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How To Choose A Great Name For Your Facebook Group
Whenever we sit down with clients who want to build a successful Facebook group, one of the first… and the stickiest of sticking points is ‘what should the group name be’?
This is something that kind of jumps out at you when you’re first setting up your group.
In fact it’s one of the first things you have to tell Facebook about your group, and if you’ve not already spent some time really nailing down your group name it’s easy to put in any name that you fancy and say “That’ll do”.
So what’s the big deal?
Well the first thing to know is that if you want to change your name you’ll have to live with the one you have for at least 28 days.
That’s how long Facebook make you keep your group name before they’ll allow you to make any changes to it.
So check all the spellings!
Secondly, if you keep changing your group name it’ll give your members the impression that you don’t really know what you’re up to.
A few tweaks are fine but if you keep changing it as often as you can it’ll start to look like you’re just being indecisive and if you look like you’re lost, no one will follow you.
If you look like you're lost, no one will follow you.
Clear Vs Clever
We always encourage anyone setting up their group to try to make their name as clear as possible rather than being clever.
Being clever is hard to resist when we’re naming our online properties because generally we want to stand out as clever and inventive… to be different and interesting.
And we totally get it.
The trouble is, if it takes more than just a few short seconds to understand exactly what your group is about and what someone will get from being a member, chances are they’ll keep on scrolling.
There’s a saying that I repeat often.
I first heard it from Russel Brunson but I think it’s maybe from Dan Kennedy.
‘A confused mind always says no’
So we have to work hard not to confuse our audience.
Rather we have to make the decision to join our group simple and stress free.
We can only do that if our messaging and group description are clear and easy to understand.
We always recommend that people stay away from platitudes such as ‘become a happier you’ because, what does that even mean?
Hannibal Lecter’s version of happy is going to be very different to most people’s idea of what happy might be, so we need to be as specific as possible.
There’s deeper science behind this, but I’m making every effort to follow my own advice and make this message as easy to grasp as I can 
but I will tell you that scientists are now quoting the average human attention span as 7 seconds.
They say a Goldfish has an attention span of 8 seconds.
Hmmm,
This means that we have to grab people’s attention fast.
Avoid these things…
You’re going to want to stay away from using terms or words that are personal to you and you alone.
Don’t use your kids names or the name of something that’s close to your heart.
It won’t mean anything to your audience.
And as much as this is technically YOUR group, you’re not building it to appeal to YOU as a member.
You’re building it for others to get the benefit from.
The more targeted members you attract the bigger your business will grow.
So no pets names, no football teams (unless that’s what your group is about)… Oh and no company or product names unless you own the company.
Use searchable terms first.
Your group name is made up of what’s called ‘keywords’.
In other words they’re searchable on Facebook and Google.
So it makes sense that we want these words to be the words that someone would type in if they were looking for what our group is about (or as close as we can get to it).
So we need to do a little research and be ready with a name that will best represent our group in the search engines.
Ask yourself… what does your group actually exist for?
What do you do?
Who do you do it for?
What’s the benefit they can expect from joining your group?
Once you know what that is, put your group name together with the most important words at the FRONT of the sentence.
This is because on a mobile device you only get to see the first few words of the group name in a search, so make them the most impactful.
Take your time
It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed with this because there’s a lot to think about here.
Just don’t freak out about it, it’s all part of the process.
Here’s a fun exercise that you can do if you need a little help.
Pop over to our free Facebook group Facebook Group Mastery and ask the members if they can guess what you do just from the name of your group.
If they can’t guess then you still have some name tweaking to do.
But at least you’ll know what to work on and you can keep asking for feedback until you get a group name that you love.
If you found this helpful or you have any comments, pop them in the section below. I’d love your thoughts on this.
Steve Harradine
I help home business owners and online experts build their Facebook tribe, dial in their message and automate their sales process using organic methods so they never have to beg people to buy.
With online false claims and under-delivery of promised results becoming the norm for many right now, I believe that honest, relationship based business promotion is the way forward for anyone looking to build an online brand.
I’ve worked with thousands of business owners to help them ‘find their voice’ to clarify their message, as well as show them how to make offers in the most natural and efficient way.
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2 thoughts on “How To Choose A Great Facebook Group Name”
Some brilliant tips. I’ve always had the company name in my group name so I’m off to get it changed. Thanks
Hey Tracy, glad you liked the info 😊