Facebook Groups Can Be a Powerful Tool

Rita and Joel Wiebner are local photographers who also happen to be friends that I met first on Twitter. My wife and I love visiting the Wiebners in their studio, despite the fact that their dog Icarus seems to like everyone on the planet except for me! When I saw how well Facebook groups were working for them, I asked Rita if she would be willing to write a post about the group. I think she has some interesting insights that can be useful to anyone who might be thinking about starting a group on Facebook.

98% of the people I know are online, the other 2% are my parents and they have a computer, but are scared of the Internet. Go figure. Out of those 98%, probably at least one-third to one-half are carrying a computer around in their hands in the form of a smartphone. People are online, and they are CONNECTING online. The days of scary chatrooms and keeping your private lives private are a distant memory (although I am sure some of those scary chatrooms are still out there).

People are online sharing their lives. Facebook and Twitter have exploded in the last few years and as a result, I can tell you what my neighbor had for breakfast, his favorite color, what he might like to do on a Saturday night and whether his cat has a hairball. But Facebook is more than just sharing all our idiosyncrasies. People are connecting in new ways that we were never able to before. Businesses especially are starting to tap into the power of Facebook. A Fan Page, or Business Page is for an individual business, organization, band, charity, whatever, to post information and photos, promote specials, run sales, etc.. There really isn’t much of a limit to what you can do with a Fan Page. It’s sort of like a newsletter, except 10 times better. But I’m not here to talk about Fan Pages, that’s a whole post in itself, and I am sure Ken could give you better info about that than I could. No, what I want to talk about today is the Facebook Group.

We had never really used a Facebook Group properly before this past Fall. We had one several years ago for our photography business, but never really did anything with it. We have been on Facebook for going on 4 years now, and I remember back in 2007 when people were like “What the heck is Facebook?” If you did more than post on other people’s walls back then it was unheard of. At least in our small circle of users. So a group at that time was pointless. Now, times are different. We now are using groups and pages properly, having a page for our business and using groups to interact with others, privately. Wait, privacy on Facebook? Is it possible? You bet it is. Especially for business owners who might not want all of their clients seeing what they are discussing online. A group is a great way for businesses to interact with other businesses without the whole Facebook universe knowing.

We first put this into motion last year when my husband Joel started a Facebook group for the other shop owners and businesses on our block – the 300 Block of N. Queen. The block has been participating in joint advertising and marketing, block meetings, even holding a block party long before we came to be a part of it. They are an eclectic group of antique & gift shops, restaurants, and other businesses that can be marketed as a “tourist” stop for anyone visiting downtown Lancaster. So when Joel started the group, he wanted us all to have an easier way to communicate with each other. Just about everyone on the block is at their computer at some point throughout the day. A private group on Facebook is excellent for sharing tidbits of information, having discussions, or sharing ideas. The best part? It’s private! And you can participate as much or as little as you want. Once you are a member of the group, you can set your notifications to receive an email everytime someone posts or comments, or if that gets to be too much (which it can if your group is very active), you can turn all email notifications off and manually check in whenever you want to see what people are saying in the group whenever you want.

Here’s a great example of how our 300 Block group is useful. Many of you probably remember the horrible fire that burnt down Zap & Co, a vintage clothing store on our block back in January. Within minutes after the fire was called in, one of the other business owners posted about it in the group, letting everyone know. Because we receive email notifications, we found out right away. We knew before the press even did. Throughout the night, as the fire blazed and was hard to get under control, other business owners continued to post in the group with any tidbits of info they found out. This was great, because there was a lot of speculation that night, and we could keep the information to ourselves without feeding the public rumor mills about what was happening. It was an invaluable asset that evening.

More recently, we attended a Downtown Investment District (DID) meeting for downtown Lancaster businesses. They are held monthly, and we have gone to several over the last two years. We decided to start attending them again on a more regular basis and by luck we went to the one where a communication system for businesses was being discussed. People in attendance were kicking around ideas of how to communicate with other downtown businesses about various important matters, such as if there was a shoplifter in the area, if someone received a bad check, if someone was running a special, and so on. Our business neighbor, Sylvia Weaver from JA Sharp Jeweler brought to the table the fact that we have a Facebook group for the 300 Block. Joel and I perked up and together with Sylvia we started a new Lancaster Downtown Business Owners group that morning. It spread rapidly; within a few hours we had nearly 200 people in the group, all either owning a business downtown or as an employee of a downtown business. Initially, we had a lot of people who weren’t very familiar with Facebook trying to figure out what was going on. That first day, Joel did a lot of question answering for the more novice members of Facebook. No problem! We certainly want everyone to understand how to use it. One of the biggest questions we faced was whether a particular business could have their “Business Fan Page” be a member of the group instead of their personal account. The answer to that is a big fat NO. A page can’t join a group, but a person can. That’s Facebook’s restrictions, not ours. I can see where it could get confusing from Facebook’s perspective, but I also can see that some people like to keep their personal account private.

So how has it been working since then? Wonderfully! Businesses are sharing ideas and talking to each other and it’s just taking off. Where the DID meetings usually only have about 30-40 people in attendance each month, this group now has an audience of hundreds of other businesses, and everyone seems very excited. Some have used the group to organize joint downtown discount ideas, to keep everyone updated about important downtown events, to collaborate with others on “package deals” for downtown businesses, and to let others know about suspicious people in their store and much more. The list is endless. I thought the enthusiasm might die off after the first week, but it is still going strong. I think it is imperative to the success of a group like this that it be endorsed by a strong community organization. Since the DID was the initiator, I think that gave it a firm foundation on which to stand.

There are so many ways that you can use this to your advantage. Perhaps a group of artists could start a group to share their gallery shows, get to know other artists in the community, discuss artist installations, and so on. The possibilities are endless. It’s all so much better than sending endless emails back and forth, which can quite frankly get to be annoying, and I for one, like clearing my inbox as fast as I can. With a group, all the information stays in one place!

One hint with a group though. If you want to start it for a group of businesses or people that have never known each other before, or don’t know each other well, get together in person first. Especially for local community based groups. If I would just one day on a whim start a group that is called, “The Best Most Awesome Photographers in Lancaster” and go invite all these other photographers to it, people might get put out. They might think I’m trying to be something I’m not. The online world can be a little touchy sometimes. Call people up, get together for some coffee, or donuts, and get to know them. Then go out and get your group on. Facebook is for people who like to be “social”, after all!

Tagged as: business, facebook, facebook groups, Online Communities