20: How to Utilize Facebook Groups to Increase Your Audience and Authority

Facebook Groups provide a sense of community and belonging that helps people feel more connected and engaged. They're also a great way to build relationships and create rapport with potential customers. Learn how to create conversations that lead to connections and conversions while increasing your audience and authority.

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Tools mentioned in this episode:

Kajabi / Learn Kajabi

Ecamm / Learn Ecamm

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Transcript:

So glad you're here for today's episode, because we are going to be talking all about Facebook groups. I personally love Facebook groups, both because I love to interact and connect with people inside a Facebook group, but also because I have understood the value of the incredible opportunity that we have to increase both our audience and our authority using Facebook groups.

So, if you have not been utilizing Facebook groups in your marketing strategy for your business, you are going to love the tips I share today and I just encourage you to take action. Because I guarantee you are going to have the opportunity to meet more of your ideal audience, connect with them, and of course this leads to more conversions. I believe Facebook groups provide one of the best opportunities of community in the online world today. Facebook groups inspire that feeling of belonging. It makes people feel more connected and engaged, and it's a great way to build relationships and create rapport with potential customers. But learning how to create those conversations is key so that you can increase conversions and that's what I'm going to help you with today.

With over two billion monthly active users, Facebook is the perfect platform to reach your target audience. And with 65% of Facebook users belonging to at least one group, there is a wealth of opportunity for you to tap into. When used strategically Facebook groups can be a powerful tool to grow your business. Now, in my last episode, episode nineteen, I shared how having your own Facebook group, a group that you admin, is an amazing way to build your list, connect with your ideal audience. So, you are going to want to check out that episode for tips on how to utilize your own Facebook group.

But today I'm going to focus on how to utilize groups that are not your own. Because to create connections, we need to create conversations. And since Facebook groups are a great place to connect and a great way to spark conversations, that's what I want to chat about today. So let me share five easy and effective ways to start connecting with people inside Facebook groups.

Step one is to update your personal Facebook profile. While I realize not everyone friends their ideal audience on Facebook, there are certain areas of your Facebook profile that are public. And that is your cover photo, your profile picture, and your bio that you can add to your personal profile. The reason why you want to be strategic with these three things is because as you start connecting with your ideal audience inside Facebook groups it is very common that people will click on your name to check out your personal profile. That's why it's so important that your personal profile picture is not a picture of a flower or a dog. I've seen all kinds of things on people's personal profile pictures.

If you are in business and you want to connect with people professionally, you should have a professional looking picture. Now, it doesn't mean professionally taken by a photographer, but it should be a nice headshot picture of you, even if it was taken with your iPhone. Now, if you want to include a personal photo of your family in your cover photo, sure, that's fine. But I want you to understand that your cover photo is like prime real estate even on your personal page.

Now, we don't do business on our personal profile, but our personal profile should reflect who we are, and our business is a very big part of who we are. So, update your cover photo to say who you serve, what you do, what you're all about. So, maybe it's a picture of you doing something in your business. Maybe it's you connecting with people that you serve. Maybe it's a cover photo that says I help entrepreneurs do this, or I help new moms learn this. It's so important that when people click on your name on Facebook, that they can instantly see your photo, a cover photo that directs them, or gives them more information of what you do, what you're all about.

And then in the bio section you want to have a short sentence with a link. I recommend a link to either your website or one of your list builders. You could invite them to your Facebook group if you have a Facebook group. You could invite them to get one of your free lead magnets, whatever the case may be. Just check your personal profile on Facebook and make sure those three areas look really great. That they direct people to where they can get more information. That way as you're connecting with others in other Facebook groups, they will click on your name and instantly be able to connect with the resources you want them to see.

Step number two is to start sharing valuable content inside Facebook groups. Now, I recommend doing a search for groups. If you go to Facebook and just do a search for mompreneurs, or entrepreneurs, or online business owners, or network marketers. Whoever it is that you serve, they are a hundred percent groups where your ideal audience hangs out. So, if you offer autism resources, you're going to search for autism groups. If you help people with parenting, you're going to search for parenting groups. And you want to go ahead and join these groups not because we're going to poach people, be spammy to people, start, you know, cold messaging people.

You are going to join these groups with the mindset that you are going to share valuable content and start to create conversations. So, that means asking engaging questions. That means sharing inspirational stories, or behind the scenes, or posts that aren't selling things, aren't saying, hey, I'm doing this challenge, click on my link. But you're sharing about your experience, what you're working on, what's going well, maybe what your struggles have been and how you overcame them. I will tell you that when I share inspirational stories, real life, genuine, authentic things in various Facebook groups, that is when people respond. They respond in the comments, whether it's congratulating me, thanking me for sharing that idea or that tip. And that is how I'm able to create new connections.

Now the key is when people are commenting on your post is to reply to them and say so glad you loved it, thanks so much for the congrats. Facebook is designed to be conversations. So, you don't want to just like, like, like. You want to start with conversations. So, if people say, oh my goodness, that's amazing, that's something similar I struggled with. Well, you create the conversation. How did you overcome it? What tools are you using? And before you know it people start to emerge that you will connect with. Okay. It doesn't happen with everyone. It doesn't happen in every comment. But before you know it, you start having people who are now interested in what you do, in what you offer. They're clicking on your name, or they're reaching out to you in a personal message. All because you're sharing valuable content.

And that is my tip number three: you want to serve, not focus on selling. So, inside the group you're looking for people who are looking for solutions, not because you're going to sell them your offers, but because you want to be seen as an authority and an expert in your niche. So, you can utilize these groups that you're in. And maybe your expertise is QuickBooks, and you are in a financial freedom type group. Maybe not someone who's already teaching QuickBooks, you always want to follow the rules of the group, you know, especially if the admin is someone who already offers QuickBooks help. That's one thing. But if that's not really what that group's about, let's just say it's people wanting to scale to a six, seven, or eight figure business. If you go in that group and do a search for QuickBooks, you'll see if anyone in the group is struggling with QuickBooks. And if it's a recent post and they're like, ah, you know, does anybody use QuickBooks or does anyone have an accounting software they recommend?

You will start to be seen as the expert when you start to show up and answer those type questions. Not with lengthy, you know, here's all the steps, but this is a tool I use. I recommend it. Check it out. Or here are my top three tips when you get started with QuickBooks. Or here is something that I've helped my clients with that I think would serve you as well. And you just show up and you offer assistance, tips, recommendations. This creates so many conversations, and I will tell you from personal experience, people will ask questions about Kajabi, or Ecamm, or Evernote. The tools that I love and teach. And I simply share those recommendations, those tips. I might share a helpful article. Okay. Not necessarily mine, but an article I think will help answer their question.

And before you know it, they're clicking on my link. They're seeing in my bio what I do. Okay. And then they're clicking on the link, going to my website. It's really like planting seeds and all of these seeds produce a harvest. It may not be right away, but down the road you will start to see results.

Step number four is to create conversations in a way that they are invited or encouraged to reach out to you for more information. So, in many of the groups I am in, you cannot necessarily share direct links. So, I always follow the rules. I also do not personally message people as a cold message. I don't like receiving cold messages from people. I don't like that as a marketing plan. I know some trainers teach that, but for me personally, I like to create conversations right there in the Facebook group. And if I can't go into more detail or I think I have a resource that will support what this person needs, I'll just mention the resource and say, if you're interested, reach out in a personal message, I'd be happy to get that to you. It's that simple.

So, if they're looking for a resource about building a digital course, they're wondering what tool to use,I might say I use an awesome tool called Kajabi. I have a free course that you can get access to for ten days. If you send me a message, I'd be happy to send you a link. So, you're letting them know resources that are available, whether it's a blog post, or a podcast episode, or a program that you offer, or maybe it's a video that you teach inside your Facebook group.

So, someone asks a question, and you say I just talked about this in a recent video in my Facebook group. Shoot me a message if you want an invite to the group so that you can access this. It's really just a matter of showing up, serving, and connecting by offering what people need. And before you know it, they will reach out to you and now you have a conversation inside Messenger. And so much magic can happen in Messenger.

And that's tip number five: when you're in personal messaging you want to ask questions to get to know this new person. All right. We want to get to know them and get to know their needs. We don't want to just start spouting a bunch of resources out at them. And it really is amazing how people never see you as salesy when you are there asking them questions and meeting their needs. So, if someone reaches out to me asking a question, I might say, here's something that's worked for me. Tell me more about what you do. Tell me more about your business. Tell me more about the course you're creating. I always like asking questions to get to know this person.

Then as they answer the questions, I might have a resource to share with them. By all means sharing a list builder link, something that will get them on your email list so you can continue to share content with them is ideal. So, I might say I have a solution for that, check out this blog post. Or check out this podcast and click here to subscribe to updates for future podcasts. Click here to join my community. Click here to get my free guide. There’re so many resources that we can offer once we have them in Messenger.

So, I hope these five tips have been helpful. I recommend setting aside maybe a few minutes each day or an hour or two a week where you are committed to connecting with your ideal audience inside a Facebook group. Facebook groups to me are a secret weapon when it comes to marketing. And when utilized correctly, they can help you build your audience and create conversations.

So, if you're not currently using Facebook groups to increase your reach and authority, you're missing out and I don't want you to miss out on this huge opportunity. Take the tips I shared with you today. Start creating conversations that lead to connections. And let me tell you, once those conversations happen, you're going to see conversions that take your business to the next level.

Remember, create content that gets people talking. Use questions to drive engagement. And then promote your products and services in a way that serves. Want to connect with us in our Facebook group community? Join us at launchperspective.community.

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