To Make You A Social Butterfly (Or A Fly On The Wall)
Entering a Facebook group can sometimes feel like you’ve been invited to a huge party and only know one person, even worse, your friend left to get a drink an hour ago and you haven’t seen them since then. So you leave the group to never return. We want to welcome you back into the world of Facebook groups. They are an excellent way to extend your network beyond “people you may know” and connect with like-minded individuals you can source for ideas, advice, or a break from your normal news feed. Facebook groups are also fantastic for brands, not to spam a concentrated audience, but to better understand their demographic. The marketing team of a baby clothing company could join various Mom Facebook group and find out if people are looking for onesies with flamingos or if people are tired of the color pink for girls. With our tips to navigating Facebook groups you’ll become a social media butterfly or an expert fly on the wall, but whatever you do – don’t leave the party.
SEARCH
The search feature of groups allows you to find topics that have already been discussed in the group, names, and be able to filter posts much quicker than a scroll. This is great for the times you saw an interesting post and want to return to the discussion later. Depending on the group size it could be buried by additional posts, but just search for keywords used in the topic to find it again. You can also search full names, this is helpful to find posts by friends or posts from the past you were tagged in.
TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS & SAVE PLACE
For the Facebook Group observer you can Turn On Notifications instead of commenting on a post. This allows you to follow the activity of a post without having engaged with it. In our donut example, say you didn’t have a good Donut place to share but wanted to know what other people had to say, turn on notifications. You simply need to click on the upper right hand corner of a post to the drop down menu and turn on notifications. If you don’t want notifications but just want to be reminded of the donut shop mentioned in the post, you can click save place and view it in your Facebook Saved tab.
FRIENDLY FILES
Groups host file sharing. One can either upload a doc or create doc that can be edited by other members of the group. It’s a simple blog style format that helps the group to easily organize ideas or share information. This is especially great if the group has a reoccurring topic, like best donut shops in Los Angeles. The list can continue to be updated by the group as new places open, donut specials are happening, and be forever present for the new donut lover in town.
POLL
Facebook Groups are intended to be a collection of like-minded individuals which also work as a great demographic source. If you’re deciding on a new color for a product or what to get for a friend throw up a fast poll. You can also see who responded to your poll, and message the person (without being friends) to ask them about their response.
EVENTS
You’ve become a social media butterfly and want to organize an event for your group or meet a few of the users in real life. Facebook group events are set up the same way as normal Facebook events, except that the event is shown on the groups side bar. This helps to keep the event relevant and in the groups mind.
Now you know how to navigate and utilize Facebook groups to your advantage, you’re ready to party! There are groups for your profession, hobbies, job hunting, and if you can’t find the group for you – create one.