Discover The Top 7 Mistakes FB Group Owners Make That Are KILLING Their Results, Scaring Away Members, & Losing Them Money!
Arne Giske here, founder of Community & Conversions! I run an entrepreneur group of over 80,000 members!
I had FOUR failed FB groups before that one and I made some of the worst mistakes out there. I want to help you avoid big mistakes so you can get results faster with your group and scale your audience in record time! Sound good? Good.
After mentoring over 3,000 clients to grow & monetize their FB groups in my advanced training and helping 30,000+ others rapidly grow their groups without paying for ads, I have spotted a LOT of common errors people make that are killing their growth, engagement, and sales.
Let's dive into them so you can stop all this nonsense ASAP and turn on the turbo boosters for your group!
Mistake #1 - Linking Your Business Page To Your Group
I had a feeling this would happen when they rolled this out...
When Instagram (owned by Facebook) rolled out business pages for IG and dangled a bunch of shiny features, thousands of people jumped on and classified their pages as "business pages".
Instagram saw the new classification as a sign that people were monetizing from their platform.
Then they decided you have to PAY to reach the same amount of people as before! Talk about extortion!
The same exact thing is happening now with groups! If you want to keep your organic reach, growth, and engagement high in your FB group - don't link it to your biz page.
Beth's engagement shot up a TON after implementing this. Check it out!
Mistake #2 - Lack Of Leadership Activity
It should go without saying that a group leader should be present in their group consistently, but this was one of the mistakes that killed off one of my earlier groups and is the killer of many other groups.
Even some of the big, previously populated ones were abandoned by the leaders and then the members moved out as well.
I don't mean complete absence either - one surefire way to kill engagement and make your members lose interest is to schedule all of your content, repeat boring theme days, and not actively produce new content for the group or respond to comments.
Why would anyone want to pay attention to and PAY someone who isn't even present? Say no to tumbleweeds rolling through your barren wasteland of a group and stay active so your group doesn't end up in the ever growing, FB Group Graveyard! (RIP my first 4.)
Want some great hacks for you so you can create a lot of original content without spending too much time? Keep an eye on your emails, I'll send you a free lesson from my course showing you how to spend minimal time on creating a ton of new content!
Mistake #3 - No Clear Branding or Value Proposition
Have you ever gone onto someone's website, and it looks the same, feels the same, and says all the same thing as everyone else's website?
The same phenomenon is happening with FB groups. People lack creativity in their setups and don't make it clear what's different about their group versus other similar groups. They have the same rules, the same descriptions, the same topics, but nothing unique. What gives?
If you can't make a connection with your new members quickly and attract them to come back for more, you will lose their attention and ultimately they'll never come back to your group, and never buy from you. You wouldn't want that would you? Then keep reading!
After taking my program, one of my students Chad Yesilova said "I'm experiencing organic growth. The messaging is a lot clearer, and with the content strategy, not only do i have direction for growth and monetization, but I'm also experiencing those now!"
Mistake #4 - Too Many Links & USING ALL CAPS LOCK!
Did you know FB penalizes posts with links in them? Their goal is to keep people on Facebook, so they limit reach on posts with links.
The best way around this is to post your content natively. That means instead of sharing a Youtube link, put the video on FB. Instead of sharing a blog link, copy and paste the article into a post. Instead of adding a link to a lead magnet, ask if anyone wants your free guide on "XYZ" and to leave a comment if so.
Your reach, response, and results will be much better. Plus you get brownie points from the FB algorithm and increase engagement.
As for all CAPS LOCK, do I even need to explain this one?
People read caps lock as yelling. People don't like being yelled at, especially when it's promotional! Your message should speak louder than your terrible formatting ever could. MAKING SENSE???
One cool hack to remedy this - use caps lock on JUST the words you want people to "yell" in their heads for emphasizing it as they read. You direct the narrative that way and it can help you prove a point.
Also, if you like making long posts this can direct the eyes of the skimmers to your most important statements. I can show you a million cool tricks to make your writing a lot more impactful and really drive results.
"I never realized how powerful writing is until I started the course.
I started seeing writing as an art and a science - that can be beautifully structured to accomplish various goals. " - Matt Staton
Mistake #5 - Surprising Your Group Members & Expecting Them To Take Action
Mistake #6 - Your Content Types Aren't Varied Enough, or Not Original
Sometimes people tell me they're having trouble with getting leads and sales in their groups, or can't even seem to get people to sign up for their free stuff. They want to get results - but aren't clear why nothing is happening.
Different people like consuming different styles of content. Some like videos, some like long posts, short posts, images, audio, or live video.
Your preference isn't your group member's preference too. You need to understand that even if you don't like watching videos, a lot of people do. Video has been named as the most engaging content type on social media and it's the easiest way to put a face to the brand and group.
When you only do one type of content, you're going to miss out on a huge chunk of engagement from members that prefer another style. Mix up video, images, short and long text posts, and live videos as well to maximize engagement.
It's also important to mix up your content categories and subtopics within your group or else people will get bored hearing about the same topics every day. Have some fun, share some memes too!
Don't Be A Copycat, Mix It Up!
Mistake #7 - Your Group Name Is Your Brand Name
One thing that has really helped me master FB groups and help thousands of others get great results with the platform is understanding how people consume and take action on the platform.
If you understand these habits, you can create your strategy to cater to how people are already watching, clicking, and purchasing. Know how they consume, and you will know what to produce.
In this sense, I know that people click on group names that are relevant to them or if they come up for certain search terms. A lot, and I mean A LOT of people are making this big mistake and naming their group after their brand.
Before people join your group, they probably don't know anything about you or your brand yet. That's totally okay - they'll get to know you soon enough after they join, I promise. But how will they know to join if your group name is irrelevant to their interests?
The issue here is when people stumble across your group name in the suggested groups tab, and they read the name of your group, it doesn't make any sense to them. They don't identify with it, there are no keywords, and they don't click join.
The #1 driver for organic growth is having a relevant group name that people either identify with "Millennial Entrepreneur Community" or is keyword heavy, something like "Digital Marketing Hacks For Entrepreneurs w/ JR Rivas."
See how he put his name at the end there, instead of the beginning? It's totally okay to have your name or your brand name in the group title as long as it's at the end, and you still have some keywords in the beginning.
Now you've got a better picture on what NOT to do, let's get into a few of the biggest misconceptions about FB groups that could be holding you back from starting or getting yours to the next level.
Anyone who believes any of the 7 myths on the next article here is going to have some issues with their group, or maybe even never start one. You wouldn't want to slow your progress down would you?
Dive on into the 7 myths, and make sure to swing by my group as well if you haven't already to see how I run it! Talk soon, Arne Giske
"Grow your group, grow your business!"
-Arne Giske