Four tips for running a Facebook community, starting with a clear positioning

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Why should I encourage everyone to start a Facebook group? And how to run a Facebook community?

In fact, Facebook groups are also called Facebook Groups. Simply put, it allows a group of specific users to communicate on common interests or ideas in an open or private community space on the Facebook platform. And this space may be public, private, or even completely secret.

Why have many experts recently begun to encourage companies or individuals to run Facebook groups? This is not only because Facebook groups are highly interactive and easy to communicate with, but also because after establishing a group, you can gather like-minded friends and communicate about common interests.

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For example, since I was a child, I loved watching my father take photos and play in the darkroom, so I also loved photography when I grew up. Therefore, a while ago, I established a community called “Black and White Photography”. All friends who like to take black and white photos are welcome to join. Without any deliberate publicity, there are now nearly 80 members. What’s even better is that this small community has shared more than 500 photography works!

In addition, there is an obvious benefit of establishing a community, which is that you can talk to loyal fans and expand the voice of the community. As we all know, Facebook has lowered the reach of fan pages, so many people cannot see fan page updates on their graffiti walls and must rely on advertising to lead the way. Over time, the public will naturally become less interested in what is happening on those fan pages.

However, before starting to build a Facebook community, it is best for everyone to have a basic understanding: In fact, a community is the epitome of a community, so the focus of management should be on gathering people with similar interests. For example, friends who like handmade soap, hiking or singing can organize their own clubs. Secondly, set the attributes of the community and then understand the needs and preferences of the members. After confirming the essence and operational direction of the society, we can then start talking about sustainable management.

Different from the measurement indicators of fan pages, it is recommended that when running a Facebook community, friends do not need to pay too much attention to the number of people in the community, but try to make every member feel “at home” so that everyone is willing to open their minds and interact and communicate. After all, this is the value of establishing a society.

The operating logic of the community is basically not much different from that of the fan page. It mainly focuses on posting, interaction and management. One thing I would like to share with you is that fan pages are more like broadcasts, one-to-many publishing and communication; societies, whether public or private, pay more attention to interaction with members. Therefore, you may wish to set the topic before posting, carefully consider the possible reactions of members, and the results you hope to obtain from the interaction and communication process.

Why have clubs begun to receive more attention recently? Some people even think that some of the resources and efforts that were invested in fan pages in the past can be transferred to clubs! The reason is very simple. This is because it has two important elements, namely the mechanism of self-presentation and community interaction.

Self Presentation is a theory proposed by psychologist Erving Goffman in his 1959 book “Self Presentation in Everyday Life”. It means the process by which people try to manage and control the impressions others have about them. In today’s community era, people can express their interests, expertise, brand, values ​​and recognition of society in the community by posting posts, creating photo albums, sharing photos and videos, expressing feelings, checking in, marking events, and creating documents.

Another important element of Facebook communities is, of course, community interaction. Compared with Facebook fan pages, which can only publish public information in one direction, we can imagine that the interactivity, plasticity and imagination of the community itself are indeed much greater!

So, what should you pay attention to when starting to build and operate a Facebook community? Here, I offer you four suggestions, including:

The first point is to give the association a clear positioning. We should first conduct research on the attributes and target audience of the community, and then make privacy settings based on the nature of the community. For example, if you want to set up an interest club for handmade soaps, should you choose to make it public? Is it better not to make it public? Or set it directly as a secret society? And if we want to establish a promotion club for public welfare activities, what should we pay attention to?

The second point is to set management rules, also known as “ban rules”, so that members of the society can follow them. From my personal experience, whenever I want to set up a new club, I will first formulate the rules of the game, that is, the board rules, self-introduction rules, etc., and try to get the partners who joined the club early to respond first, forming a kind of atmosphere and positive cycle. For example, in the “I love writing notes” club, I will especially encourage everyone to share notes together.

The third point is that there must be a purpose for establishing a society, so the core values ​​must be clarified first, and then sustainable management can be carried out towards a common purpose. Take the “Black and White Photography” club as an example. I hope to encourage everyone to share their photography, so there will not be too many restrictions on membership. Friends who are willing to share and appreciate black and white photos are welcome to join. Although the members who joined at the beginning were friends I knew well, gradually many new friends who I didn’t know joined me!

The fourth point is to cultivate enthusiastic fans and assist new club members. This is very important. A dynamic community is not run by board owners or managers alone, but must rely on the power of fans. Therefore, if we can gather a group of die-hard fans at the beginning of establishing a club, and continue to influence new members through their demonstration and interaction, it will not only save the board owner a lot of trouble, but also make the atmosphere of the club more harmonious!

By the way, if you want to know more about the trends and developments related to content marketing and community management, you are also welcome to apply to join the “[Content Hacker Club] (https://www.facebook.com/groups/content.hacker.club/)” club!

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★ Content Hacking Lecture Series (CHL6): [How to use presentations for content marketing] (https://www.accupass.com/go/chl6)

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★ Photo Credit: Pablo Heimplatz

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Further reading

• Lin Zhean talks about community management: You can do this to produce high-touch Facebook posts
• From fan page to Facebook community: Girl Karen’s sharing of experience in online community transformation and management

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