Facebook groups are awesome tools for businesses! However, most businesses don't use them... Why is that? I want to talk about some ways that you can use Facebook groups to your advantage and How to keep your group a safe and happy place once you have it set up. Some of these reasons you may consider getting a Facebook group are:

1. YOU HAVE A PRODUCT THAT IS COMPLICATED TO USE

When I first signed up for my favorite social marketing tool they had a Facebook group where you could go and ask questions about the software and how to use it. A lot of the times it would take care of the support side of thing for them without having to get tricky support software and answer lots of questions in a help desk setting, which was great. You could also scroll through and see if your question had been asked, or learn something new about the features of the software. I really loved the group and they had staff that monitored it closely to help with anyone getting into it that was a spammer. This being said, Groups are a lot more work than just a page as people expect a direct response from you and you need to keep a close eye on thing to be sure you are monitoring all the activity on there!

2. YOU HAVE A SUPPORT NETWORK BASED BUSINESS.

This one goes out to all my personal trainers, life coaches, and mommy bloggers. Groups are a great way to build a tight knit community of people where you can ask questions, connect with other people that are doing the same thing as you, and call on those people for support. One group I was a part of was amazing for keeping people motivated, and because it was a private group I was so much more eager to get involved with it. We would post encouraging things we were learning that day, our failures so we could learn from them, and our successes to encourage those of us having a hard time! Please let me stress that Groups are in NO WAY a replace meant for a Facebook Page. If you do not have a page you will not be generating leads and that can cause issues.

3. YOU WANT FEED BACK FROM A SAFE PLACE

If you are looking to get some feed back from a safe place, a Facebook group may be just the thing. Writers, marketing help, artists, medical professionals, local humanitarian aide groups are just some of the people that could benefit from these types of groups. If you have something to share with the world and you want professional opinions, usually joining a group is going to be the best way to accomplish that! There are tons of topics based groups already on Facebook and joining the is one of the more popular marketing strategies that people use now to make connections and make friends.

How to Keep Your Group Happy and Safe

As with anything in life, boundaries are always going to be something you want to make sure you stick to. When you are creating your group, do not... let me repeat that DO NOT, just set up your group make it public and "see what happens" you are literally leaving the doors open for a big mess if you do this and people on the internet can be mean if you are not careful.

While groups are an awesome opportunity for you to directly connect with your customers and hear from them when you need opinions or help with anything. It's also something you need to set boundaries on and monitor regularly for your safety and the safety of your participants.

Some of the best basic rules you can set are: No Swearing, No Name Calling, Be respectful of one another, When possible give a reference to an articles where you learned information you post, Keep it Friendly, No Solicitation, No threatening statements. The moderator reserves the right to ban you from the group at any time for infractions based upon these rules.

One final note: Facebook takes threats against people very seriously and if someone has written something threatening to you or someone else in your group, make sure you report it to Facebook!