In today’s blog post learn how to attract soul clients to new FB group and how to plan content for group
Links mentioned on this episode:
- See my post on vanity metrics about numbers!
- I run a fabulous group for service-based business owners. Come & join us – http://bit.ly/RockYrFabBiz.
- Dawn Bradly, of Dawn Bradly Coaching
[spp-player]
Join my free FB community to connect with me and other fabulous solopreneurs to help you Rock Your Fabulous Biz.
[spp-transcript]
Learn 7 ways to get started
I have a relatively small Facebook group. At the time of recording/writing it has less than 600 members, however about 85-90% of my business comes from my group.
It’s a great place to showcase what you do and help people to get to know you better. It’s also a great way to connect on a deeper level with your dreamie clients.
I love to ask the members of my Facebook (hereon in written as FB) group what they’d like to learn. Currently one of the hot topics that seems to be coming up in my group and with clients is where to start with a FB group.
Questions get raised like:
- Do they take a lot of time?
- How do I get one started?
- How do I get people in there?
- What do I share in my group?
Let me take each of these in turn and share some simple ways to get started.
- Do they take a lot of time?
They can initially take time to get them up and running and then you learn how to manage them more effectively. The key to a group is to create engagement so just showing up now and again isn’t the best strategy. Bombarding the group with content isn’t the way either. It’s about getting a balance.
You don’t want to be in there 24/7 answering questions constantly as you’ll end up burning yourself out, but you do want to get involved when people are taking time to comment and join in.
- How do I get a group started?
I won’t share the practicalities here on the techie side, but I will share with you some ideas around getting it started.
Start with the end in mind. You need to have clarity around the purpose of the group.
Here’s some questions to ask yourself:
- Why do you want to run it? (It may be to get yourself known, to create a safe space for clients, for an online programme that you run or to attract dreamie clients, or all of the above) What’s the main purpose of your group?
- Who is the group for? (This is where you really need to get clear on who you serve, how you help and what you offer. That way the content you share in the group will be right, and you’re not spending hours trying to come up with ideas only to get crickets when you share something. PS See my post on vanity metrics about numbers!
- What is your main area of work? (This will help you come up with content creation ideas)
Spend some time getting clarity around these three areas and that will really help you to get started and get the foundations of your group right.
- How do I get people in there?
There are SO many ways. The quickest and easiest is to invite them! Add them as PS notes in everything you do, i.e. PS. Want some tips, strategies and training on how to be more visible in your business? I run a fabulous group for service-based business owners. Come & join us – http://bit.ly/RockYrFabBiz.
Here’s 14 places you could be spreading the word to get you started, I was aiming for 7 but got a bit carried away!
- Put a link at the bottom of your email
- Put a link in your Skype account
- Add a link to every blog post that you write/share
- Invite people to your group when you’re talking to them
- Share a little image on your FB business page showing your group info and invite them to join
- Invite them in your newsletter
- Talk about your group at local networking meetings
- Share your group on promotional days in other online groups
- Write a blog post about your group and create a link to join
- Write a little post and share it on various social media platforms that you’re on
- Add it to the bottom of your opt-in
- Do a PS note in any Facebook post that you share
- Mention your group at the end of every Facebook Live that you do
- Ask people in your group to help you spread the word
Get creative with it. What places could you share about your group?
For this to work well, the clarity piece in step 2 is super important so that you invite the right people into the group, that way they are more likely to be your dreamie clients that you want to work with.
- What do I share in my group?
Because you’ve got step 2 right, you’ll now have more of an idea of what content to share that will be useful to your dreamie clients.
Let’s say you’re a Stress Coach, your focus on content will be around managing stress, so it might be to create some little top tip posts of how to manage your stress levels, maybe around relationships, or career or home life for example. You might share blog posts of the same tips, or create a FB live.
One of the things that I’ve done for years in my group is have themed days. A lot of groups are doing this. The purpose is to build familiarity in your group, so it feels like a safe space to share, it creates consistency and it makes it waaaay easier for you because you have set days for set posts.
The funny thing is I’ve often thought about adding in lots of different things into my group, but when I do ‘market research’, aka have a coffee catch up with members from my group, the one thing they tell me they love is the consistency of my themed days! Gotta go with what works!
One of my lovely clients, Dawn Bradly, of Dawn Bradly Coaching works with clients around low-level stress and anxiety and when she had her own group she would create a day where she adds something light-hearted and humourous to create a bit of fun in her group.
Here’s a list of 18 ideas to get you started
- Invite them to share their blog post
- Monday Motivation day
- Inspiration day (share stories to inspire your dreamies)
- Let’s connect day where people share their social media posts
- Top Tips
- Did you know….?
- Just for fun
- Comment with a gif to say how you feel
- Where in the world are you? posts
- Celebration posts
- Quotes
- Longer posts sharing your story (check out this post https://www.rubymcguire.com/how-to-use-storytelling-in-your-business/ for a template on how to write these)
- A poll to find out what people want
- Share your promotion/offer day
- Blog posts that you’ve written
- FB Lives – do some training for your group
- Q & A thread, a business clinic or ‘clinic’ that fits in around your niche
- Case studies
Think this just works for coaches, consultants and trainers? Think again. My hubby now runs his own plumbing and heating business. He doesn’t need a group but we use a similar principle for his business page, and he’s rushed off his feet! Here’s his themed days for the week:
Monday: Mac’s Plumbing Tips Tuesday: Share a story (a case study of some kind) Wednesday: Share a poster (this is the poster he shares in groups to advertise his services) Thursday: Did you know? (this is where he shares something fun related to plumbing and heating Friday: Just For Fun (these posts are random questions that we ask to create engagement)
It takes a lot of the pressure off you when you have a plan to stick to, and as your business grows it means you can outsource this task too.So there you have it – a simple guide to help you generate some fun ideas for your FB group.
I hope that’s given you loads of ideas to get you started.
Facebook groups can take time, which is why it’s so important to know why you want to run them and what you want to get out of them. However, with the right strategy behind them, you can start to generate lots of business through them.
When you’ve set up your group, let me know what you’ve created. I’d love to give you a high 5.
Remember to check out my Visibility Quiz to find out whether you’re a Visibility Lady, Countess, Princess or Queen. If you’re a guy then please change the names to Lord, Count, Prince and King) Once you’ve got your score I’d love for you to come on over to my pinned post on my business page and tell me what score you got. There’s a chance to win a little prize each month.
Also, I would love to interview Ladies, Countesses, Princesses & Queens on my podcast show, Rock Your Fabulous Biz. I’ll be asking you all about what you do on visibility right now, what’s working for you, what’s not and where you’d like to be. If you’re interested then apply for your spot here – http://bit.ly/PodVisQuiz. In order for your application to be considered, you’ll need to have completed the quiz though as I’ll need to know what you’ve scored etc.
[/spp-transcript]
]]>