area that your content or services revolve around, make sure the posts on your page stick to that niche.

Being more focused with your content will undoubtedly lower the number of potential users coming to your page, but it will ensure that the users who are interested in what you’re posting are more likely to find it. It will also make those users far more likely to stick around, and increase the chance of them engaging with your posts because they are truly interested in the subject matter.

The trick is finding a balance between narrowing you’re niche so far that the audience is minuscule, and broadening it so far that your page has too much competition to make an impact.

4. Invite People to Like Your Page

We often don’t like to bother people, but inviting people to like your Facebook page is something that not only yields good results but can be done with the click of a button thanks to Facebook’s “Invite People to Like This Page” button. The like invite will show up in their notifications, and they will be free to ignore it if they don’t want to.

5. Promote Your Page Outside of Facebook

Facebook is big. It can be easy to forget there’s a whole Internet out there, and it’s important that you don’t neglect to use that Internet when you’re trying to grow your Facebook page.

Obviously, we’re not suggesting you start spamming comment sections or tweet threads, but promote responsibly wherever you can. Sometimes simply letting followers know you have a Facebook page is enough.

6. Use Facebook Live

If you have it in you to make video content, Facebook Live is an excellent tool for garnering more interest in your Facebook page. These videos not only get put into various feeds when they are live, but they also remain up (if you allow it) after the fact, acting as lasting content for your page.

As per our above tip about niches, try to keep this content in line with the subject matter (or matters) that your page represents. There’s no sense attracting people who won’t be interested in what you do.

7. Run Giveaways and Other Promotions

There are no hidden tricks here, this is exactly what it sounds like. If you are in a position to run competitions or promotions… or just give stuff away, it’s an effective way to generate interest for your page. Just be careful not to violate any local or international laws with any contests you run. Always check the law.

8. Join Relevant Facebook Groups

We’ve talked about getting off of Facebook to promote your page, but what about on Facebook? Finding relevant groups and participating can be a great way to generate interest. Like with anywhere else, be sure not to spam, and adhere to the rules of any group you join.

9. Utilise Calls to Action

If you’re writing blog posts, recording podcasts, posting videos, or generally making content elsewhere on the web, don’t be afraid to use a call to action. It could just be a line at the end of your article, a polite nudge at the end of a video, or really any mention. You’d be surprised how much of a difference it makes.

10. Advertise

You can advertise away from Facebook, but we’d suggest using Facebook’s own advertising platform if you want to advertise a Facebook page. It is more likely to land in front of a user who will be interested, as the very fact that they are seeing it means they are a Facebook user, whereas a Google AdSense ad could easily wind up in front of a person who is not on Facebook and has no intention of joining.