5 Secrets to Boost Facebook Group Engagement and Generate Sales

Facebook Groups are an incredibly effective and free marketing strategy for growing your business. However, if your group lacks engagement, it's just a waste of time. In this article, we will provide you with five hacks to boost your group’s engagement, helping you generate leads and make sales purely through Facebook. Plus, you’ll learn a bonus tip that will enhance your group’s effectiveness.

Hack 1: Set Expectations from the Start

Use the questions people are asked to answer when requesting access to your group to set the expectation of what the group is about and that they should plan to be an active member. This simple step will discourage spam and prepare people for participation. For a more effective setup, mark the group as private and require Admins to approve requests to join, which helps to make the Membership Questions more effective.

How to Set It Up:

Desktop: Go to the Edit Group Settings screen under the 'More' button. Mobile: Click on the ‘Admin’ button on the upper right corner of the screen when you are in the group and select the option for Membership Questions.

Example Question:

To make sure this is a super helpful, active group, require all new members to understand that this isn’t a spam group and that they’ll need to follow the rules. Type AGREE below if you understand that you will follow the rules AND be an active member.

Hack 2: Weekly Check-In

Provide a check-in post at least once a week. This post should ask your members to share something specific related to your group’s theme. For example, our group is centered around helping online entrepreneurs grow their businesses. We ask them to share the content they are releasing for the week as a comment on a specific post.

What to Ask for: It depends on your group's theme. For a weight-loss group, ask them to share their personal goals for the week. For a food recipe group, ask them to share what they are planning to cook. When people care about something, they love to share, which helps build the community and engagement within your group.

Hack 3: Don’t Post Links

Posting links directly in the group can have a low reach because Facebook doesn't want people to leave their platform. Instead, create a post telling them about the content and let them know that the link to check it out is in the comments. For a more effective approach, tell them to reply or comment “ME” or “INFO” to get the link. Then, when someone comments, shoot them a private message with the link.

Why It’s Effective: By doing this, you get more and more people commenting on the post, which tells Facebook to show it to more people. We've had hundreds of comments on a post to receive a link, and the requests will eventually slow down but start again a few months later.

Hack 4: Run Workshops, Contests, or Challenges

Once a month or every couple of months, run a live challenge, contest, or workshop through your group. For example, we did a content creation contest for our group, where each day I went live teaching them something about creating content to build their business. This provided amazing value, re-engaged the community, and encouraged them to take action.

Examples: Intermittent Fasting Challenges, Clean Eating Challenges, Blog Workshops, Step Count or Exercise Challenges, Meal Prep Challenges. Make sure it aligns with what your audience wants and joined your group for in the first place.

Hack 5: Go Live Weekly

Offer a live group QA or coaching session on a weekly basis. Optimal scheduling would be the same time every week, and sessions should last only 10 minutes for consistency. Just make a post announcing it a couple of days in advance and include a 10-minute warning post. This helps to build a routine for your community who can rely on it to ask questions live. If you’re nervous about no one showing up, prepare a few frequently asked questions in advance.

Bonus Tip: Include a Photo in Every Post

The Facebook algorithm prefers posts with images, so always include a photo in every post. Even a quick selfie or a screenshot will do. For example, if you are sharing a YouTube video, add a thumbnail to the post. If it’s an article, grab a screenshot of the title and first couple of lines. Best practices include:

Upload a video thumbnail when sharing a YouTube video. Take a screenshot of the article you are sharing and incorporate it into the post.

Conclusion: These hacks will not only boost engagement within your group but also enhance your organic reach on your Facebook page and personal profile. Remember, regularity and consistency are key to building a community that values and engages with your content. By following these tips, you can create a super loyal and engaged group that helps generate sales and leads for your business.