Today’s topic that I wanted to talk to you about is Facebook groups.
A lot of people have been asking me about– questions on how to stay active when they have a busy schedule as an entrepreneur. Or how to build relationships when they’ve been active in Facebook groups and it’s just not really working for them. We wrote a blog about this on my website not too long ago from a wonderful guest post that we had from Sandra. Some of the bullet points that I’ll be going over are from things that she’s learned as well as things that I’ve actually learned from her and implemented in my own strategy as well.
One of the things that a lot of people forget is that Facebook groups aren’t just for advertising. They’re actually a place and a space where you want to craft a message that is going to actually show your personality and your authenticity before you go into promotions of who you are. A lot of times in these groups there’s upwards of five to 10,000 people and they don’t know who you are. So jumping in and just saying, “Hey. Look at me, look at me. This is what I’m offering.”, isn’t going to be the best use of your time.
Some of the things that you can do is you can actually create images either with a graphic designer or yourself through Canva or another website that allows you to do so. And create those photos to show your side of who you are, your personality. It can be a professional photo that you had a photography session and they took a bunch of photos of you and you want to share those or it could just be of a headline or a quote that you personally came up with.
Make sure that when you’re posting this images that you have information included in the text of the image that gives value and provides a reason as to why you’re posting this image of your face in the Facebook group. There’s a point that when you share these images, the people who will see the images and relate to them or be drawn to them will be also the ones that read further in the text that you give. Make sure that it is authentic, it is you. Don’t be salesy. It can be stuff you’re working on, it can be things that you love. It can be a struggle you’re having.
One of the big things that I’ve known is — in my business personally is it’s okay to say that you’re struggling. It’s okay to ask for feedback. Everybody is working on their business. There is no such thing as competition that you have to worry about by saying, “Oh, my gosh. I’m struggling in this. I need help.” It’s not going to all of a sudden set up a red flag and all these competitors are going to be like, “Oh, whatever. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.” No.
In my world, there is no competition. You work together collaboratively whether you’re in the same field or not. So post those struggles. Post those things that you think you’re frustrated with. You never know the information you’ll get back from individuals saying, “Hey, I’ve been through that. Here’s what I did and maybe that will help you.” Do that with a great photo, a great quote.
One of the biggest things that I also say is, don’t share a quote image that one, does not have a source as to who said that first. That’s a big a pet peeve of mine and a lot of people online also thinks that’s a big no-no to do. It’s just not very respectful to share something if you’re not giving it the source as to who said it first. So one, don’t share a quote without the author or source as to where you got it from.
Two, don’t share a quote and then say nothing about it. Why are you sharing this quote? What does it mean to you? Why did it pop up in your feed today or why is it speaking to you where you felt you needed to take the two minutes to post it in this group? Give some background and explanation on that. That would be photos and quotes and things like that. That would be a good place to start to get people to see who you are and why they care.
Another way is to show love. If someone was asking for feedback, give them your two cents. If you know that you’ve been through it, maybe it still hasn’t been working for you but this is what didn’t work for you. That’s a great way to give love and give feedback. Take time to actually reply to people. Start a conversation with those who are posting in the group.
But not only that. If you’ve posted in the group and someone responded to you, start a conversation with them. Don’t just ask yes or no questions. Actually, engage with them. If you don’t know who they are, it’s the first time they’re commenting on your stuff, and they just gave you a yes or no answer then start commenting with them and say, “Hey. Thanks for the feedback and I’d love to get to know you more. What is it that you do? How did you find this post?” Things like that.
Get involved with them and actually open up that line of communication with them because they’re new and you don’t know who they are. Or even if they’re not new, it’s a great way to start conversations with people who are actually taking time to comment on what you posted. They took the time to respond to what you were presenting to them in this Facebook group. So you need to show them some love and respect and reply back to them in a nice manner.
The next thing that I want to talk about is share your expertise. This is a gray area for a lot of people. You don’t want to share your expertise and be salesy about it or be promotional about it. There are groups that have promo days and you are more than welcome to post your promos on those days or in those threads. But don’t just post your promo and run.
Actually give what your knowledge base is. Give them value and show that you’re an expert in what you do. For example, if you’re a fitness coach and you share recipes or health tips from experts that you follow or a photo of you meal prepping, your post is literally going to be your voice on social media. You want to make sure that you’re branding that as something that you know how to do and something that you are a leader or an authority in the fitness and health field.
You don’t want to just take a quote about being healthy and post it and then leave it as is. Give value and give feedback and share why you’re going through this or why you chose to start the way you did in this business. Nobody can change your story. It’s your story. Find ways to share it.
I had someone talk to me the other day and say, “This is the company that I’m a part of and it’s a really great company.” But this individual felt like they couldn’t be real in videos and images because they were afraid that someone would see their real person. They didn’t like the physical attributes that they have to themselves right now. And it goes along with the health, and fitness, and wellness industry. They felt like someone would look at them and say, “Well, I don’t want to follow this company because they look like they’re a fraud.”
That’s not true. Just because you are not the way you think you should appear for your business doesn’t mean someone else isn’t going through the same thing. This is your story. You obviously started this business for a reason so you need to give value and explain to them what you’re going through. Your struggles. Why you’re where you’re at. Things like that.
And don’t just do it on your personal page, on your Facebook page, do it in the groups as well. That’s where you’re going to be able to start those conversations and grow that relationship with those people. People will follow and start conversations with you if they feel there is a connection there.
It was really cool, there has been an individual in my Facebook group for probably a couple months now and she’s been commenting on everything and we’ve been interacting together on everything. Literally just this past week, we shared some deeper information into our personal stories. And it was so cool to see how aligned we were on things that we’ve struggled within the past and how we’ve overcome them to understand why we were attracted to each other.
Up to this point we hadn’t really figured out how we got connected and why we were attracted to each other but we love talking to each other. It was really fun to see that a few months later down the road. That’s how it started. It started in a Facebook group.
So continue that. The last thing that I will touch on is a lot of people say, “Okay, this is all great information but I don’t have time to spend two hours in a Facebook group.” or “Hey I get started commenting on things in Facebook groups and then I get so lost it’s like an hour and a half goes by and I just wasted my morning.” You need to set a schedule.
I, personally, have a freebie that I offer to people. You can grab the link in the chat below that I offer to people that gives you a calendar of anywhere from five to 10 different Facebook groups and what you should be posting in there each day.
Some of the groups have themes for the day where they’ll post your promos or ask for feedback or do a live stream. Some of them it’s just literally, post in the group and get value, or tell your story, or again, ask for feedback, start a poll or things like that. You need to set you own schedule. You are the only person that knows what time you have available throughout the day and how much time that is.
My calendar allows me to be active in five to 110 Facebook groups in under 30 minutes every single day. Then what I can do is when I know I’m active in those groups, I will get the notifications where I can say, “Okay now I need to spend three hours doing X, Y and Z for my task list today.” Then I will go back and start responding to those comments if they so happen to appear.
Make a schedule. Make it easy for yourself. If you can’t do five to 10, do two to three, do one or two, start out little. It doesn’t matter but as long as you make a schedule. I do it right away in the morning before I get going with anything else. Then it will help you to start staying active and get in the groove of it. It will get quicker, it will get easier, and you will start to see the relationships build from there.
So what do you guys think? I would love to hear any struggles that you guys have been having. Any questions that you have on different Facebook groups you should or you shouldn’t belong to. If you have questions on how to find Facebook groups, anything like that. Put them in the chat and let’s discuss.
The post How to stay active and build relationships in Facebook groups in less than 30 minutes a day appeared first on Laura Rike - formerly Envizion Advertising.