Beyond Platform Policing: Taking Ownership of Our Online Communities

Mar 5, 2025 | Facebook, Online Communities

Meta’s recent announcement about ending its third-party fact-checking program and relaxing its harmful content policies has sparked intense debate. Many fear these changes will make social media more dangerous, particularly for marginalized populations. But this focus on Meta’s platform-wide policies misses a more fundamental question: Why have we outsourced the governance of our online spaces to profit-driven tech companies in the first place?

When Platform-Wide Policies Fail Communities

Consider Cath Hakanson’s That Parent Group, a space where 211,000 parents once could safely ask questions about their children’s sexual development and get expert guidance from a public health educator. The group served a vital need, providing support for parents navigating sensitive topics they couldn’t discuss elsewhere. Yet Facebook’s one-size-fits-all automated content screening system repeatedly flagged legitimate questions as conduct violations, eventually shutting down the entire group — despite its clear value to parents.

In another instance, we had a Facebook Group in my hometown during the pandemic for local families that experienced deep divisions over public safety measures. Much like the rest of the nation, members held opposing views on mask mandates, vaccines, and distance-learning. Members on both sides began reporting each other’s posts to admins and flagging them to Facebook as harmful content, fake news, false information, etc. Soon, the admin team was receiving automated warnings about the group’s content.

While the volunteer admins initially wanted to allow respectful disagreement, they felt pressured to take a more heavy-handed approach or risk Facebook shutting down the group itself. Eventually, the humans running the group decided the risks outweighed any benefits and closed it down, leaving a gap in the local news and information pipeline for families with school-aged children.

These scenarios illustrate a fundamental flaw in platform-wide automated enforcement: AI systems and universal policies can’t distinguish between predatory behavior and legitimate calls for help and advice. While every social media platform has an obligation to prevent exploitation, Meta’s broad-brush technological approach often causes more harm than good.

The False Security of Automated Platform Enforcement

We’ve grown complacent in recent years. We expect technology to shield us from harmful content and misinformation. When we see something inappropriate, we report it to the platform and keep scrolling, assuming AI or fact-checkers will handle it.

But this reliance on platform-wide enforcement creates several problems:

1. We become less mindful of our own behavior, assuming anything not flagged by the system must be okay
2. We lose opportunities to see people’s true colors and make informed decisions about relationships
3. We sacrifice chances for meaningful dialogue and understanding
4. We forget how to have respectful disagreements or engage in thoughtful discourse

These problems erode our ability to function as a community. We’ve forgotten that genuine safety comes from human connection and community-level governance, not algorithmic enforcement by distant corporate entities.

Think about it: when was the last time you saw someone directly address problematic content by saying, “That’s not appropriate here” or “I think you could get your point across without name-calling”? These human interventions have largely disappeared because we’ve been conditioned to rely on the “report” button instead of direct communication.

In the communities I design and support with my team, I encourage creating a culture where members address minor infractions directly. Instead of immediately flagging a tersely worded comment for removal, members might respond with, “Wow, sounds like you’re really going through some stuff. Can you share a little more?” This community-level guidance does way more than Facebook automation taking over to close comments or mute members. It gives community members a stronger sense of ownership and connection.

The Cost of Outsourcing Community Safety

Platform-wide enforcement is fundamentally reactive. A post has to exist before it can be flagged by AI or fact-checkers, which means potentially harmful content still appears — it just gets taken down later. This approach is both ineffective and expensive. Cath was paying nearly $3,000 monthly to a team of human moderators in addition to relying on Facebook’s automated screening tools.

Money isn’t the only form of currency involved in community management. Community owners who don’t have the budget to pay a team invest their own time. It’s not uncommon for an active, highly engaged community to require 10-15 hours a week of management and moderation. And while you can recruit volunteers, you still have to invest time in training and managing them. 

For many professional community managers, we appreciate a reduction in workload when it comes to managing the proper care and feeding of members in large, active groups. But we also know that reduction in workload comes at its own price. Facebook flags posts as potential spam and holds them for automated review, which is helpful when it’s true. But when it’s not, we get members who keep reposting because they don’t understand why their post isn’t showing up, or get angry because they think the admin team unfairly pulled their post.

More concerning is how dependence on platform enforcement creates an “us vs. them” mentality and increases polarization. When automated systems immediately remove content instead of allowing human conversation about differing viewpoints, we lose opportunities for understanding and growth.

Building Communities That Govern Themselves

While I’m a fan of taking advantage of as much support as I can get in providing safe, inclusive spaces that facilitate deep connection online, heavy-handed platform-wide enforcement misses the mark. Instead, the best solution is taking ownership of our online spaces through intentional community design and active governance.

Trust Through Transparency and Vulnerability

Trust forms the foundation of any thriving community. In Clutter Free Academy, a community I’ve managed since 2016, we build trust through transparent leadership that acknowledges mistakes, shared vulnerability where leaders model appropriate disclosure, and consistent enforcement of boundaries so members know what to expect.

This creates psychological safety that encourages authentic participation. When members trust the space and its leadership, they’re more likely to engage meaningfully rather than lurking or posting superficially.

Fostering Genuine Human Connection

Connection happens when members relate to each other, not just to content. In The Secret to Thriving Online Communities, we welcome new members by introducing them to others with similar interests based on information they provide when joining. Weekly training sessions allow members to learn alongside each other and support one another in facing current challenges. We also regularly recognize our most active members so everyone knows who’s most likely to be checking in if they have questions.

These structural elements create connective tissue between members in ways no platform policy could.

Responsive Yet Sustainable Engagement

Sustainable community management requires systems that allow consistent engagement without burnout. In Clutter Free Academy, an active community of 16,000, we use post approval to ensure every question gets an initial response from an admin or moderator as soon as it’s published. We review pending posts twice daily during the week and once daily on weekends, so members aren’t waiting long before their posts go live.

Making sure each post gets a first response sets the tone for others to follow, strengthens community culture, and reduces the need to mediate conflict because fewer misunderstandings occur.

Intentional Design That Serves Purpose

Every element of your community should serve its purpose. Journey Homeschool Family Support and Encouragement is a customer-only Facebook Group with a clearly communicated purpose: to foster a vibrant and supportive environment for parents whose families use Journey Homeschool Academy science curriculum.

That single sentence guides every decision, from content planning to conflict resolution. When posts stray from this purpose, it’s easy to redirect the conversation by focusing on what makes the group most supportive of families who prioritize quality science education.

Creating Value Exchange

Thriving communities ensure value flows both ways. Members should receive tangible benefits from participation, while leaders gain insights that inform their work. When leading a statewide community for public health workers, we implemented a “spotlight” feature that invited members to showcase successful initiatives in their communities. This provided visibility to the featured member and their agency while delivering insights to others — creating a virtuous cycle of contribution.

Empowering Members

The ultimate goal is member self-sufficiency. In a public service group that struggled with consistent violations of community standards, we created a three-tier approach to governance: private message for first offenses, public reminder for repeated patterns, and temporary removal for persistent issues. This transparent system resulted in only two permanent removals in three years — proof that clear expectations paired with member empowerment can prevent the need for heavy moderation.

Industry Validation

It’s not just community leaders observing the limitations of platform-wide enforcement systems. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian recently called Meta’s decision to end third-party fact-checking “very pragmatic,” noting that “it is impossible to do fact-checking at scale, let alone in real time, as Facebook was trying to do.”

As the creator of a platform that pioneered community-centered governance, Ohanian understands what Meta is now being forced to acknowledge: centralized, automated enforcement simply doesn’t scale effectively. Reddit’s approach of “community-specific rules” across individual subreddits has proven more sustainable than top-down, algorithmic enforcement.

“It is impossible to do fact-checking at scale, let alone in real time, as Facebook was trying to do.” — Alexis Ohanian, Reddit Co-Founder

Essential Skills for Community Leaders

Fast Company’s Henry McCracken rightfully observes that in light of Meta pulling back its platform-wide content moderation, Facebook Group leaders are our last, best hope for a quality online community. This policy shift undoubtedly places an additional burden on community managers — particularly challenging since the vast majority of Facebook Groups are run by volunteers who stepped up to fill a need they saw, not professional moderators with formal training.

Yet despite this added pressure, the reality remains: if you build a community, you have both a responsibility and an obligation to govern it effectively. Regardless of whether you’re paid or unpaid, working from altruism or self-interest, you can’t abdicate this core duty to the platform or simply let members determine their own standards.

To create truly safe spaces, community leaders need to develop:

• Conflict resolution and mediation skills
• Crisis communication capabilities
• Deep platform feature knowledge
• Consistent enforcement practices
• Ability to facilitate meaningful connections

These skills are foundational to effective community leadership. When we rely too heavily on platform-wide enforcement, we allow these muscles to atrophy. Many community leaders aren’t comfortable with direct intervention because they’ve been conditioned to defer to automated tools.

Developing these skills requires intentional practice and a willingness to engage when things get uncomfortable. It means understanding the difference between silencing someone through automated systems and having meaningful conversations about impact. Most importantly, these skills transfer across platforms. If you can successfully navigate conflict in your Facebook Group with minimal reliance on platform enforcement, you’ll be well-equipped to build thriving communities anywhere.

Taking Ownership of Your Online Community

Start by critically assessing your community design:

1. Map your ideal member experience from day one through year one
2. Evaluate whether support processes are clear
3. Check if community guidelines are visible and consistently enforced
4. Assess whether members feel safe being authentic
5. Consider platform features that might enhance psychological safety
6. Review resource organization and accessibility

In a recent community audit, I discovered that a client’s onboarding process mentioned their rules but never explained why those rules mattered. By adding short explanations connecting each rule to member benefits (“We prohibit promotional posts so you can focus on learning without distraction”), you center the member experience.

In communities focused on sensitive topics, anonymity options make the difference between complete silence and active conversations by members who feel safe sharing their true experiences.

Above all, though, remember that you can do all of this while still asserting and maintaining healthy boundaries. You owe your community proper care, but you don’t owe members everything. Be clear about what you can provide within your resources and boundaries, and feel good about sticking to your limits.

The Future Belongs to Community-Sovereign Spaces

The communities that will thrive in the next decade won’t be those with the strictest moderation policies or the most advanced AI tools. They’ll be the ones that have built the invisible architecture of trust, connection, responsive engagement, intentional design, value exchange, and member empowerment that no algorithm can replicate.

We’re entering an era of “community sovereignty” — where successful groups operate with increasing independence from their hosting platforms. Platform policies will become less relevant as communities develop their own governance structures, culture, and enforcement mechanisms. Especially when those communities are operating with even greater health and vibrancy than under the rule of platform-specific oversight.

It’s already happening. Well-designed communities have weathered platform changes, algorithm updates, and policy shifts with minimal disruption. Their strength comes not from rules imposed from above, but from connections cultivated within.

The communities that struggle most with Meta’s policy changes will be those that have outsourced their safety to the platform. The ones that thrive will be those who’ve been building intentionally all along, treating the platform as infrastructure rather than governance.

So while others debate the implications of Meta’s policy changes, I challenge you to ask a different question: How can you build a community so resilient, so deeply connected, that it doesn’t matter what Meta does next?

When you design with intention, facilitate with care, and lead with values, you don’t need to worry about what Mark Zuckerberg decides. You’ll have built something that transcends any platform’s policies — a truly safe space where connection flourishes because of your leadership, not despite a platform’s limitations.

How to Get a More Accurate Facebook Group Engagement Rate

Jan 26, 2025 | Facebook, Online Communities

Your Facebook group’s engagement rate might be higher than you think. The key lies in understanding how Facebook counts your total members – and more importantly, which accounts shouldn’t be counted at all.

The Hidden Numbers Affecting Your Engagement Rate

Facebook includes inactive and unavailable accounts in your total member count. These could be:

• Disabled accounts
• Accounts that have blocked you
• Suspended accounts
• Temporarily deactivated profiles

While these accounts inflate your total member number, they can’t engage with your content. This artificially deflates your engagement rate when calculated using total members as the denominator.

How to Find Your True Member Count

1. Go to your Facebook group’s member list
2. Scroll down past “Members with Things in Common”
3. Look for the “Unavailable” section
4. Note how many unavailable accounts are listed

Calculating Your Real Engagement Rate

Let’s say your group shows:

• 850 total members
• 339 active members
• 6 unavailable accounts

Traditional calculation: 339 ÷ 850 = 39.8% engagement rate

Accurate calculation: 339 ÷ (850 – 6) = 40.2% engagement rate

While this example shows a modest difference, groups with more unavailable accounts can see significant changes in their engagement metrics when calculated accurately.

Maintaining Clean Member Data

Set a monthly reminder to:

1. Check your “Unavailable” section
2. Select all unavailable accounts
3. Remove them from the group
4. Note your new, accurate total member count

This simple maintenance task ensures you’re working with accurate data when evaluating your group’s performance and planning your engagement strategy.

Why This Matters

Accurate engagement metrics help you:

• Set realistic growth goals
• Evaluate your content strategy effectively
• Understand your true conversion potential
• Make informed decisions about group management

Note: This doesn’t actually change your engagement – it just gives you a more accurate picture of how your community is really performing. Once you know your true engagement rate, you can make data-informed decisions on getting more of the interaction you want in your group.

Want More Tips for Creating a Thriving Online Community?

Join The Secret to Thriving Online Communities — my FREE Facebook group where I share weekly live trainings on community strategy, design and development. Group members get access to:

• Weekly live workshops on community management
• A supportive network of fellow community builders
• Actionable strategies you can implement immediately

Should You Use Ads to Grow Your Online Community?

Jan 4, 2025 | Facebook, Online Communities

The question of whether to run ads to grow your Facebook group comes up frequently among community leaders. With many experts claiming you must “pay to play” to get traction on social media, it’s worth examining whether ads are truly the right growth strategy for your community.

Like any growth tactic, ads can be effective if they align with your goals and you know how to use them well. This article addresses what you need to consider before investing in ads for community growth.

Understanding the True Cost

While the financial investment is significant – most experts recommend at least $500 a month in ad spend for meaningful results – the real cost goes beyond money. The biggest consideration is the potential impact on your community’s culture and engagement levels.

Rapid growth through ads often means bringing in cold traffic – people who don’t know you or your community’s values. Members tend to be most active in a group when they are brand-new. That’s when they are introducing themselves, commenting on existing posts, and asking all the get-to-know-you questions

When you gain hundreds of new members quickly, you risk dramatically shifting your group’s culture and dynamics. Even just 500 new members in a month can significantly impact your community’s atmosphere.

Quality vs. Quantity: The Hidden Trade-off

Many community leaders are drawn to ads for their potential to deliver rapid growth. However, there’s an important distinction between growth and meaningful engagement. People who join through ads are often responding to an offer or incentive rather than actively seeking to join your community. This means they may be less invested in participating and contributing to discussions.

If someone joins your group because they had to join to access a free resource or challenge, their commitment level will likely differ from someone who sought out your community specifically for its value and culture.

Understanding Member Types and Engagement Patterns

University of Queensland Associate Professor Stan Karanasios, an expert in digital technology and society, has done extensive research in the area of Facebook group dynamics.

Though his research is specific to Facebook, it can be applied to communities on all online platforms. Every healthy community has six types of members:

• Core members who are consistently involved
• Periphery members who participate occasionally
• Leaders who influence group opinion and engagement
• Lurkers who read but rarely participate
• Newcomers eager to learn and connect
• Veterans who bring historical perspective

When using ads for growth, you dramatically increase the proportion of newcomers, which can disrupt these natural community dynamics. While newcomers can bring fresh energy and perspectives, too many at once can overwhelm your established community culture.

Making Ads Work: Essential Prerequisites

If you decide to pursue ads for community growth, having these elements in place first is crucial:

1. Clear Purpose and Promise — Your group needs a well-defined purpose and a clear promise to members. This helps create targeted ads that attract the right people.
2. Strong Onboarding Process — With an influx of new members, you need a standardized way to welcome people, set expectations, and guide them toward meaningful participation.
3. Culture Protection Plan — Consider how you’ll maintain your community’s existing culture while integrating many new members. This might include preparing current members for the growth period and having additional moderation support ready.
4. Specific Goals and Metrics —  Know exactly what success looks like beyond member numbers. Whether it’s book sales, program enrollments, or engagement metrics, having clear goals helps determine if your ad spend is worth it.

Understanding Realistic Conversion Rates

When using ads to grow your community, it’s important to set realistic expectations. If you bring in 1,000 new members through ads, typically only about 10% might be genuinely interested in your offers, and of those, only 1-2% might convert to paying customers.

Members can’t buy if they don’t see your offers, and they won’t see your offers if they aren’t participating in your group.

Understanding how growing your group through paid advertising can help you calculate whether your ad spend makes sense for your business goals.

Alternative Growth Strategies to Consider

Before jumping into ads, consider these proven organic growth methods:

• Collaborative Teaching — Partner with complementary community leaders to teach in each other’s groups. When you’re invited as a guest expert, members automatically have a higher level of trust in you as a professional and individual. While guest expert sessions won’t grow your group as quickly as ads, they’ll likely attract members that are much more aligned with your ideal client.
• Strategic Challenges — Host engaging challenges that align with your community’s purpose. Free and paid challenges are a great way to draw in new members who are interested in your group’s focus.
• Cross-Platform Promotion — Share your community on other platforms where your ideal members spend time. This can be as simple as promoting your community on all of your social media channels, in your newsletter, and on your website.
• Member Referrals — Encourage and incentivize existing members to invite others who would benefit from the community. “Bring a friend”-style promotions can increase excitement in your group while bringing in more people likely to fall within your target market.
• Platform-Specific Events — Host special events or workshops that provide unique value to your community. For example, The Secret to Thriving Online Communities has free training workshops every Monday. Promoting these sessions on all social media platforms and throughout members’ wider networks is another way of attracting the kind of people who are most likely to be interested in the group.

The Bottom Line

Ads can be an effective tool for growing your online community, but they’re not always the best first choice. Success depends on having strong foundations in place and being prepared for the challenges that come with rapid growth.

Before investing in ads, ensure you have the systems, support, and strategy to convert new members into engaged participants.Sustainable community growth often comes from building genuine connections and providing consistent value, whether you choose to use ads or not.

The most successful communities focus first on creating an environment where people want to participate and contribute. With that foundation in place, any growth strategy – paid or organic – has a better chance of success.

Facebook Groups vs. Pages: What’s the Difference?

Apr 26, 2023 | Facebook, Online Communities

Do you know the difference between Facebook groups and pages?

If not, you are not alone. It’s the most frequent question we get inside The Secret to Thriving Online Communities, our private Facebook group.

And though the answer can be found fairly easily by searching through Meta helpdesk articles, it’s really a question within a question:

1. The surface question asks to understand the difference between these two key Facebook properties.
2. The deeper question is which properties make sense for you given your stage of business and the goals you want to achieve.

To further confuse the situation, Facebook recently launched professional mode, which gives personal profiles some benefits historically only available to pages and makes it even more confusing to figure out what is what on the world’s largest social network.

In this article, you’ll discover the key differences between Facebook groups and pages, so you can make an informed decision about which is best for your needs. Then you’ll be able to leverage one or both effectively for business success.

If you want support in figuring out the best way to build an online community to support your business, we are here to help! You can join our free Facebook group to meet other new and established community owners and managers, or fill out the form below to talk with a member of our team.

What is a Facebook Profile? Understanding the Basics

Facebook is still the world’s largest social network, even through waves of individuals and businesses looking for FB alternatives over the years. Launched from a college dorm room in 2004, it first became available to everyone with a valid email address in 2006. 

Facebook’s early goal was simple: Connect friends, past and present, through status updates displayed on a centralized wall. Since then, we’ve seen the debut and retirement of countless features.

Profiles are where it all began. Pages and Groups (as we know them) launched in 2010.

How Do I Identify My Profile vs. Page or Group?

Your profile is your initial entry into Facebook. This is what you set up when you first join the network. If you’re abiding by Meta’s terms and conditions for Facebook, you have set up your profile using your real name (or the variation you use in daily life) and accurate information about yourself (age, location, etc.).

You are only allowed to have one account, and you’re supposed to use it for personal purposes. This is why you might hear someone refer to a Facebook profile as a “personal profile” because it’s designed to be your personal property on Facebook.

Whenever you log into the Facebook app via web or mobile device, you will enter through your profile login and password. The first screen you see will be your News Feed or timeline. If you have a traditional profile, you will connect with people you know through friend requests.

In recent years, Facebook has allowed people to follow accounts to see public posts without being connected as friends. When you look at your profile, you might see a mix of friends and followers next to your profile image under the cover image. Most people who use Facebook have a curated summary of their lives on their profiles: work history, educational background, photos, videos, interests, and shared content from other accounts.

As a personal property, profile access should be limited to one individual. It’s a violation of Facebook policy to share your login information with others or to knowingly allow others to use your profile on your behalf.

What is a Facebook Page?

A page is your business’ Facebook property. A Facebook page enables organizations and individuals to promote themselves online. Pages have many of the same options available as profiles. They also allow you to create an official fan base for your business or organization. You can interact with fans, post updates, and send out invitations to like your page.

Creating a page also gives you access to Meta Business Suite. This is a tool for analytical data, post scheduling, and advertising. Pages can be managed by teams, and employees or consultants can be given varying levels of access to page management. Pages also have access to auto-responder tools in Messenger to facilitate lead generation and customer service.

What is a Facebook Group?

A Facebook group is a space for people with shared interests to connect and communicate.

Groups are typically designed to serve a specific purpose and audience. The Instant Pot Recipes Only community exists to share tried-and-true pressure cooker recipes. The Working Homeschool Mom Club supports and encourages homeschooling moms who work either inside or outside the home. The ConvertKit Family offers a place to ask questions and get help with the popular email marketing service.

Groups can be large or small, public or private. Group members interact and share content with each other in a container separate from their News Feeds and profiles. Depending on your settings, you’ll automatically receive notifications when new posts or comments to posts are added to the groups you are in.

Key Differences Between Groups and Pages

Each property on Facebook was designed for a specific purpose. Key differences between groups and pages are expectations of privacy, functionality, and connection. Knowing these differences will help you decide which to create for your business and how to manage them well.

Difference #1: Expectation of Privacy

The biggest difference between these Facebook properties is the level of privacy you can expect. 

Group

Groups are designed to be communities of like-minded individuals. Depending on your goals for your community, you can make the group public or private.

If a group is public:

• Anyone, on or off Facebook, can see what members post, comment, and share in the group
• Any Facebook user can see the group’s list of members
• Any Facebook user can see the group’s admins and moderators

If a group is private:

• Only current group members can see what members post, comment, and share in the group
• Only current members can see the group’s list of members
• Any Facebook user can see the group’s admins and moderators

When members invite friends to join a private group, the invited individual will see the group in preview mode for 30 days or until their invitation is accepted or rejected.

As a group owner, you can choose to either block pages from joining your group or allow them in. Be aware that a page can have several admins. If you allow pages in your group, any admin can act as the page to see group content, post content, or interact with posts and members of the group. 

You can also set the group to be visible or hidden. A group’s visibility determines who sees it on Facebook.

Anyone can find visible groups in search or other places on Facebook. Hidden groups can only be found by current, invited, and former members. Public groups are always visible; hiding them isn’t an option. Only private groups can be hidden from non-members.

Business Page

Facebook pages are set up for maximum visibility. Your page can often be found via online searches, even by those who don’t have a Facebook account.

However, pages do have privacy settings that can be adjusted according to your preferences and goals. Page admins can:

• Restrict who can see and like your page based on their age and location
• Control whether visitors can post on your page or comment on your posts
• Set up filters to block certain  words or profanity
• Manage what happens when others tag your page in their posts
• Hide or delete comments 
• Limit who can comment on your posts
• Block/ban individual users from your page

Difference #2: Functionality

Another key difference between groups and pages is how they are designed to function for those who own them and those who encounter them.

How Groups Function

Groups are designed to function like communities on Facebook. They allow members to interact with each other, the group’s leaders, and the content shared in the group.

Depending on the purpose of the group, you can organize content in sections labeled Guides and Files, allow for video and Reels, as well as host events exclusive to group members. Other functions that are possible in groups include:

• Buy/sell transactions
• Q&A
• Group experts
• Community chats
• Polls
• Anonymous posting

The only limitations to group size is that set by group leaders. However, when your group gets beyond a certain number of members, you can’t make changes to key structural elements.

How Pages Function

A page functions a bit like a billboard in that its main function is to provide a place for customers to visit. Created as a business’ Facebook storefront, pages are set up to promote sales. You can host events for your customers and prospective customers, and offer deals or discounts. There is no limit to the number of followers a page can have.

Pages get access to Meta Business Suite. Within Business Suite, pages can plan and schedule content, manage their Messenger inbox, and run ads. Business Suite also offers analytical data to support tracking, measuring, and evaluating key performance indicators (KPIs) on the page, its content, and its audience. 

Difference #3: Connection

Throughout Facebook’s evolution, one thing hasn’t changed: The social network has always focused on connecting people. Groups and pages both allow for connection, but connection doesn’t look the same on each property.

What Connection Looks Like in a Facebook Group

Groups are the Facebook property most set up to facilitate connection. Part of what drives connection in groups is that they are a smaller segment of Facebook. They make the large world of Facebook a little smaller and more focused.

The average Facebook user actively participates in five groups each day, and they consider the people in those groups to be closer friends than the people they know in real life. That’s the power of connection provided by groups.

What Connection Looks Like on a Facebook Page

Pages, on the other hand, are set up for visitors to make the first move in connection. You can’t send messages through Messenger to just any user. They have to make the first move by either sending you a direct message or commenting on one of your posts. When it comes to growing your followers, you can invite your Facebook friends to like your page or send follow requests to people who have already interacted with your page. 

It’s a bit easier for pages to connect with other pages, thanks to the addition of a page-specific News Feed in the New Pages Experience.

Which Gets the Best Reach and Engagement?

Comparing reach and engagement between pages and groups on Facebook doesn’t make sense. Because pages are public, anyone can what they post — followers and non-followers. Page posts can also be easily shared throughout Facebook. Groups, on the other hand, are more private. Even in a public group, you have to join it to be regularly exposed to content posted there. Most groups, though, are private and that means nothing posted in the group can be shared outside the group.

For these reasons, reach will always be higher for pages than groups. 

Engagement rates, though, are much higher in groups than in pages. We usually see pages have engagement rates around 2% to 4%. Active groups will have engagement rates around 20% or higher. But this doesn’t mean pages are better than groups. It means they are different.  

Groups have higher engagement than pages for the following reasons:

• Most groups have fewer members than pages have followers. The bigger the audience, the lower the average engagement rate.
• Being in a group requires a higher level of commitment than following a page. The act of following a page is passive. Joining a group requires a few extra steps, which usually means members have a higher level of interest in the group.
• Group content is interest-specific. Because groups are usually created to meet a specific need, the content is targeted to the interests of members. Page content is often more general.
• Group members see content based on their notification settings (user-driven). Page followers see content based on Facebook’s algorithm (AI-driven). 

If you don’t have a group or want to see what’s truly possible when it comes to amplifying the reach of your page content, you can run ads from your page. Posting ads or even boosting posts will increase both your reach and engagement over a page’s organic performance.  Ads take time, though. If advertising is something you want to try, keep your budget small (up to $5 per day) and test it for six months before judging its effectiveness.

Facebook Page vs. Group: Which is Best for You?

Pages and groups serve different purposes on Facebook. A page is like the front porch of your house. Anyone who drives by your house can see your porch. If your porch looks inviting, or if they are driving down your street specifically in search of your home, some people will stop and walk up to your porch.

Of the people who walk up to your porch, some — like the Amazon delivery driver — stay just long enough to drop something off for you to pick up later. Others ring your doorbell or knock on your door in hopes of catching you at home. When you open the door, you might have a brief conversation before sending the individual on their way. Or you might chat with them for several minutes on the porch.

A few, though, get invited in.

If a Facebook page is your front porch, a Facebook group is your living room. A group is made up of the select few who aren’t left to just hang out on the porch. These are the people who want a deeper relationship with you, and you want a deeper relationship with them.

You don’t mind if they see a brown half-eaten apple on the coffee table or have to move the laundry pile to sit on your couch.

Group content is often customized to the members and their desired outcomes, whereas page content is more general in nature. You tend to have a closer relationship with people in your groups, and they have stronger relationships with each other compared to page followers.

Choosing the best one for your and your business comes down to goals. You might choose one over the other. You also might decide you need both to fully serve potential clients at every stage of the awareness journey: from awareness and consideration, to purchase, retention and advocacy.

Goal #1: Getting Clients

Pages and groups can both help you get clients on Facebook.

Promotional posts with “buy now” calls-to-action can work on pages, though they don’t seem to get seen as much as other posts. One way around that is to leave links out of your captions. Instead, ask people to comment with a codeword if they want more information. From there, you can follow up in response to the comments or by sending a direct message. 

Making money from your group requires time and intention. You want growth strategies that attract the right members, an onboarding process that diagnoses what stage of the buyer’s journey they are in, and systems for education and sales so they can make informed purchasing decisions when the time is right.

Groups can help get you clients because they provide a central location for past, present and potential future clients to gather. Being part of your closer network exposes them to what it means to be in your ecosystem, which warms them up to working with you even without direct pitches.

Goal #2 Connecting with Ideal Clients

Connecting with ideal clients on a business page requires enough familiarity to understand how their needs intersect with your offers. Posting polls, market research questions and broadcasting video livestreams are all tactics that help identify how many ideal clients are following you. If your page content resonates, followers will share your posts and extend your reach to their networks as well.

There are two types of groups that business owners can create to connect with ideal clients: prospecting groups and customer/client support groups. A prospecting group is usually free and welcomes anyone who is looking for solutions you provide with your products or services. For example:

• Clutter Free Academy welcomes members who want to tackle the clutter in their lives.
• The Working Homeschool Mom Club supports moms who don’t want to choose between working and homeschooling.
• Like the name implies, Boss Moms supports entrepreneurs who are raising children.
• Hysterectomy Support and Shared Experiences is for women who are considering, recovering from or experiencing challenges related to this specific type of surgical procedure.
• Blogs by Jarvis is a group for anyone interested in AI tools.

Customer/client support groups are for paying customers. Some businesses, like those listed above, have separate communities that provide a higher level of service for paying customers and clients. Other businesses only host communities for paying customers. Examples of these businesses include:

• The Style by Color Closet Outfit Planner community – Style by Color has communities for each of its products. The Closet Outfit Planner is their signature style program. Other products include digital color connections, color academies, image consultant certifications, and a VIP membership.
• Liz Wilcox’s Email Marketing Membership – Only for current members of Liz’s email marketing membership.
• Team EBG’s Party Pad with Lizzy and Emma – Open to anyone who has bought anything from Elizabeth Goddard.

Some companies host both types of groups, while others only have one option available. In either case, you are gathering people together who you know want what you have to offer. The perception of privacy in groups leads to stronger connections and conversations that go deeper.

Goal #3 Connecting With Business Associates and Collaborators

If you’re using Facebook to grow your business, you’ll want to use your business page to connect with associates and collaborators. You can post authority-building content on your page, but the real connection happens when you engage with the content other businesses post on their pages. By being a good follower, you can elevate your relationship with other professionals. Today, you might be commenting back and forth on each other’s posts, and tomorrow you might successfully make a DM slide that doesn’t come across as creepy or predatory.

If your business has an affiliate program, you might want to create a Facebook group for your promoting partners. The features available within groups make it easy to share promotional assets, timelines, and incentives. You can also use the group to facilitate relationships among your promoting partners, and as a forum for them to share how they are sharing your products and services within their networks.

When a business associate or collaborator becomes a true friend, send a friend request. Establishing friendship through Facebook is also smart when you know you’ll want a seamless way to send private messages back and forth.

How to Effectively Manage Multiple Facebook Properties

There are only 24 hours in each day. After you account for eating and sleeping, you don’t have a lot left over for work. You have to be wise about how you spend your social media time. Every property you have on Facebook has to earn its keep by having a specific function within your business model. If you don’t know why you have a page or a group, it’s time to reconsider whether you need them.

So before you think about how to manage a page and group together, first decide whether it makes sense to have both Facebook properties or if one is sufficient.

Quality beats quantity when it comes to content, but consistency is important. Aim to post three to five quality posts on your page each week designed to attract your ideal client. In your group, where members can keep conversations going with or without your input, aim to post two to three times per week.

Content that performs best usually includes a mix of conversation-starters, educational resources, tips, trends, relationship-builders, and offers. If you’re looking to drive engagement in your group, certain types of posts can help you achieve that goal while staying true to your group’s purpose.

Moving Forward with Facebook Groups and Pages

The right time or case to use a Facebook page or group depends on who you’re trying to reach and what you’re trying to accomplish.

Pages are designed to build awareness of your business and attract clients. Getting sales directly from a page isn’t impossible but takes a focused strategy. Groups gather together people from all corners of Facebook who share interests. You can use groups to build deeper connections with members or to sell specific products. Again, you’ll want a focused strategy that guides your members through the customer journey according to their needs.

Go For It

Understanding the difference between Facebook groups and pages is a matter of knowing the intent behind each property and how it applies to your social media goals.

From there, you can create a strategic plan for how you’ll use each to achieve the business results you desire. Put together the right pieces in the right format based on your target market, industry, and products or services. Test and evaluate, making adjustments as needed after three to six months.

Getting started can be the hardest part. Take the first step for free by either contacting us for more information or joining our free group on Facebook.

Leaving Facebook Groups and Taking Your Community With You: Where to Head Next in 2025

My Best DM Slide: What I Learned When I Sent 700 Private Messages

Apr 19, 2023 | Facebook, Online Communities

As a community leader, I’m way too familiar with the DM slide on social media. And yet, sending private messages is the social media equivalent of email. The tactic opens a direct two-way line of communication between you and the other person.

And though it’s creepy to get the unsolicited “you have such a beautiful smile” DM from a rando, there’s a business case for using direct messages to connect with members of your online community. Let’s be clear though: I’m not talking about copy/paste cold pitches that sound like they were written with Google Translate.

I am talking about sliding into the DMs of people who are in your Facebook group to strengthen your online bond and get valuable insight straight from the source.

If you’re leading a Facebook group, you’re probably thinking about your engagement rate. Whether you have a regular system of digging into your data, or you go by gut feel, you know when your group is thriving and when it’s not. 

Almost every group I lead or manage has seasonal drops in engagement. But if a lull in activity goes a little too long, I’m quick to act.

Back in 2022, I sent more than 700 direct messages to members of The Secret to Thriving Online Communities, my private community on Facebook. As an engagement strategy, sending private messages might not change the metrics in your Facebook groups, but it will help you develop lasting relationships with your members.

In this article, you will discover:

• What made me send out over 700 private message – 727 DM slides, to be exact
• What I learned about my group in the process
• How I sent out 727 DMs WITHOUT landing in Facebook jail
• How these private messages affected engagement in the group
• What you should consider before trying this tactic yourself

Why I Sent Out 700+ Direct Messages

I am known for high-touch community management. When my group got a little sleepy in the past, I would write check-in posts, tagging individual members daily for about a week.

Though effective, this tactic definitely suffers from the law of diminishing returns. It’s fun for the group up to a point, and then it’s annoying. And the line between the two is very thin. People will tune out after a few days.

Tagging 100 people per post would allow you to check in on 500 group members in about a week. It takes a lot of time to create and publish the posts, track the comments and respond accordingly. It’s not the best for group culture to have a bunch of those posts cluttering up your group feed for more than a few days.

You can strategically work around those challenges, but I think this approach is best for groups with 350 members or less.

Direct Messages as a Group Engagement Strategy

Social media is meant to be social, isn’t it? But to be truly social, there needs to be a direct two-way line of communication going between people.

What I love about online communities is they provide a place for members to connect with the leaders, the leaders to connect with the members, and the members to connect with each other. Unfortunately, when the community is on Facebook, everyone is at the mercy of notifications and algorithms. 

When engagement drops in groups I manage, I usually find it’s because members are seeing fewer notifications from the group. Sending private messages through Messenger can connect you with members who aren’t seeing group notifications.

If you’re not friends with your group members, your messages may go into their Message Requests folder. Still, the benefits of connecting with your members at the individual level makes this a worthwhile strategy.

Benefits of Sending Direct Messages to Group Members

One benefit of sending direct messages to your group members is the opportunity it gives them to ask you questions privately. In return, you can ask clarifying questions and seek out feedback on their experience in your group without the conversation taking place in front of other members.

There are no secrets on Facebook. What happens in one area is connected to other areas as well.

Molly Mahoney of The Prepared Performer calls this the social triangle. Though profiles, pages and groups are different properties on Facebook, we have noticed that people who are your Facebook friends and page followers will see more content in your group than members who aren’t connected with you outside of the group.

By having a human-to-human direct conversation with members, you help Facebook’s artificial intelligence software learn that you care about them and what they post. When they respond, Facebook’s AI registers them as actually caring about you and your content as well.

How I Sent Out 727 Direct Messages Without Landing in Facebook Jail

We all know that Facebook’s AI can be sensitive, maybe too sensitive. Anti-spam safeguards can flag anyone who sends too many messages, duplicates messages to too many people, or sends messages too quickly.

Though nobody knows the magic number of DMs we can send before landing in Facebook jail, we do know that sticking within the norms of our individual messaging rhythm and routine is usually safe.

When I started this outreach campaign, I only sent about 35 messages a day. I spaced the messages out by two to three minutes and took a break for a few hours after 10 to 15 messages were sent. I slowly increased the number of messages I sent every few days until I was sending 60 a day. GroupTrack CRM, which works with both Facebook and Instagram, made it easy for me to automate the pacing of my messages.

Depending on your Messenger habits, you might be able to send more or you might have to send fewer. I have a friend who sends at least 100 DMs a day. Other friends of mine have landed in Facebook jail after sending 20 messages. Your mileage will vary.

How These DMs Affected Group Engagement

Sending direct messages didn’t have an immediate impact on the group’s engagement rate. We saw a few spikes on days when members visited the group to check out resources I recommended during our Messenger conversations. 

I had more than 350 individual conversations with members over three weeks, which gave me a long list of topics to address in our live workshops and resources to create. Changes made to the group as a result of these conversations increased our average engagement rate by 10%. 

What the DMs Taught Me About Our Group

One-to-one conversations are great for market research and to understand the general sentiment of your group. This exercise revealed the following information about my community:

• 11% of the members are volunteers or former volunteers of MOPS International, a nonprofit organization devoted to supporting moms of young children. I volunteered for MOPS from 2014 to 2019, and these women were founding members of my group who led groups of their own.
• 10% of the members who responded to my messages had put their communities on hold to focus on others priorities. 5% of respondents were no longer interested in online communities.
• Several lurkers — members who had never posted in the group — were experiencing amazing results in their own groups by applying what they learned in our community.
• 3% of the people I spoke to didn’t know I had products or services to sell.
• 2% were actively searching for the support our team provides. I sold two strategic planning sessions in the DMs ($4,000 USD) and booked six discovery calls. Of those six calls, three became clients within that month. Total revenue from the DMs: $9,000 USD.
• A handful had no idea they were in the group, what they group was about and couldn’t remember why they even joined.

Taking Action on Lessons Learned by My Best DM Slide

The idea that people were in my group and didn’t know I offer consulting services for community strategy and management blew my mind. I felt like I talked about my services and our community management agency all the time. But it obviously wasn’t enough.

This realization led me to reorganize my group and create a Start Here area that introduces our team and details the suite of services we offer. I also used Guides to organize content into the following categories:

• Structure and Sustainability — Best practices in community design, structure and management
• Content and Connection — What to post so your group is engaged and experiencing success
• Visibility and Growth — Lead generation and marketing strategies
• Converting Members to Buyers — How to make sales without feeling sleazy

Doing this made it easier for me to connect members with the best resources to meet their immediate needs. It’s also made the educational content and live workshops in our group more focused.

What You Should Consider Before Making Your Own DM Slide

Though you can do just about anything off the cuff, an outreach strategy using direct messages requires planning and the ability to track your conversations. The last thing you want to do is accidentally message someone multiple times.

Also, since you will be messaging people you know and don’t know, you have to be aware of what behaviors could land you in Facebook jail so you can avoid it. For example, copying and pasting the same message over and over sets off spam alerts. It’s the most common reason people get their access to Facebook restricted.

Using a Facebook-specific customer relationship manager (CRM), I created 178 variations of the initial outreach message to send. Those who responded heard from me in real time after that. Some messages I sent while sitting at my desk, others while running errands or multitasking on my phone.

You’ll eventually hit a messaging bottleneck. After sending out several messages for a number of consecutive days, responses will come in waves. You might get five responses in one day and then 30 three days later. GroupTrack CRM helped me to stay on top of the conversations, so I didn’t ghost anyone.

Ready to Connect with Your Community? Let Us Help!

Team Kubo specializes in online community design, development and growth. Whether you need help with strategy, training your admin team or day-to-day management of your group, we can help. Email info@tonyakubo.com for details.

How to Monetize Your Facebook Group: 6 Ideas to Make You Money

Feb 22, 2023 | Facebook, Online Communities

It’s hard to talk about online communities without discussing strategies to monetize your Facebook group. Many community leaders start off with a Facebook group because it’s a free community platform that is easy to figure out. But before long, everyone realizes running a thriving online community takes time. Before long, you’ll start to wonder what you can do to offset your expenses.

If you started your Facebook group for business purposes, you might already have some ideas on how you want to make money there. But non-business groups can make money, too.

In this article, I’m sharing six effective ways to monetize your Facebook group. From sponsored posts to digital product sales, you’ll learn how to make the most of your group and start generating revenue.

Monetization ideas for your Facebook Group:

1. Sponsored Posts and Product Reviews
2. Affiliate Marketing
3. Group Membership Fees
4. Digital Product Sales
5. Services
6. Merchandise

Idea #1: Sponsored Posts and Product Reviews

Sponsored posts and product reviews are one of the most popular ways to monetize a Facebook group. They are forms of paid advertising where a business or brand pays a content creator to promote their products or services.

In the case of Facebook groups, the content creator is typically the group owner or manager. A sponsored post is a post that explicitly mentions the sponsor and promotes their products or services. This can be in the form of a text post, image, or video.

On the other hand, a product review is a detailed evaluation of a sponsor’s product or service by the content creator. This can include the features, benefits, and drawbacks of the product or service.

In both cases, the sponsor pays the content creator a fee for the promotion, which can be a fixed amount or a commission on sales made through the promotion. Sponsored posts and product reviews can be a lucrative way to monetize a Facebook group and can benefit both the sponsor and the group’s members by providing valuable and relevant content.

To make the most of this monetization idea, it is important to be transparent about your sponsorships and only promote products or services that are relevant and valuable to your group’s members.

With effective sponsored posts and product reviews, you can build a profitable and engaging community that benefits both you and your audience.

Where to Find Sponsors and Products to Review

There are several ways to find sponsors or products to review for your Facebook group. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Reach out to brands or businesses you already know and love, or that your group members know and love. If you know your group members well, you should have a good idea of what will appeal to them. You can contact the company via email or social media to pitch your sponsored post or product review idea.
2. Ask your members! Find out what products or services your members are curious about and send a pitch to those companies.
3. Attend industry events or conferences related to your group’s niche to meet and network with potential sponsors or product partners.

Remember to choose sponsors or products that align with your group’s values and interests and provide value to your audience. This will ensure that your sponsored posts and product reviews are well-received and beneficial to both you and your group’s members. 

Though sponsors tend to favor large groups for sponsored posts and product reviews, don’t underestimate the power of a highly engaged group with a defined focus. Most advertisers understand exposure to 500 ideal clients in a highly engaged group is going to yield better results than a group of 50,000 with very little activity.

How to Charge for Sponsored Posts or Product Reviews

The amount you should charge for a sponsored post or product review in your Facebook group can vary depending on several factors, including the size of your group, the engagement rate of your audience, the niche you’re in, and the type of content you’re creating.

The group owners I know and work with usually offer packages for sponsored posts or product reviews according to the factors mentioned above. Two posts and a video usually run $300 to $500, and the package rates climb if they include mentions on high-traffic websites or podcasts. For product reviews, you may want to consider charging a higher fee since it involves more time and effort to create detailed evaluations of the product or service.

Some sponsors won’t pay for reviews but will give you an affiliate link that allows you to make a commission on sales that come through your promotion (also known as affiliate marketing). I’ve seen commission ranges between 2% for high-end sewing machines to 50% on software services.

Ultimately, the amount you should charge for a sponsored post or product review should be fair and reasonable based on the value you’re providing to the sponsor and your audience. It’s also a good idea to do some research and see what others in your niche are charging for similar content in similar-size groups to get an idea of the going rates.

Idea #2: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another effective way to make money with Facebook groups. It involves promoting products or services related to your group’s niche and earning a commission on sales made through your referral links.

Affiliate marketing is considered a performance-based marketing strategy because you only get paid when someone makes a purchase. This strategy is appealing because it doesn’t require you to create your own products or services to make money. It also lends itself well to groups that aren’t specifically focused on business because everyone loves recommendations from people they trust. And your group members know you well enough to trust you.

To get started with affiliate marketing, you can join affiliate networks such as Amazon Associates, which offers a wide range of products and services to promote. You can also approach individual brands or businesses and ask if they have an affiliate program you can join.

To be successful with affiliate marketing, it’s important to choose products or services that are relevant and valuable to your group’s members, and to promote them in a way that is genuine and not overly salesy. Nothing drops the value of a Facebook Group faster than overwhelming the feed with affiliate promo posts.

Using Affiliate Marketing to Make Money with a Facebook Group

In The Secret to Thriving Online Communities, my free Facebook group, I have a subtle resources page with a variety of affiliate and non-affiliate links for products and services I know and love that are relevant to my community members. For example, we have affiliate links to:

• StreamYard for livestreaming
• ConvertKit for email marketing
• Metricool for email scheduling
• Canva for easy graphic design
• GroupTrack CRM for managing contacts via Facebook and Instagram
• Viral Content Club for Canva templates
• MemberVault to host online courses
• Attract & Activate, my favorite SEO course

We also have non-affiliate links to other social media schedulers and software tools. It adds value to the group by providing members with a centralized location for my recommendations and offers an additional revenue stream for my business. With the right approach, affiliate marketing can be a lucrative and passive way to generate income from your Facebook group.

The key to successful affiliate marketing is to choose products or services that are relevant and valuable to your audience and to promote them in an authentic and genuine way. You should also be transparent about your use of affiliate links and always disclose that you may earn a commission from any resulting sales. With effective affiliate marketing, you can earn passive income from your Facebook group while providing value to your audience.

Idea #3: Group Membership Fees

Another way to monetize a Facebook group is by offering a membership fee for exclusive content, resources, or perks. This idea is different from using Facebook as the exclusive home of a membership program or the community component of a membership program.

With this monetization idea, you offer a premium experience to your group members that goes beyond the free content and discussions that are available to everyone. The membership fee can be a one-time payment or a recurring subscription, and it can provide access to content such as premium articles, videos, or webinars, as well as personalized support or discounts on related products or services.

The idea here is that everyone can join the group for free but those who pay the fee get access to content free members do not. For instance, the Women Helping Women Entrepreneurs Facebook Group is a free community with 661,000 members. For $97 per month, though, members can get featured and promoted in the group as part of the Stand Out Online upgrade.

This is a great idea if you’ve been considering a paid Facebook Group but don’t want to manage multiple groups. Instead of leading a free group AND a paid group, you have one group with two or more tiers of benefits. You’ll have the added investment of creating the premium content but you won’t have the additional overhead of managing a second community or hiring help to manage the community for you.

To make the most of this monetization idea, it’s important to provide real value to your paying members and to promote the benefits of the membership fee in your group. You need a clear line between what is free and what comes with the fee, and there should be a big enough gap between the two to justify the added investment.

You can also use this opportunity to build a more engaged and dedicated community within your Facebook group. Membership fees can be a reliable and recurring source of income for your Facebook group while providing additional benefits to your most dedicated followers.

Idea #4: Digital Product Sales

If you want to make a business out of your community, digital products are another popular way to monetize a Facebook group. These can include ebooks, self-study courses, webinars, templates, or any other digital product that is related to your group’s niche or interests.

The advantage of digital products is that they can be created once and sold repeatedly, making them a scalable and semi-passive source of income. This monetization strategy requires some technical skill to deliver. Though you can promote the product(s) in your group, you’ll need a sales page on your website and automation for delivery to make the process as seamless as possible for you and your consumers.

Examples of groups that promote digital products include Team EBG’s Party Pad with Lizzy and Emma, Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy, and the Working Homeschool Mom Club with Jen Mackinnon. 

In Team EBG, Lizzy Goddard promotes all of her self-study courses and resource bundles, among other things. In Clutter Free Academy, Kathi promotes all of her decluttering books and ecourses. In the Working Homeschool Mom Club, Jen promotes her printables, planners and ecourses.

How to Promote Digital Products in Your Group

If you already have digital products for sale, why not promote them in your Facebook Group? This is an effective way to make money in the group without too much effort on your part. Here are some steps you can follow to promote and sell digital products in your Facebook group:

• Choose the right product — Make sure the digital product you are promoting is relevant to the purpose of your group and valuable and helpful to your members.
• Create a sales page — You need a point of sale beyond the posts in your group. Create a landing page on your website that promotes your product, provides all the relevant information, features, and benefits AND has a BUY button so people can make the purchase.
• Create a promotional plan — Too much promo in a group wears members down quickly. Develop a promotional plan for your group to space out product promotions between periods of value-focused content. Use a calendar to ensure you’re selling often enough throughout the year to meet your goals while still having space to nurture members through non-sales content as well. 

By following these steps, you can effectively promote and sell your digital products in your Facebook group, which can help you monetize your group and provide value to your audience.

To make the most of this monetization idea, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of only promoting digital products that are relevant to the purpose and needs of your group. With effective digital product sales, you can turn your Facebook group into a profitable and sustainable business that provides value to your audience.

Idea #5: Services

Promoting your services in your Facebook group can be a lucrative way to monetize your group while providing value to your audience. Services can include coaching, consulting, or freelancing. The advantage of promoting services is that you can leverage your expertise and knowledge to help your group members achieve their goals or overcome their challenges.

For most business owners, services are their highest-price offer, which is why I consider this to be the most lucrative option when it comes to monetizing your group.

To promote your services in your Facebook group, you can share your expertise and insights through valuable and relevant content, such as articles, videos, or webinars. You can also offer limited-time discounts or promotions to your group members to encourage them to work with you. It’s important to be transparent and clear about your pricing and availability and to provide excellent customer service and follow-up to ensure the satisfaction of your clients. With effective promotion and delivery of your services, you can turn your Facebook group into a profitable and rewarding business that helps you build a loyal and engaged community.

Promoting Your Services Without Being ‘Salesy’ or Weird

Promoting your services in your Facebook group can be a delicate balancing act between providing value to your audience and not coming across as what my friend Molly Mahoney calls a “salesy weirdo”. Here are some tips to promote your services in your Facebook group without being pushy or annoying:

• Provide value — Focus on providing value and building trust with your group members by sharing useful and relevant content, such as articles, videos, or webinars that are related to your niche or area of expertise. This can help position you as an authority and someone who genuinely wants to help others. In The Secret to Thriving Online Communities, for instance, I host weekly live workshops but I usually only make offers during those workshops once a month.
• Be authentic — Be yourself and show your personality and passion for what you do. This can help you connect with your audience on a deeper level and build relationships that can lead to future business. GroupTrack CRM co-founder Jenna Larson hosts a weekly product tutorial in their free group each week and usually promotes services monthly to help members get more from their product.
• Tell stories — Use storytelling to convey the benefits of your services and how you’ve helped others achieve their goals or overcome their challenges. The best sales come from case studies, where you take the time to help people understand the practical application of the services you provide.
• Provide social proof — Share testimonials or case studies from satisfied clients to provide social proof and demonstrate the value of your services. Do this regularly, not just when you’re trying to sell.
• Avoid being pushy — Avoid constantly promoting your services or asking for business in your group. Instead, focus on building relationships and providing value 80% of the time. Don’t sell more than 20% of the time.

By following these tips, you can effectively promote your services in your Facebook group without coming across as salesy or weird, while making your group a profitable and rewarding business.

Idea #6: Merchandise

If you have a group with a strong culture or sense of community identity, selling merchandise might be a fun way to monetize your Facebook group.

Selling merchandise can be a lucrative way to monetize your group as it allows you to leverage your brand and community to promote your products. Though some group leaders like to send free swag, you’d be surprised by how many members would pay for t-shirts, mugs, or stickers that identify them as a member of your community.

The best example I’ve seen of this is Jen Hatmaker’s #The4500, which wasn’t even started by Jen. #The4500 references the 4,500 applicants who were not picked by Jen’s publisher to be on the official launch team of her book, For the Love. One person took matters into her own hands and ended up being the leader of the rogue launch team and is now forever BFFs with Jen as well. Today, Jen’s branded merch includes everything from socks and shirts to journals and stickers.

Though you can create an online store on your website using a service like Shopify to sell your merchandise, companies like CustomInk and Bonfire allow you create limited-edition campaigns that drive up interest without requiring long-term maintenance or oversight.

To make the most of this monetization idea, it’s important to create high-quality products that are relevant and appealing to your group’s members. You can also use this opportunity to build a deeper connection with your community by creating products that resonate with their values and interests. With effective merchandise sales, you can turn your Facebook group into a profitable and sustainable business that showcases your brand and provides value to your audience.

Quick Summary of Facebook Group Monetization Ideas

To recap, here are six monetization ideas for your Facebook Group:

1. Sponsored Posts and Product Reviews — Businesses pay you to promote their products or services in your Facebook group.
2. Affiliate Marketing — Promote relevant products or services and earn a commission on any resulting sales made through your unique referral link.
3. Group Membership Fees — Charge a membership fee for exclusive content, resources, or perks in your Facebook group.
4. Digital Product Sales — Create and sell digital products such as ebooks, courses, webinars, or templates related to your group’s niche.
5. Services — Promote your services, such as coaching, consulting, or freelancing, to your Facebook group members.
6. Merchandise — Sell physical products such as t-shirts, mugs, or stickers that are related to your group’s niche or interests.

By using one or more of these monetization ideas, you can turn your Facebook group into a profitable and sustainable business that provides value to your audience. Monetizing your Facebook Group doesn’t have to be scary or overwhelming. The key is to choose monetization ideas that align with your group’s niche and interests and provide real value to your members while maintaining transparency and authenticity in your promotions.

Want Help with Your Group Strategy?

Team Kubo specializes in online community design, development and growth. Whether you need help with strategy, training your admin team or day-to-day management of your group, we can help. The first step is to complete our no-cost community health assessment, so we can identify your needs and customize a plan to get the results you desire.

How to Plan Engaging Content for Your Facebook Group

Feb 8, 2023 | Facebook, Online Communities

Wondering whether you’re doing your best to post engaging content for your Facebook Group? Unsure of whether anybody sees or cares to see your posts?

If you want an engaged community or Facebook Group, you have to give members something engaging to respond to — so they can have direct two-way conversations with you and with each other.

But to do that, you need a plan. Not just any plan either. You need one that meets the needs of you and your group. You deserve to feel good about what you are doing and confident you’re doing the right things at the right time.

As the owner of Team Kubo, an online community management agency, I help people design highly engaged groups and train others to do the same. It also means I plan A LOT of content for A LOT of groups. If I seem better at it than you, it’s not because they taught this stuff in college. It’s because I’ve done more of it for a lot longer than you have. With practice, comes progress.

In this article, I’m sharing what I’ve learned over the years about how to plan content for groups to drive engagement and get results.

Read on to learn:

• How to plan content for your group
• How to create content that connects with your members
• Whether you should schedule your community content
• How to tell what’s working and what’s not

How to Plan Engaging Content for Your Facebook Group

If you want to plan content in a way that’s efficient and effective, you need a foolproof system that includes the following steps:

1. Get a mechanism to collect your ideas

Ideas of what to share with your community can strike any place and any time. Figure out how to collect ideas when they come now so you don’t find yourself with a great idea and no way to remember it when it’s time to write. The easiest low-tech solution is to carry a notepad and pen in your purse or pocket to jot down ideas that come up when you’re on the go. If you’re someone who’s never too far from your phone, though, a voice memo or notes app might be more convenient.

2. Pick one method for writing your posts

Routines support consistency, so pick one method for writing your posts and stick with it. I prefer a Google Doc because it’s easy for me to use either from my computer, phone or tablet, and I like the document interface. If Google Docs don’t work for you, you can use Word Online, Dropbox Paper or a note-taking app like Evernote.

What’s important is not losing track of your best ideas.

3. Commit to a scheduling system for your content

Community engagement comes down to value. To make sure you’re delivering the value you’ve promised to your group members, I recommend planning your content schedule in a place where you can evaluate each post in the context of what else you’re publishing that week, month and over the quarter. A social media scheduler sort of does that, but doesn’t make it easy to move posts around as needed.

I prefer to sketch out my content schedule (what I’m posting and when I’m posting it) in a Google doc that makes it easy to copy and paste into the group. You might prefer using a spreadsheet or productivity application, such as Airtable, Notion, Asana or Trello. Whatever tool plays nicely with your brain and is easy for you to use consistently is the tool you should use.

4. Know what you want to say and what your community needs to hear

Once you have mechanisms in place to collect your ideas, write out your posts and plan them out, it’s time to figure out what you actually should say to your community.

To truly grow your group and get results, you need to share content that connects with your members. Even members who only visit the group a few times a month will notice if the content doesn’t align with what they expect from the community. 

If you aren’t sure what to post, here are some ideas:

• Revisit your group’s purpose and promise — everything you post should complement the reason your group exists and what you’ve promised to deliver to your members.
• Review members’ most frequently asked questions — even the simplest questions can be answered in a variety of ways, and it doesn’t hurt to reinforce your key messages.
• Examine all facets of your group focus — brainstorm the “who, what, when, where, how” questions about your topic.

How to Create Content That Connects with Your Members

Every group is different. The secret to planning engaging content for your group isn’t figuring out what works in other groups. You need to only concern yourself with the content that performs best in YOUR group.

To figure that out, experiment. In every group I lead, we are always testing content to figure out what connects and resonates with members. We test, test and test again.

If you’re not sure where to begin, start with content that lends itself to facilitating connection between strangers online:

• Polls — Polls work well to drive engagement in groups because they are easy to answer. Most polls are multiple-choice questions. It’s easy to click the response that fits best.
• Video — Even one-way livestream broadcasts feel engaging to members. If your video offers the solution to a problem members want to solve, they’ll show up for it.
• Questions that encourage connection — Meet-and-greet posts, icebreaker questions, invitations to promote offers or post needs are all examples of questions that encourage members to connect with each other.

Need additional ideas? Check out our 30 Facebook™️ Group Engagement Posts That will Increase Interaction.

Should You Schedule Your Community Content?

Scheduling content in communities or social media can be controversial. Some experts say scheduling reduces your reach, which will negatively impact engagement. Others say scheduling is the only way to ensure consistency.

For what it’s worth, I’ve never experienced negative effects of scheduling content in the communities I lead. I also haven’t seen evidence of decreased reach or engagement when scheduling to any social media platforms.

Rumors aside, scheduling content in your Facebook Group or online community has its pros and cons — like most things in business.

Arguments in favor of scheduling group content

Scheduling content allows you to ensure consistency in providing valuable content to your group. You won’t neglect your group for days, weeks or months if you’re scheduling content regularly. 

Posting on the fly, or when the mood strikes, doesn’t usually lend itself to making sure you’re covering the full scope of what your members need. Groups do best when they have content covering education, networking, entertainment, and available offers (if applicable). But when you’re posting when the mood strikes you, you’ll likely default to the one or two content types you personally prefer.

Practically speaking, the best reason to schedule your community content is so you can work ahead. If you have a few weeks of content scheduled, you can take time off or hyper-focus your attention in a different aspect of your business as needed.

Arguments against scheduling your group content

Depending on the focus of your community, you might need to pay attention to the relevance and timeliness of your content. Make sure to review scheduled posts to decide whether they are still appropriate based on current events and member priorities.

No system is perfect. Every automation fails from time to time. Scheduling content isn’t a perfect “fix it and forget it” system for ensuring the proper care and feeding of your group. You have to monitor the group regularly to make sure the posts are published according to the schedule you’ve set.

The main reason people shy away from scheduling content in groups is concern over how to manage the schedule during conflict or crisis. The only solution is to have a documented process for pausing the schedule or pulling down all scheduled posts when crisis or conflict demands it. 

How to Tell What’s Working with Your Content Plan (and What’s Not)

Group leaders and even professional community managers rely on their instincts too often to gauge whether group members are responding positively to the content they publish.

“The group seems healthy,” they’ll say. Or, “ugh…it’s all crickets. I’m just talking to myself.”

Either could be true in any group at any time but there’s only one way to know for sure: dig into your data.

I’ve long said successful online community management is equal parts art and science. This is true.

The key part of that statement is one that sometimes gets lost: EQUAL.

What do the numbers tell you?

The art or instinctive side of online community management must be informed by data. They are two sides of the same coin when it comes to giving your community what it needs to yield the results you — or your business — needs in return.

Feelings are not facts.

No matter what your feelings tell you about your group or your member engagement, you need to look at your numbers regularly. Don’t be afraid to look at your numbers, and look at them often. Monthly best.

Data is neutral. It’s neither good nor bad. And it empowers you to make evidence-based decisions.

Here are the data points I track in the groups I manage each month:

• Growth — number of members gained and lost
• Engagement rate — number of active members divided by total number of members in the group.
• Most engaged members — The members who react to posts, comment and create their own posts each month.
• Most popular posts — The posts that get the most engagement each month.

I document these data points and look for trends to emerge quarterly. Doing so helps me to see what’s working and what’s not. I also look to see if I can connect any shifts in the data to things we’re doing from the management side.

Putting Together Your Own Engaging Content Plan

A plan for engaging content in your Facebook Group or online community isn’t hard to create, now that you know the steps required. 

Whether you use a notepad and pen or phone app to collect thoughts and ideas while you’re on the go, it doesn’t matter. The best plans start with a dedicated method for getting your ideas in a single place. Having all of your ideas in a single location makes it easier to focus on what you want to say when it comes time to create your content. You can use any writing system that works for you, but don’t underestimate the powerful simplicity of a simple Google or Word document.

Once you know how you’ll get your writing and content creation done consistently, it’s a matter of figuring out what to say, the best way to say it (video, polls, etc.) and when you’ll be posting. 

From there, you’ll want to be sure to gather and evaluate your data monthly and quarterly. Then you can be confident you know what’s working and what’s not.

Need Help with Your Community?

Team Kubo specializes in online community design, development and growth. Whether you need help with strategy, training your admin team or day-to-day management of your group, we can help. The first step is to complete our no-cost community health assessment, so we can identify your needs and customize a plan to get the results you desire.