Groups is where real community engagement is happening

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, Facebook members.

Afriend recently asked me: “What are you excited about now in Facebook?” Without hesitation, I replied, “Facebook Groups.” Yes, Facebook Groups, not Pages. Written off and abandoned by almost every organization I knew once Pages beefed up its functionality three years ago, Groups is where the real community engagement is happening now.

I’ll admit that I, like so many consultants, advised clients to close their Groups and focus on Pages a few years ago. With good reason: Facebook came out with the Like button that tied Facebook Pages to websites and almost every Web interface. Facebook poured its time and promotion into Pages, making them even more robust with deep analytics, applications, and utility. There was no “join” button offered to join a Facebook Group, only a poorly adopted “send” button.

In late 2010, Facebook revamped Groups entirely and they began to take off. The “new” Group features include notifications of group actions and activities, document uploading, group chat, threaded commenting, inbox messaging about group events, and mass messaging to inboxes (described in more detail here). This was when everyone I knew began to explore Groups once again.

Why am I so excited of late about Facebook Groups? Why now?

The answer lies in what I’ve begun to realize that Facebook Pages cannot offer: real community and deep engagement.

Lately I’ve begun advising clients to consider creating (or adding back) a Facebook Group, in addition to its Facebook Page. While I have consistently counseled that Page owners must use Facebook Pages to create community and deepen commitment with stakeholders, that trust and commitment can never compare to what happens in a Group. From the Page cover photo intended to tell the message, to the Page Timeline intended to tell the story, to the Page updates intended to encourage conversation, there is opportunity for real conversation on a Page.

But it just isn’t happening. I don’t see Pages becoming a real organizational community anytime soon.

Pages are designed to be a one-way relationship

The Facebook Page concept is for it to be the company space on Facebook, which usually includes company branding and messaging. While there’s nothing wrong with this, the very act of creating a “company space” means that it is not a “community space.”  I have yet to see an organizational Facebook Page that is wholly devoted to and encouraging of fan updates, fan news, or driven by fans. (I think this could be a fascinating experiment in organizational community-building, however!) Even Facebook Pages that are fully devoted to its fans tend to broadcast organizational news and updates more than not. Waiting for fans to post may mean waiting a long, long time.

In addiiton, Pages are at the mercy of the Facebook news feed algorithm. Posting an update to a Page doesn’t mean fans will see it. The average post by a brand only reaches 16-17% of fans. If that update is shared, commented upon, and Liked by more than a few, then Facebook will optimize that post to show more prominently in certain fans’ news feeds. One of the reasons Pages struggle so much with engagement: Most people don’t see the updates. Compounding this, most fans don’t visit the page once they’ve Liked it.

The real community on Facebook: Facebook Groups

Groups, on the other hand, are designed to facilitate online community-building. The mere fact that administrators must post as people changes the internal dynamic of the group conversation. It becomes more personal. Group members are notified when anyone posts, as opposed to relying on it appearing in a news feed. The conversation tends to focus on issues, experiences, and connections.

I am a member of several Facebook Groups created by organizations in order to launch and discuss either an online campaign or an issue. Within these, I’ve seen friendships build, investment in the group and organization deepen, and member-to-member connections move people to action. There’s a bit of magic that happens when a group begins to feel and act like a connected community. I’ve witnessed great, even “magical” ideas generated from within the group. The organization is just the facilitator, and the momentum is generated from within the members of the group.

When I was the community manager at FirstGiving, I opened up a FirstGiving for Runners Facebook Group. There were a lot of people raising money for causes by racing, and I felt that there would be a natural communal affinity amongst runners. Instantly things were different within the Group than on FirstGiving’s Facebook Page: the conversation was never about what FirstGiving was doing, because no one wanted to talk about that. The conversation was about training, running, raising money, causes people cared deeply about.

In no time at all, it became a true community: people friended each other, donated to each others’ fundraising pages, encouraged each other professionally and personally. We asked the active members of this group to join FirstGiving as guest bloggers and online cheerleaders, and they happily did. It was not only a community, but strengthened the connection between FirstGiving and its stakeholders.

Aren’t organizations about connecting people to an issue? The connector between the people and the organization is the community.

I’m looking forward to seeing more organizations building community with Facebook Groups. If you are already doing so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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Mass notifications remain a key selling point of Facebook groups

Ilove Facebook groups. Really. They can be the center of great community engagement and a campaign if used correctly and strategically. Facebook groups serve a different purpose than Facebook pages; groups are great for encouraging niche topic discussions and action, while pages are generally more focused on general agency communication and general community engagement.

One Israeli organization, NATAL, so effectively used Facebook groups that Facebook featured it on its own Nonprofits page. NATAL, the leading trauma center for victims of terror and violence in Israel, created a highly successful Israeli blood donor awareness and registry campaign that successfully leveraged Facebook groups.

One of the most urgent needs in case of emergency is quickly locating blood donors, and NATAL wanted to find a way to both convey that need for blood donors and solve it at the same time. They created a website, bloodgroups.co.il, to publicize the campaign and offer information about who should give blood and why it is needed and launched the campaign in April 2010. The most prominent feature on the site is a call to action to identify your specific blood type by clicking on a blood donor type on the left side of the page (screenshot below).

Once you click on your blood type, the Facebook Group for your blood type opens in your browser. NATAL created eight Facebook groups, each one with the name of the blood group. In marketing terms, this is brilliant, because NATAL is now closely linked to the marketing keywords “blood donor.” According to the  video that NATAL created about the campaign, “we used groups and not pages because of message-all-members function is only available in groups.” (I have been saying for years that this is the unique selling proposition of Facebook groups.)

About 4,000 people, mostly Israelis, have joined the groups. Whenever the Israeli Red Cross sent NATAL a message with an urgent request for blood, NATAL used the message-all-members function to ask for donations from group members.

It didn’t hurt that the campaign received a lot of exposure in the Israeli press, or that they were awarded free coasters to distribute to pubs throughout Israel with information about the campaign. However, the most interesting thing about the campaign is how they took advantage of Facebook groups and how the groups are being used.

How NATAL rocked Facebook groups

One thing that NATAL understood at the time was Facebook groups’ message-all-members feature, which Facebook pages does not offer. Facebook no longer offers the message-all-members option. However, groups launched a similar feature, which shows new group postings as notifications and sends emails to members with links to new postings. (Of course, members can choose to turn off the email notifications through their settings.)

Another thing NATAL understands is that groups can generate fabulous conversation when the conversation and idea exchange is focused. A group about diabetes, for example, is likely to have too many discussion threads, and possibly a lot of spam. Alternatively, a group about diabetes research will be very focused on that topic and encourage discussion about the latest research by members who care passionately about diabetes research. Within the individual NATAL groups, the discussions are about the need for blood, the campaign and how people can help.

NATAL also made the campaign very personal. When you are talking about your own blood type, and you’ve self-identified as a specific blood donor, it’s personal. Given that, the discussions within the group will tend to be more personal, and the connection with the cause will be personal as well.

What do you think about the use of Facebook groups for things like blood donor campaigns? Do you know of other organizations that are successfully using Facebook groups?

Related

• Facebook tutorials on Socialbrite (free)

• 10 ways nonprofits can get more out of Facebook (Socialbrite)

• The differences between Facebook Pages and Groups (Socialbrite)

• 15 ways to enhance your Facebook influence (Socialbrite)

• Facebook 101 for nonprofits (Socialbrite)

The post How your nonprofit can make the most of Facebook groups appeared first on Socialbrite.

The ultimate cheat sheet for nonprofits

You may be curious how Facebook Groups can complement the work you’re doing with your Page. Or, you may have a Group and want to move your fans over to your Facebook Page. Or, you mistakenly created a Facebook Profile for your organization and now realize that you should have started a Facebook Page.

If you’re confused by all the moving parts within Facebook, you’re not alone. Recently I presented a webinar for a small group of nonprofits and wasn’t surprised that the most popular slide was a cheat sheet on Facebook Pages and Groups.

Difference between Facebook Pages and Groups

The best way to think about the difference between Pages and Groups is to consider the users they serve.

Groups serve the needs of individuals just like you and me. Pages on the other hand, serve the needs of celebrities, businesses, brands and nonprofits. If you keep this basic framework in mind, Facebook will make a lot more sense.

What are Facebook Groups used for?

I’m no expert on the short history of Facebook, but I’m guessing that Groups arose out a need for individuals to organize around common interests. Facebook fulfilled this need with functionality that enabled users to organize and communicate quickly and easily.

• Represents a cause or idea – Without groups, organizing on Facebook would be impossible.
• No customization or apps – Connection is the prime point, not branding.
• Received as “message” – The same as if a friend sent you a message.

If you ever wondered why Groups get to send messages directly into your Facebook Page inbox, but Pages have their updates sent into a secondary inbox, watch Why do Facebook Page updates and Group messages go into two different inboxes? on the Inbound Zombie Facebook Page (become a fan).

• Wall – Everyone like to share, be seen and comment on what others have shared.
• Users share many media types– And they like to share many different things.
• Some private, some public – Groups can be private (invite only, not publicly viewable to non-members), semi-private (invite only, publicly viewable to non-members), or public (anyone can join, anyone can view). Feel free to download this cheat sheet on Facebook Group settings.

What are Facebook Pages used for?

Facebook Pages are intended for brands, businesses and nonprofits who want to reach users. Page functionality focuses on creating brand awareness, targeting specific types of users — 35 year-old men living in Boston who spend their money on sushi and live music, for example.

Some features unique to Pages include:

• Customized user experience – Pages allow administrators to build custom tabs using FBML and add widgets to create a unique experience for their fans. My Facebook Page displays two custom tabs.
• Target updates – Updates can be targeted by gender, location and age.
• Received as “updates” – As demonstrated in the video above, Page updates are received in a separate inbox.
• Wall – Same as Groups and Profiles, although admins can parse posts by fans into a separate stream.
• Fanbox and Facebook Badge – Enables admins to easily promote their page on their website or blog.
• Custom URL – If you have more than 25 fans.

Facebook Page and Group Cheat Sheet

Reposted from JohnHaydon.com.

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