If you aren’t using the Groups application on Facebook to network with other professionals, you might consider starting your own group and building up your list of B2B contacts.
If you plan to spend time marketing yourself, your company, your products or your services through social networking sites, there are really only a couple that are worth your time. The giant in the room, of course, is Facebook – which by most estimates is now the second most-visited website on the Internet, behind Google of course.
If you’re going to spend time on Facebook though, then you probably should get familiar with the “Groups” application, which is a simple way to stay connected with people who share a common interest.
For those of you who are already familiar with the Groups application, you can skip this tutorial since it covers only the basics.
Facebook: Applications Menu
For the rest of you, we’ll need a common frame of reference for this discussion, so let’s assume for the sake of argument that your goal is to promote your book review website. You have two choices when planning a group on Facebook for business purposes: you can target potential customers directly, or you use Facebook to network with other professionals who themselves might have access to potential customers. In our scenario, we’ll assume the targets will be other businesses because I’m a big believer in the benefits of B2B networking.
So the group we’re going to make then is a professional group, and the people you want to attract would be other individuals who run websites, since they might make good partners for traffic trades or other forms of cross promotion. You could always make a general group like “Website Developers,” but you probably need to narrow your focus down somewhat for starters. If you live in Texas, for example, you might start a group called “Texas Internet Developers.” If you’d rather be even more specific, go for “Houston Website Developers.”
Groups technically aren’t built-in to Facebook; strictly speaking, they’re a Facebook application. The chances of that making any difference to you though are slim. What that does mean, however, is when you start a group you’ll need to access the Groups application from the Applications menu, which at the time of this article is located in the bottom left corner of your Facebook screen.
Once you have selected Groups, the first thing you should do is search for groups similar to the one you plan to create. If there is an existing group that fits what you’re planning to create, you can always choose to just join that group instead of starting from scratch. If you’d rather be at the wheel, knowing what similar groups exist already can help you with naming your group so that it at least sounds different – and if there are too many similar groups, you can always change your focus.
After you have scanned what already exists, click on the link to “Create a New Group” and fill in the form that follows.
Facebook: Create New Group
Group Name. If you want people with like interests to find your group, use a descriptive name. And since the group in our scenario is supposed to be a professional group, keep the name professional too. Only teenagers really appreciate absurd group names, and teenage antics aren’t in short supply on the Internet, so put on a professional face and take networking seriously.
Description. This is your chance to get some good keywords into your group to help people find your group in the first place, but your group description should also sound professional and be descriptive. If you simply stuff keywords, other people won’t take your group seriously.
Group Type. Here you get to place your group into a category, two levels deep. In our example we’d probably select “Internet & Technology” for the first category, and “Websites” for the second.
Email: Add in your email address here, so you can get proper notifications of select group-related events.
You can ignore fields like “recent news” or “address” for now, those aren’t vital to the operation of a Facebook group.
When you’re done, click on the “Create Group” button. Now you’ll need to do a little group administration and customize the settings for your new group.
Facebook: Customize Group
In addition to having the option of determining whether group members can post comments on the wall, share pictures or videos, or post links, you also get to decide the “Access” settings for your group. All three choices are clearly explained on Facebook, just keep in mind the real questions here are: 1) “Do I want anyone to be able to join my group?” and 2) “Do I want anyone to be able to find my group?”
In our scenario, we probably want the group to be findable by anyone on Facebook, but we might want to restrict who can join the group since it’s supposed to be focused on Web developers in Texas. You can select “This group is open” if you don’t want to verify new members, or “This group is closed” if you’d rather approve new members before they can participate in the group.
Once your settings are complete, you’ll be prompted to send out invitations to people you can select from your Friends list; alternatively, you can enter a list of email addresses. If you don’t know anyone yet who would be a good match for your group, you’re going to have to do some work. Join other open groups that might include potential members for your own group, and start making new friends.
You also want to make sure your new group has some content of interest so new members have a reason to stick around after they join. Post pictures if relevant, start discussions, post links of interest, and when you get enough members you can even consider planning a local event for group members in your area.
Facebook’s Groups application can be an effective tool for networking with other professionals, and it never hurts to have friends in business. Just remember that marketing with Facebook takes work, and like anything else in modern Internet marketing, if you don’t stay at it consistently then it won’t be of much help to your business.
Remember: At the end of the day, Groups is a software tool; it’s up to you to use that tool to supply interesting content that attracts attention and solicits participation.
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