Facebook groups can be one of the most powerful tools for the online business builder. They’re perfect for building and engaging with a community around a shared interest or cause. As you may know, we’ve been singing their praises for years now.

However, growing a group can be challenging, especially in a crowded and competitive social media landscape. It’s something that we get asked about constantly , so in this post, we’ll outline 9 proven strategies that’ll help with growing your Facebook group and building a strong, engaged community.

1, Define your group’s purpose and your target audience:

It’s super important that we clearly lay out exactly what our group does and who it’s for. There’s a saying that’s forever tattooed on our minds, and that’s “If you confuse em’ you lose em”. Therefore it’s imperative that we get really clear on 1, who it is that we’re looking to attract into our group, and 2, what is it that they want? In other words, where are they now and what problems are they facing that they want solved with the help of our group?

Once we’re clear on these two fundamental things, it’ll help with creating content as well as communicating exactly what we do and the mission that we’re on.

2, Create an eyeball-grabbing group cover photo and group description:

A well designed, high-quality cover photo and well-written description can make a huge difference in attracting new members to your group. There’s no shortage of groups out there on Facebook that need decoding not only with the group name and description, but also with the cover photo.

We know, we know, you love your doggie and your kids, but how does it help your group members to see them in your group cover photo? Remember, when people are considering joining your group, the only question that’s racing across their overworked brain is “will this help me? and if so… how?”

The clearer we can make the answer to that question and the easier we can make the joining decision for them, the more people we’ll see joining out group.

3, Invite friends and unashamedly promote the group in your content:

Start by reaching out to your personal network and asking them to join the group. This can be especially effective when you’re just starting out and you need to get some members in there. Remember… nobody wants to be the first person on the dancefloor so if you can generate a crowd early on it’ll encourage others to join, even if they’re not quite your ideal target audience just yet. It’ll still encourage those that are your ideal people to join.

Make sure that you’re constantly mentioning and promoting your group with a good content creation regimen. Lives and posts on both your personal profile and your page will be shown to people who Facebook deem to be interested in your content, and if you make a point of mentioning your group and talking about what’s going on over there, you’ll naturally soon have people asking to join.

The more useful content you create, the more viewers you’ll have and the more people will ask to join your group!

The caveat to this is to NOT use the dreaded invite button, most of these get ignored anyway!

Instead, drop friends a message who you think would be a great fit , give them a reason to join, and make that reason about THEM and not you!

4, Encourage members to engage and participate:

Keep the conversation going inside your group by posting regular updates, starting discussions, and asking questions. Respond to comments and messages promptly to encourage your members to engage in a chat and keep things going by asking more questions.

Encourage members to participate and engage with each other, and make sure everyone feels welcome and included in the community. If you need a little help on how to do this, we show you how inside our membership, the Tribegeeks Academy.

Facebook reward those ENGAGED meaningful communities by sending even MORE people to these groups. They want their 3billion members to have the best user experience, and when YOUR group is providing this, they will send more of your ideal members your way!

5, Collaborate with influencers and brands with complimenting audiences:

All the traffic you’ll ever need is already out here online… they just aren’t necessarily in YOUR group yet!

Partnering with influencers and brands in your niche can help you reach a larger audience and bring fresh perspectives to your group. Reach out to influencers and brands you admire who compliment what you do (not compete), and offer to collaborate on content, events, or promotions. This can be a great way to grow your group and bring new value to your members as well as leverage a tremendous amount of influence and goodwill that the other person has already built with their group members. Wanna be seen as an influencer? Then hang out with other influencers

6, Utilise Facebook’s tools and built-in features:

Facebook has a number of built-in features that can help you grow your group and engage with your members. Take advantage of features like polls, events, and live videos to keep your group active and engaging. Experiment with different features to see what works best for your group and your members.

After all, facebook is designed to make things as simple as possible, and they’re far more likely to promote content that makes use of their own tools and features than content that sends people to a third party service or website. So. if you haven’t already mastered the Facebook live platform or things such as reels or stories, this could be a worthwhile thing to focus on.

7, Provide useful content to build goodwill with your audience:

We’ve kinda touched on this, but you really want to offer valuable content and resources to your members, whether it’s industry news, expert advice, or exclusive discounts. The more value you provide, the more likely people are to stick around and recommend the group to others. Make sure to regularly post updates, share interesting articles, and provide value in other ways that your members will appreciate.

You don’t need to teach too much, it’s more about inspiration than education when you’re trying to attract to your group, but you do want to be visible as much as possible as well as building goodwill and being liked by your audience… and who doesn’t like someone who’s helping them for free?

8, Make sure that your group name is keyword optimised:

Facebook don’t give us a great deal of room to do this… 75 characters in fact (including spaces), so although we don’t have a ton of real estate, optimising your group for search engines is an important step in growing your group. Be sure to include relevant keywords in your posts and group name, and make sure your description accurately represents what your group is about and the vibe of your community. This will make it easier for people to find your group when searching for related topics on Facebook and search engines.

Again, we have specific trainings for how to do this (as well as how to name your group)
inside the Tribegeeks Academy.

9, Monitor your growth and make adjustments as needed:

Finally, it’s important to regularly review your group’s performance and make adjustments as needed. Over time you’ll try certain strategies that work really well, and if you’re not paying specific attention to those activities and how well they’re doing, you won’t be able to repeat them.

This may include tweaking your content strategy, adjusting the frequency of your posts, or testing new engagement techniques. Monitor your growth, and make changes as needed to continue building a strong, engaged community.

And when you find a strategy or an activity that works really well for you… do more of that!