How to Use Facebook Groups to your Advantage as a Small Business Owner

[00:00:00] I don't know if creating an unhinged group would work for your business. No, I'm sorry I even brought that up y'all. That was not a suggestion for y'all. We do not endorse that.

[00:00:12] Everyone welcome to the S.O.B. Marketing podcast where we celebrate the S.O.B. that you are and if you haven't figured it out yet, we mean small un-business. We don't mean S.O.B.

[00:00:24] Listen, we know that as a small business owner you are working hard on the daily to keep your business fully operational while trying to promote it. And while some days it may feel like the business is owning you

[00:00:37] if we're being honest with each other I bet you would admit that you wouldn't give up the insanity for anything. Our commitment here at the S.O.B. Marketing podcast is to give you the real talk.

[00:00:48] What works when it comes to advertising, marketing, promoting your business and then what doesn't really work? And Chelsea and I promise to always keep the conversation real. Welcome back business friends to another episode of the S.O.B. Marketing podcast.

[00:01:03] S.O.B. is in small business not S.O.B. is in son of a biscuit. But we are here with another exciting topic before we hop into it though.

[00:01:12] I just want to give you guys a friendly reminder that if you're new around here we post a podcast episode every Thursday on a particular relevant marketing topic.

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[00:01:34] We are also on the tube, YouTube. So if you haven't checked that out, you can go to S.O.B. Marketing podcast over on YouTube. Chelsea, what are we discussing today?

[00:01:49] Okay Vivian, today we are talking about an underutilized tool that I feel like small business owners could really be taking advantage of and guys, it's free. We're talking about Facebook groups. And before you say it, Facebook is still relevant.

[00:02:07] Okay, so according to similar web which is a website that rakes all of the websites worldwide, Facebook is the third most visited website in the world. That is shocking to me. Yeah, so number one is Google. Number two is YouTube and then Facebook is third.

[00:02:30] Facebook also hit three billion with a B billion users in 2020. You guys heard it here first. So, by far, definitely still relevant. Absolutely. I don't want to hear anyone saying that Facebook is not worth your time.

[00:02:49] Look, if your target audience specifically does not use YouTube does not use Facebook then fine. I understand. But if your target audience is a little broader than that and you can't narrow down specifically a social media that they're using.

[00:03:08] Facebook is definitely still something that you should be considering. Chelsea, I'm going to teach you a little bit as an older sister. So, I don't know if you remember this conversation. I'd like to think it's like, we back in the day that you were a baby marketer.

[00:03:22] You're with something we had a very important conversation and it was recording a social media platform usage. And I remember you specifically telling me, you're like, I don't like using that platform. Like, I don't care for it, right? And what did I say to you?

[00:03:39] You probably told me I'm not my target audience. So there's I to hit home, which Chelsea just kind of relate to y'all is if they're. It's one thing you guys don't enjoy using Facebook yourself for personal reasons. Okay, maybe you don't show up on Facebook.

[00:03:59] But if you do think that it is a good match for your business because a lot of your target audience is utilizing Facebook.

[00:04:08] And maybe I would sometimes boil this down to like a age demographic, but that's not the case anymore really right now because now you're finding older adults on TikTok and all of that stuff.

[00:04:21] So I would say if you do know that your target audience is actively using it, then I encourage you that even if you don't like Facebook at least maybe look into it and think could I possibly leverage it to get.

[00:04:35] Awareness and to get people through my doors to purchase from me. Absolutely, and that goes for any social media platform. Okay, because I'll be honest, I also don't like TikTok, which I know makes me a very weird gen Z, but I just can't get into TikTok.

[00:04:52] We're still on TikTok. Yeah, well, and I just like watching Chinese babies eat on TikTok. So I'm all about the TikTok apparently Vivian found her niche, which is Chinese babies. That's not really good. Okay, very specific. I like watching the meat noodles and stuff like.

[00:05:17] I knew it was. Let's go ahead and there are different avenues to Facebook groups. So here's the thing you guys is if you're thinking.

[00:05:26] Facebook group as far as like, oh, I have to create a Facebook group. That's not necessarily what we're talking about here. Okay, so the two groups of that that we're going to be talking about specifically relating to Facebook groups is going to be creating your own group, whether that's a private or a public group.

[00:05:44] And then also interacting with other groups that have already been created before we get started. Let's just define what a Facebook group is it's literally a group.

[00:05:57] Facebook that you can interact with like-minded individuals to talk about whatever the topic the group is about. So really popular ones are free items in summerville or moms of Daniel Island.

[00:06:15] That's sort of thing. Yeah, so you guys may be using some of these personally and maybe you haven't thought to leverage this for your small business but like Chelsea said some of the more popular ones are, you know when you guys are on there trying to get rid of stuff extra stuff in your house.

[00:06:31] Yeah, and so you get on there and you're posting like by cell slash free items within a geographic area. That's a lot of the groups people will create very similarly they have groups that are specific to small businesses. Now here's the thing is there are a couple different ways to leverage Facebook groups when you're looking to join them or to be a member of them.

[00:06:57] So for example, you could easily join a industry group so that way you could get ideas and really make points of contact with people within your industry. So let's say if you are a vinyl record collector right you could join a group of other vinyl record collectors but as a business owner you can also join a group that's not related to your industry.

[00:07:24] So that way you could be maybe the first or one of the few people within that industry in that group. Yeah, I'm glad that you bring that up because I want to say I see this all the time small business owners will join small business groups and then try to promote their small business and I'm not saying that that doesn't work.

[00:07:47] It's not going to be as impactful or as useful as you joining a group where your actual target audience is. Maybe your target audience is small businesses like for Vivian and I that makes sense because we're all about helping small business owners. So it would make sense for us to share our content on a small business group.

[00:08:08] But if you're like we're saying a vinyl record store and you're promoting your records on a small business group.

[00:08:18] They might be into records and they might not be like it's just it's not a niche group where you could be making the most getting the most out of that group of people.

[00:08:30] Yeah, and let's take that example one step further. So let's say you're a vinyl record store right. That's what you do yourself vinyl records.

[00:08:39] You could leverage like you're saying a better group for you to be a part of would be maybe a group that's like rare vinyl record finds.

[00:08:50] And so what that group is geared towards is people who are looking for rare their collectors, their people they're looking for rare vinyl records and then you could contribute to that group.

[00:09:00] And so that's another very important note that I want to make is and actually I have two of them. Number one is y'all please goes without saying before you join these groups read the description because there are some people that

[00:09:19] The administrators of the group have sometimes have very strict rules about promoting businesses because they don't want it to be like a spammy type of like group. So sometimes what they'll say is like, hey, you can only promote your business on two days.

[00:09:36] Yeah, right, but you can always add value to the conversation. You just can't be on their like posting your stuff every day of the week.

[00:09:43] But the other thing is the contribution part of it. You're going to get a lot more out of stuff if you actually show up as a member. Okay, so don't just be like joining groups and then not contributing anything.

[00:09:56] Yeah, don't just join a group and then spam all of your posts on there. Definitely look at the rules make sure because you don't you don't want to get kicked out of a group because then that's also going to look kind of bad.

[00:10:09] Especially they typically will too 100% they will kick you out of a group. I want to say, I just thought of this another good group example for our record store could also be like businesses in like we'll say summerville businesses in summerville because that's specifically that geographical area.

[00:10:32] I feel like people are more likely going to join it to actually interact with the stores that are in summerville and also don't forget about creating the community. You're part of that local geographical community. You definitely want to interact with those business owners absolutely.

[00:10:50] Let's also talk about the fact that a lot of people will go on these groups and ask for recommendations.

[00:10:57] So it would be really effective for you to organic like this is a great organic way to promote yourself. You can say, oh hey, you know you're looking for someone who does this I actually do this so I can help you.

[00:11:12] And sometimes the call to actions on there or the request for information can be very specific so I know when I'm a part of like I'm a part of a Charleston women in business Facebook group.

[00:11:23] And they are really great about when they're needing somebody like a graphic designer.

[00:11:27] Oh, go on there or a printer I've seen that when some people have projects that they need to print a local hand they're like hey what local printer do you recommend and have you had experience with.

[00:11:37] And so then people can go into your enthousse recommendations well if you're a local printer that's in that group.

[00:11:43] And then obviously you toss your name in the hat, you know you can include your website in there or even like your list of services of everything that you're able to do or some people just simply comment on there and say you know like sent DM or something like that so they know to check their their direct messages.

[00:12:01] But I think the other part that it helps which I'll see is not just the I know for us so part of our business model is that we do spend a lot of time in our content marketing and what that means is we spend a lot of time trying to put together YouTube videos podcast episodes with relevant topics that small business owners are thinking about.

[00:12:27] That is a great place for us to go to in order to see what types of questions people are asking and if we can turn that into some type of marketing or content piece for us in the future and so don't just think when we talk about leveraging Facebook graves sometimes it's not a monetary value to it sometimes it's more.

[00:12:50] In what's that word intro in true, is to. Trueistic interest. It's more true, is to think that's what it is. Okay, okay, whatever I'm trying to sound fancy all I am. Okay, it's basically you can use it for other purposes and.

[00:13:09] This is a really great thing if you guys are doing Instagram reels maybe or you're just having a hard time coming up with ideas for sharing content with your audience.

[00:13:20] Go into these Facebook groups and see what types of questions people are asking that are relevant to your target audience. I love that recommendation and I'm so glad that you brought that up yet you don't have to only use Facebook groups to sell your business.

[00:13:37] You can also look at what other people are interested in and what questions they have maybe you get an idea of a new service that you could offer maybe you hear someone complain about a competitor and something that they did and you can say, you know what let me make sure that I'm not doing that too.

[00:13:56] That sounds very spanish like your style. Yes, yes, let me get the scoop. Well, you're not necessarily looking at what your competitors are doing, you're looking at your community and how they're interacting with your industry.

[00:14:13] I love this the other thing I think is you can also have it help you with some of the initiatives that you have going on.

[00:14:22] So take, for example, there's a girl here locally that hopefully Chelsea will reach out to her and have her on the podcast at some point but she's a social media marketing person.

[00:14:32] What I've seen her do is she will actually go into these Facebook groups and when she has a new business that's on board that she's creating like reels for or Facebook postboard sometimes you need models.

[00:14:45] Okay, sometimes you need all that are going to fit like the particular clothing or if it's like a jewelry store and so she actually uses it to put a call to action out there to say like hey kind of like a model model call.

[00:14:59] If you're available on this day and at this time when I'm shooting my content if you want to be a model for this particular business then yours and I email address.

[00:15:10] It cares what to send me and then that way she gets people that want to be out there doing that stuff and she's not having to be the person doing it so I think Facebook groups help for a lot of many different reasons.

[00:15:24] Yeah, that's really great and again right now we're talking about Facebook groups that have already been created that there are either public or private but you do not create them.

[00:15:34] Do you have a list of emails that you have collected for past buyers that is just sitting there getting dusty are you looking for a way to build a long term relationship with people so that your small business will stay top of mind for them.

[00:15:47] Want to increase your repeat sales for every dollar span on email marketing businesses receive an average of a forty two dollar return on their investment.

[00:15:57] And with an ROI like that, can you really afford to continue to let that email list sit there and just collect dust joining our nothing but emails monthly membership program means that you can sit back and reap the rewards of sending out monthly or buy monthly communication.

[00:16:14] While we craft the email and send it out on your behalf for less than one hundred dollars a month you can capitalize on this start today by visiting www dot the season marketer dot com slash services.

[00:16:28] Now if you want, you can create your own Facebook group and again it could be public or private. This is a great marketing initiative I do want to say that this is going to take effort.

[00:16:43] Like you're going to have to put in time and effort into a Facebook group if you want it to be effective. And Chelsea, what use an example a personal example we actually created a Facebook group for our season marketer and we haven't been on there.

[00:16:59] And then we have not been on there.

[00:17:03] As such that relationship or inspiring people to show up and comment on that so that's something that we can do better or we have to at some point make a decision and maybe say like hey let's take that off our plate and instead substitute with this.

[00:17:18] Or instead this is where we build our community which I think we will do that. But that's the thing where even as marketing people ourselves you all who have different initiatives going on.

[00:17:31] Having a Facebook group that we have to show up on on the daily in order to kind of probe people to interact with the community is a lot.

[00:17:42] Yeah, yeah so you you may the people that I have seen do this really well though Chelsea is they don't do some of the other stuff.

[00:17:52] But they focus their efforts here right so please I just want to hit home to you guys we know you are running a business prioritize your initiatives.

[00:18:02] Where do you get the most bang for your buck if a Facebook group is going to be that place that you want to dump your energy into. Maybe some of the other stuff you do you know isn't as important but you make that decision.

[00:18:15] Absolutely I just want to be very clear very. Transparent about Facebook groups if you're going to build your own community it is going to be a lot of work because here's the thing yes it's a great place to share special promotions.

[00:18:33] And to share your sales and stuff like that that can't be the only thing that your Facebook group is for because people don't want to see just another.

[00:18:45] Yeah, and you're absolutely right and the the key there is I think the Facebook groups that are truly effective are the ones that engage people.

[00:18:54] Yeah, okay that have people that will communicate on their own outside of just like maybe the administrator having a post of and so you guys just have to figure out a way to jump start that and to get that going.

[00:19:06] But there are people that have done the super successfully and then the Facebook group even though Chelsea said it's free.

[00:19:14] It is and that's beautiful but the Facebook group actually serves as a lead magnet into their products or services or into their business and so that I think is the key it's like okay what type of value is that Facebook group bringing into your business.

[00:19:34] Exactly because I don't I'm not saying don't post any of your promotions or anything like that you just need to find that sweet spot between.

[00:19:42] Building loyalty building a community and also sharing hey you know I have this special discount for you guys because you're in my Facebook group.

[00:19:51] A great use of a Facebook group I want to mention this before I forget a great use of your Facebook group could be getting feedback on new products because one. You're showing that community hey I really value your opinion. This is what I'm thinking about doing.

[00:20:10] I want to know if you think it's a good idea or not so great for building community and then pause the train did you just say idea. I don't know I'm talking really fast I already forgot what I just said.

[00:20:24] Well I'm just wondering you said idea you know has some people say idea in some people say idea well I usually say idea okay I'm talking real fast my nose is all stuff but can't breathe. I'm just going okay.

[00:20:42] What was I saying now you were talking about products and how you can run into yeah to springboard or to get feedback off of products okay yes.

[00:20:53] Okay my thought was you can ask them about new products they feel important because you're asking for their opinion okay you're also getting your customers opinion like it's a win win.

[00:21:06] Yeah and there's I've seen recently somebody do this he was he was attached to a big YouTube channel and then he went out on his own.

[00:21:16] And so he didn't have as big of a following as the YouTube channel he was attached to but he was building from scratch so from zero on up.

[00:21:24] People already recognized his name they knew he was really good at what he did and so you know people started following him what he did when his he utilized it to.

[00:21:35] Get people that were interested in his products and he didn't utilize a Facebook group but this is a way that you could utilize a Facebook group. We're just said hey on about to launch this new product or this new service.

[00:21:51] And I'm going to grandfather you guys in if you're like a founder so if you buy this time frame you're going to get a special pricing for it because I'm going to increase the price the next go around I do this.

[00:22:04] And you also get a couple other you know perks with it but it's a great way to like you said not only get the feedback that you need but it also incentivizes people to be like oh we're kind of like the first batch of people.

[00:22:18] The community they have or you have is the first group of people that get a chance to see this new thing like it's not even out there for others to join or to buy yeah.

[00:22:29] There are so many ways that you can use a Facebook group to I want to say again build a community and build in community is so important specifically for small business owners because that's going to be what sets you apart from.

[00:22:46] These big brands right like people don't want to shop with these big brands anymore because it feels so sterile.

[00:22:52] They want to have a connection with you and the small business so Facebook groups a great oh figure just thought of this a great tool you can use for Facebook groups is going live.

[00:23:06] Yeah and she'll see actually one of our friends Jordan Ilderton who has been on our podcast before does this really well so her Facebook group I'm reading it so I don't mess this up.

[00:23:18] Her Facebook group is called members of her is called savvy dfy service providers okay and what she does is I think every Tuesday she goes live at a very particular time so what this.

[00:23:34] Helps with is from when she's on schedule it works for her but also it gives her community a chance to just know what to expect on a weekday basis and every week that she shows up she covers a different topic and sometimes she invites people.

[00:23:51] To go live with her and so I think this is a great way to leverage that what we talked about those lives can really be an opportunity for you to go in there and some people I've seen some people going there and what they'll do is they'll answer questions.

[00:24:06] You know like they'll be like hey chat you know comment in the chat and I'll answer questions as we go so however you want to send it up in whatever makes sense for your community is definitely something that you'll want to look into or even just consider.

[00:24:20] And I do want to say you can absolutely go live on your Facebook page. You don't have to create a Facebook group.

[00:24:30] This Facebook group is specifically going to be more for the people who are really invested in your brand right they're going to be the brand evangelist so just keep that in mind.

[00:24:43] I'm not saying you can't or you shouldn't but I don't know if I would do like a live sale on a Facebook group I feel like that's more of a Facebook page sort of thing.

[00:24:56] So just keep that in mind like the type of lives that you're going to do in a group should be more. What's the word I'm looking for?

[00:25:06] Maybe like exclusive yes exactly like it's going to be more exclusive it's going to be more interactive than live that you're going to do on your Facebook page because you know again your Facebook group is going to be about building that really exclusive community.

[00:25:24] And because we are sisters and everyone's well, we like to argue around here. I'll go play devil's advocate. Yeah, so I'll give you another example. Lounge with us. You guys have not looked them up.

[00:25:37] Lounge with us is a Charleston based company but there are a what do you call it online store too.

[00:25:44] So you're talking about what you're talking about but she's embedded that sell the selling live into her Facebook group and so the pitch that she basically makes to people is like, hey if you want to be able to purchase.

[00:26:02] You know on a weekly basis or to see the newest things I have coming into the store then join the Facebook group because that's when I go live once a week. And that's where you can purchase some of your stuff. So I do think but then like.

[00:26:19] Cotton go ahead. Sorry, I want to ask a question does she do live sales on her Facebook page then? I don't think so. That's what it is. Yeah, I think it's just in her Facebook group.

[00:26:31] So it's kind of it's it's the group like you're saying she's trying to keep the content in the group to be very exclusive and so in order for you if you want to buy.

[00:26:41] And you join the group and that's how you get access to like all of the latest stuff that's released. Now on the other hand, our friend Melinda over at Caught and Down South who sales who sales who's and she I don't think she sales.

[00:26:58] Who see this is this is a. Karma for you calling me out for saying idea idea I just thought you were some intern contract. And that's like, oh my god, you all she said idea. So Melinda though, does it on her Facebook page?

[00:27:17] Okay, so she doesn't have a separate group for it. But I think this is a great. Like you said, whatever works best for your all business, I would sit down and think about it though like Chelsea said,

[00:27:31] Do you want to keep that Facebook group super like exclusive content? You're able to tell people like, hey, in order for you to get acts on a weekly basis or in order for you to get the Q&A session. Right then you need to join the Facebook group.

[00:27:48] Yeah, yeah, people need to have an incentive for joining your Facebook group. Like if you just make a Facebook group and it's just a place where you're going to share. I don't know your promos and stuff like that. Like that's this is not going to work.

[00:28:04] It's a little, what do you call it repetitive? Right. Okay, so if you're going to use your group just to share information about your products all the time and you're not going to use it to collect information or to build more of a relationship with people.

[00:28:22] If think of the group this way. And really you should think of your business, your Facebook business page like this but a lot of people don't. And it needs to be a two-way conversation. Yes.

[00:28:35] All right, so I mean, use your website for the, you know, because that's not a two-way conversation. Yeah, at least not yet. It's probably moving towards that right here in the future with AI and stuff.

[00:28:47] But use your use them differently than you would your website don't just build a profile. I don't think that it's going to be the same exact thing. And one of these needs to have like a very specific purpose.

[00:29:00] And so you can change what you do on your Facebook page and what you do in your Facebook group to be very different. So that it provides that added value to your target audience for that.

[00:29:12] Even though I will say, and this isn't business related but you grow all right here is known to join some unhinged pages because those are the pages that Chelsea you're talking about where people just post the most random stuff. You're like, yes, I'm here for it.

[00:29:28] So we have a county page that's like that's like Berkeley county unhinged. I'm not part of any of those but I'm not going to lie. I'm a part of a Facebook group that's literally is this a hot dog or a sandwich.

[00:29:45] What is, or maybe is that maybe it's just, is this a sandwich where it's just pictures and the person says this is a sandwich. And that's it. And they put pictures of a sandwich. Oh, and it's not always a sandwich.

[00:30:00] Sometimes it's just like a, I don't know how to explain what like a pasta, like a piece of pasta and they're like this is a sandwich or this isn't a sandwich. Like that's literally it. And like how big is this group?

[00:30:15] I guarantee these group has over, does this group have over 100,000 members and I don't know. And don't know, I don't even remember joining this thing. Yeah, there are some crazy groups out there. I don't know if creating an unhinged group would work for your fist. No, I'm sorry.

[00:30:32] I even brought that up y'all. That was not a suggestion for y'all. We do not endorse that. I was just given an example that like there's a group for everything. There is group group.

[00:30:43] Yeah, and here's the other part so that I think that brings on an important piece of the discussion Chelsea is maybe the group is an. All ways related to your business so closely. So what I mean by that is let's take the vinyl record store example.

[00:30:59] Okay, maybe if you wanted to create a Facebook group around that it wouldn't be so much like to promote your vinyl record store, but maybe it would be a source of like building a community within that vinyl record. You know,

[00:31:16] niche and that way it's not like a hey, I have to be promoting my business all the time. Like make your room once a while. I toss it out there that I also happen to own a vinyl record store.

[00:31:29] Yeah, but we just look into kind of build that community. It doesn't have to be so close. I think to the business in order for you to get value out of it. So it just depends. Yeah, that's a really great point.

[00:31:40] And I don't want to move too far away from the topic, which is Facebook groups. But I do want to say like social media marketing overall. This is what it's about, right? Like it's creating community and I want to go back before we start talking about unhinged groups.

[00:31:57] Something you had said which was you need to have very clear distinction of what you're doing between your Facebook page and your Facebook group. Take it one step further. You need to have a very clear distinction for all of your social media platforms.

[00:32:12] And we've had this discussion before on this podcast. But for example, for our social media, our TikTok is very education oriented. It's snippets of information that you can save and apply to your small business.

[00:32:30] And our Instagram is more focused on building a community and connecting with our fellow small business owners. They're two very clear distinctive, very different things, right? Very different goals. But that's very important because that changes the content that we're posting. It changes the way we interact with people.

[00:32:50] It's very important. And it gives you an opportunity to also when you, I like the idea of cross pollinating. Right? So like taking people that may be following you on TikTok and being able to say, hey,

[00:33:04] we offer something just a tad different on Instagram or the same thing with Instagram and Facebook. Hey, if you're not joined our Facebook group yet, you know, if you're on Instagram, then that's something that you can promote on Instagram, real or in Instagram story to say,

[00:33:21] hey, if you're looking for even more exclusive content. Or if you didn't know we show up live every Tuesday in our Facebook groups. If you're not there, go, you know, join now. I think the idea of cross pollination is something that I really like. That's really great.

[00:33:39] Love it. All right, well, Chelsea, I think that concludes our discussion about Facebook groups. If we miss something, if you guys are utilizing Facebook groups in a very different way than anything we suggested here,

[00:33:53] we would love to hear all about it and maybe spot like you in one of our upcoming episodes. So write us in, go ahead and send the email to help at the season parketer.com

[00:34:06] And just do a little write up, maybe even send us the link to your Facebook group. And that way we could go in there and just kind of join pop in to see how you're leveraging it. And we can share that with other small business owners.

[00:34:20] Yeah, and we promise that we're not going to like be judging what you're doing. We just were just being interested. We are the last people to judge anything. Trust me. I mean, we're yeah, we're we're that you're learning alongside you guys because these platforms are changing so much.

[00:34:35] And also the features that get added all the time. And we are also press for time, just like all of you out there too. So we're constantly having to reevaluate the initiatives that we're doing the tasks that we're doing.

[00:34:48] So we are in the same boat. We are not any different. We just happen to have the marketing background and that's what we enjoy reading up on. Yeah.

[00:34:58] Send us your Facebook group links that we wonderful. We'd love to see them and go be the best SOB you can be.