Facebook Groups: The Marketing Tool Your Business Might Be Overlooking

In a world of instant connection and gratification, there are seemingly endless ways to stay connected to the people and places you love.

Gone are the days when the closest thing to you was supposedly a spider.

You know that stat that says you’re never more than three feet away from a spider? Turns out, that’s not actually true. Which is comforting. But somewhere along the way, we’ve become a whole lot closer to just about everyone else.

And in the digital age, people and business owners alike (although business owners are people too, I guess) are constantly asking us the same questions:

What platforms actually matter? Where should I be? What should I be doing?

For almost every B2C business, the answer starts with our favorite dynamic duo: Facebook and Instagram. Or Insta, for the girly pops. IYKYK.

But seriously, they’re the bread and butter. If you do nothing else on social media, start there.

Even then, there’s nuance. A lot of it.

What works on Facebook doesn’t always work on Instagram and vice versa. Each platform has different capabilities, different audiences and different ways people actually use it. And how you show up matters just as much as showing up at all.

Word of Mouth Didn’t Disappear. It Moved Online.

Over the past decade, we’ve watched a pretty significant shift happen.

What was once word of mouth over the telephone, a chat with a stranger or a conversation with a loved one, coworker or friend has increasingly become:

“Looking for recommendations.”

And if you’re in a local Facebook group, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Facebook Groups have been around since 2010, and they fundamentally changed who we could connect with on the platform. You didn’t necessarily have to be friends with someone to interact anymore. You didn’t even have to know them.

You just needed to have something in common.

Maybe that’s a Facebook group where everyone pretends to be boomers. Highly recommend.

Maybe it’s What’s Happening in {Insert Town Name Here}.

Maybe it’s a neighborhood group, a parenting group or a group built around a shared hobby.

Suddenly, our circles got a whole lot bigger.

Then, in October 2016, Facebook introduced its Recommendations feature, making it easier for users to ask their networks for recommendations for local businesses, restaurants and services.

The game changed again.

And you may be asking, Dannyelle, why does this matter?

Well, let me tell you.

I’ve seen a massive shift in the way businesses get their names out there through these seemingly simple connections. Facebook Groups can be incredibly powerful for local businesses, but there’s a fine line between becoming the business everyone recommends and becoming the business everyone is tired of seeing.

So tread lightly.

1. Find the Groups That Actually Make Sense for Your Business

Sounds easy, right?

Yes and no.

If your business is located in one city, joining a What’s Happening group 30 minutes away and immediately promoting yourself could backfire.

Small towns and tight-knit communities can sometimes have a hard time letting outsiders in. People know who’s local. They know which businesses have been around. And they can usually tell pretty quickly when someone joined the group for the sole purpose of advertising.

Start close to home.

Join groups in areas you already serve regularly or genuinely hope to serve regularly. Get familiar with the conversations happening there and focus your efforts.

You don’t need to be in 47 Facebook Groups.

Less is more.

2. Don’t Be Scared of the Competition

Maybe you own a plumbing business and you’ve just opened up in the same town as the plumber who’s been there for 20 years.

That’s tough competition. And sometimes, it’s a tough crowd.

Don’t shy away from it.

Pay attention to what established businesses are doing. What are people saying about them? Why do people recommend them? What are they doing particularly well?

Then look for what’s missing.

What angle haven’t they tried? What could you do differently? Where could you provide a better experience?

You don’t have to become a carbon copy of your biggest competitor to compete with them.

Find the holes and fill them.

3. Let Other People Do Some of the Talking

Join relevant groups as your company Page when the group allows it, but don’t underestimate the power of the actual humans behind your business.

Your employees, friends, family and biggest supporters can be some of your strongest advocates.

Think about it.

Someone posts:

“Does anyone know a good plumber?”

One business immediately replies, “We can help! Call us!”

Another business gets recommended independently by three different people.

Which one are you looking up first?

Exactly.

When someone recommends your business, your company Page can jump in to thank them for the recommendation and let the original poster know you’re happy to help. Give them an easy way to contact you.

Then leave it at that.

Don’t spam the comments. Don’t repeatedly tag the person who posted. Don’t immediately slide into their DMs six times.

Let people speak for you, and let the company back them up.

Everything feels a little more trustworthy when it comes from an actual person instead of a faceless entity.

One important caveat: don’t manufacture recommendations. Your people should be sharing genuine experiences and connections to the business, not pretending to be random customers. There’s a big difference between advocacy and making something look more organic than it really is.

4. Follow. The. Group. Rules.

Sounds simple enough, but every group has a different set of rules.

Some allow business posts once a week. Some have dedicated promotional threads. Some don’t allow them at all. Some allow businesses to respond when someone explicitly asks for a recommendation.

And admins can have a big ego. So tread lightly.

Read the rules and follow them, or risk getting banned.

Trust me, it’s not a good look.

One day you’re posting regularly, participating in conversations and connecting with potential clients. The next?

Full-on radio silence.

Meanwhile, the next company comes in and dominates the conversation.

No bueno.

5. When You Post, Post With Intention

Please don’t post:

“Hey, it’s Monday! Do you want your air ducts cleaned?”

I mean…seriously.

How many versions of that post do you see on a regular basis?

I know I see them all the time.

Don’t be spammy.

Be real.

A roofing company in North Alabama did something a few years ago that I still remember.

They paid off the student lunch debt for the local school district.

Then they posted a photo of the check, with all the important account and routing information covered, of course, along with a photo of them alongside school staff. Their message wasn’t, “Hey, let’s put a roof on your house.” It was essentially: We care about this community. We saw an opportunity to help our neighbors, so we did.

It even garnered some serious earned media coverage on top of that. All from a kind gesture and a Facebook post. 

That did more for the way people viewed that company than a generic ad ever could.

It wasn’t about how much money they spent.

It was about showing up for their neighbors.

And that’s the point.

Your Reputation Is Being Built in These Conversations

There’s a time and a place for everything, and how your business chooses to show up can solidify its place within a community.

Facebook Groups aren’t necessarily about finding another place to advertise.

They’re about participating.

They’re digital word of mouth. They’re conversations between neighbors. They’re people asking other people who they trust to tell them where to eat, who to hire, where to shop and who they should call when something goes wrong.

Your business doesn’t need to dominate every conversation.

You just want to build the kind of reputation that makes your name naturally come up when the right conversation happens.

And when it does?

Be there.

Not Sure Where Your Business Should Be Showing Up?

Here at Stellar Strategies Creative, we like to look at a business from all angles.

What works for one company might not work for another, and we take that into consideration before recommending where you spend your time, energy or marketing budget.

If you need help identifying where to focus your efforts, need someone to map out the strategy or simply want someone to take it off your plate and do it for you, that’s us.

Book a 30-minute discovery call below and let’s start mapping out your marketing journey.