How many Facebook Groups are you in right now? I bet most of you wouldn’t know the exact number and couldn’t list off every single one. I know I couldn’t.
You know what else I’d bet money on? That there are a few groups that you’d be able to think of immediately. Those that offer value to you, in which you engage and build relationships with fellow members.
This is the standard that all groups should aspire to uphold.
In this extended post, we’re going to go over every single thing you need to know about Facebook groups, including the new group updates, why you should be using them, how to create and maintain groups, best practices, and so much more.
Once you’re done the reading, you’ll have everything you need to get your group not only up and running, but thriving, too!
Here’s what plenty of businesses fail to realize: Facebook groups aren’t just for virtual garage sales and vague industry connections.
Businesses and brands of all sizes—including small one-person shops on Etsy—can create and moderate groups for their customers or target audience. These groups can have a powerful impact on the users and on your business.
This post look familiar? We’ve recently added some new sections to it to cover new updates and features throughout the post, so keep reading.
Why You Should Create Facebook Groups for Your Business
If we’re going to take you all the way through the process of creating, growing, and monitoring your group, it only makes sense that we explain why you should actually make one.
Facebook groups are extremely valuable in general, but they can have a huge impact when used in your marketing strategy. Businesses who center a group around their brand—whether it’s part of a subscription service or not— can build a community around it.
This makes your brand and products even more valuable to the customers. And what’s better than getting a group of people together who love you and your products?
Groups also give you the chance to showcase your expertise and dedication to your customers, especially since many will be asking questions that are extremely visible to other group members.
By answering these questions, encouraging and requesting feedback, and generating networking opportunities, you can forge valuable personal connections with your customers that will keep them coming back.
Think about the digital sales funnel: you don’t just want people to purchase once, and that’s it; you want to move them through loyalty and to advocacy. A Facebook group can help you do that.
There’s one more very, very important reason why businesses should be using Facebook groups, and it’s important enough that it’s getting its own section…
Facebook Groups & The Algorithm: Why They’re So Important for Businesses
You’ve likely noticed some significant changes in what content is being distributed in the newsfeed over the past year, both as a marketer and as a user.
I know around the time that Facebook Zero about broke the internet (at least from marketers’ perspective), I started seeing a lot more posts from groups. It actually felt like it made up 50% of my newsfeed (still does, sometimes), and that those posts were almost always at the top of the feed.
The new algorithm lowered the reach of most Pages even further but, simultaneously, gave group postings more priority.
This is because Facebook Zero was all about fostering communities and relationships, and showing users more of the content they want to see. Most people join groups for a reason after all, and engage with them enthusiastically.
Zuckerberg himself even said outright that people want to hear more from family, friends, and groups, and that was precisely what they were going to give users in 2018. And they clearly have.
Simply put, this means that while your business Page’s reach has gone down exponentially, your business’s group postings have a chance to rise to the top of your members’ feeds.
By using groups correctly, you’ll be able to more consistently get your content higher in the newsfeed than you have been in years.
When you combine this with all the other benefits of groups, it’s clear why they’re so valuable even though they are a time investment when executed correctly.
Facebook Page vs. Groups: What’s the Difference?
I know this is one of the first thoughts a lot of people have: I already have a Page, why do I need a group? Or should I get a group instead?
Realistically, you need both. Having a big algorithm benefit of groups doesn’t negate the need for also having a Page.
- You need to have a Page, which serves as a touchpoint for users at all stages of the digital sales funnel.
Having a Page allows you to run ad campaigns for your business, get reviews, and have plenty of public updates that include blog posts, UGC, and more. It will show up in search engines, and provides valuable information like a map and contact information for your business. Users can also message you directly.
- A group, on the other hands, puts more of a focus on community.
When users post to your Page, it gets stashed away under the “Community” tab. When they post in the group, on the other hand, it pops up and stays in the feed, center-stage, for other users to easily see and engage with. Furthermore, groups naturally invite more frequent interaction and discussions, because that’s what they’re meant to do, and users feel more comfortable. This is especially true if you express the desire for users to ask questions or share insights in the group description.
Groups also offer more value, in general. This is especially true for subscription-style groups, like AdEspresso University, where members can get expert opinions and answers quickly.
Whether this is a “what type of fabric do you use and why does it shrink in the dryer” to “how can I scale my company with only $400 in my marketing budget,” the questions are meant just for you. And when you answer them, it provides value to all the other members, too.
So you definitely still need a page. A group will never take the place of that. But at the same time, you won’t be able to build the same kind of authentic, loyal online community without a Facebook group.
New Facebook Group Features in 2018
2018 has given us some great new Facebook group features, and we have even more on the way.
There’s a few moderation/ admin-support features that have just recently been announced. If you have them, they can be accessed by tapping the “Admin tools” tab below the group photo. This is currently available on mobile.
- Admin customer support. Allows group admins to report issues or ask questions directly to Facebook itself. Their goal is to reply within a single business day, and as anyone who has every asked Facebook a question knows, this is huge. I wouldn’t be surprised if they realized this was a necessity with subscription groups being tested (we talk more about that in the monetization section), but either way, it’s a great feature to have.
- Educational resources for admins. If you’re familiar with Facebook’s Blueprint courses, the idea here is relatively similar but for admins if groups. Facebook is compiling tutorials, can studies, and more information about how to better run your groups from experienced admins who have succeeded in doing it. This will be a valuable tool, because there are so many groups that operate in different ways, it could help you find the perfect strategy for your business.
- New group rules feature. This feature will allow admins to easily notify members about the rules they broke when they remove a post. You’ll be able to do this by adding notes to a post, which are viewable to the member who left the violating post.
- Pre-approval of posts from select members. Some groups require that posts be approved by admins before being published for the group to see. In certain groups– especially those where controversy may happen frequently– this is a necessity, but if your group is large and active, it can also be an enormous time drain on admins. Being able to pre-approve posts from selected, well-trusted members will save you a ton of time and keep your moderation where you’re needed most.
In addition to these excellent new features that will make the role of admin in a Facebook group a lot more pleasant (trust me, it is not an easy or particularly fun job in a lot of cases), there’s also two new big features called Watch Party and Learning Units. AdEspresso has implemented them, but it seems like most group admins have missed the features altogether. Let’s take an in-depth look at both.
Watch Party
Watch Parties a really cool and really underused new feature that was released earlier this year. They let you share public videos on Facebook to a group, and watch it in real time with other group members. You’ll be able to view and react to the video all at once, similar to how users can interact while watching a live broadcast.
The idea is that this communal viewing and reaction will help foster a sense of community and build relationships. In our AdEspresso University Group, we’ve used it several times to showcase relevant videos and discuss them with group members. >
Hosting a watch party is ridiculously easy. When you’re in your group, go to create a post. You’ll see the option to add a “Watch Party.”
You’ll be asked to next select a video. Note that these don’t have to be your own videos, they just need to be public videos that you can share with your group. You can search for videos, and add multiple videos to your queue. If you wanted to have a Watch Party of every trailer from your favorite show, you could do that.
Once you’re ready, you’ll start your watch party, and you’ll see a screen like the one below. Your group members will see a post in the group that a Watch Party has started, but you can also invite people to the viewing in order to catch their attention and their interest.
When it comes to businesses, this feature is particularly powerful when used to discuss industry news or educational content. You can give your perspective and be available to answer questions as they come up.
One thing that we’ve learned is that now, even about six months after the feature was initially announced, most group members don’t understand what a watch party is. It isn’t something that they’ve seen before, especially since many groups don’t seem to know how to use it. To combat this, announce the watch party in a post in advance, letting people know what it is, when it will be, and how to participate. If there’s a specific benefit– like you or another expert being available to answer questions or facilitate discussion– let them know that to increase attendance.
Learning Units
Learning Units is another feature that doesn’t seem to be used nearly as often as you’d think in most groups, but that we’ve embraced in the University group. It’s available through the Social Learning group type, and it allows you to create course-like content structured in different units. All of this can be hosted through your Facebook group.
To utilize this feature, you need to set your group as a Social Learning group. To do this, go to “Edit Group Settings.”
Then look at group type. Click “change” to set it if it’s anything but social learning. If you already have social learning enabled, you’ll see the ability to set up units in your landing tab. Go ahead and click this as soon as you have the option.
If you haven’t chosen your group type yet, you can find Social Learning in the top right-hand corner.
As soon as you do this (and hit save), you’ll see a prompt to set up your learning units.
You’ll be asked to first write a title and description of your first unit. You can also make it optional, which allows users to skip over it to see other content first instead.
Once you create your unit, you can add multiple posts within it. For the example we’re going with (Facebook groups, so topical), I’d likely write a post for each subhead under my description. Users will be able to comment on these posts and ask questions, and you can add media to them as well.
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On the unit home page, you can add a description to the overall course section, and add more units. Note that you can create multiple units that are part of a set, like this example, or have one unit for Facebook Groups, one for Instagram Ads, and one for Pinterest. They don’t have to be step-by-step.
AdEspresso uses this feature to show users how to get the most out of our product with Facebook Ads. This helps our customers get more use out of our software, which is essential for us because 1) we want our customers to be happy just because and 2) happy customers stay customers longer. It’s also directly relevant to the group and valuable, both of which are important.
Admins will be able to see individual members’ progress as you move through the course, so if you use this for your business, you can see how many group members are engaging.
How to Create a Facebook Group
To create a group, you can start on your personal page. Open the drop-down menu located in the top right corner, where you can also view your activity log or log out. You’ll see “Create Group.”
To get started, name your group and then invite some people. If your group is for business purposes, keep that in mind; you want it to be easy for both existing customers and leads to find you (if you so choose). Great examples include “The Six Figure Freelancer” and, of course, our own “AdEspresso University.”
Next, add people to the group. You can invite people by entering their names and finding them on Facebook, or by using their email addresses. For business purposes, it would probably be easiest to use the email addresses from your email list, and you should leave a semi-personalized note like “Congrats! You’ve been invited to join AdEspresso University!” You can wait to invite members until the page is set up (I actually recommend this).
Finally, choose what type of group you want to create. You can choose from the following:
- Public groups, where everyone can see all content and members
- Closed groups, where anyone can see the group and member names, but not the content from the group
- Secret groups, where you have to be invited to be added.
We’ll dive into how to choose a privacy setting/group type in the next section.
You also have the option to select an icon for your group. This will be the icon next to the group’s name in the Shortcuts area.
Setting Up Your Facebook Group
Once the group is created, you need to finish setting it up. Most of this can be done by editing sections on the right-hand side of the screen, under the member names.
First, add a group description. This should clearly state what the purpose of your group is, and, if applicable, who is allowed to join or invite others. Any group policies should be placed here.
Underneath this, you’ll see the option to add tags, which are keywords. If you want your group to be public or closed, these keywords can help relevant users find you. You can add up to five tags.
At the bottom of this section, you’ll have the option to add locations for the group. For most businesses, this won’t be a feature that you’ll use, but it’s there if you need it.
Last, add a cover photo. This should be something that adequately represents your group’s interests and not a random picture of your dog, like this example (sorry, not sorry). If it’s a group centered around your business, you should absolutely incorporate your brand’s logo somewhere on it.
This photo will eventually become your group’s main photo, so keep that in mind.
To add members, all you have to do is enter their name or email address in the “adding bar” (as I so eloquently call it), found on the right-hand side of the group page. Other members can add new member addition requests.
What Type of Facebook Group Should I Choose?
We mentioned above that there are three different types of Facebook groups: public, closed, and secret. Public groups have everything visible to all Facebook users at any point, secret groups won’t even show up in searches, and closed groups are smack dab in the middle. So which do you choose?
In general, it’s best for businesses using Facebook groups to interact with their customers to choose closed groups. This way, the groups can be found, but users must request membership to get in.
Closed groups give you the opportunity to keep your group’s visibility up while also preventing users who shouldn’t be in the group (including bots and people who like to spam) from sneaking in. It also gives the group and its members some protection, along with a hint of exclusivity that never hurt. Whether your group is free or part a subscription, this is a good option.
Secret groups are ideal for small businesses using groups for internal teams.
If your group is just for your employees only, having a secret group can be a benefit. You won’t have an overload of people trying to get in because they’re a vendor or “they think it would be a cool place to work.” If your turnover isn’t high and it’s easy to add people manually, secret groups are perfect for this purpose.
I never recommend creating public groups for business or marketing purposes. They can easily spin a bit out of control and be too difficult to moderate. That’s fine for a general interest group, but it’s not something you want to be associated with your business.
Should I Establish Group Policies?
For some using Facebook groups for business or marketing, it’s helpful to establish group policies. These should be published in the description or placed on a pinned post at the top of your group.
Common policies of Facebook groups run by businesses include:
- No blatant self-promotion without running it by the admins or moderators first.
- Potential terms of service, like “you only have access to this Facebook Group as long as you’re a subscription member.”
- Respect other members, and don’t be abusive or get too heated (I’ve seen some groups say “no politics” given the current political climate).
- Don’t share any information, including screenshots or advice, from this group outside of it
- You can only be granted membership if [insert conditions here].
You don’t need to establish group policies if you don’t want to; some groups don’t. If you feel the need to, though, it can save you a lot of hassle later, especially when it comes to paid members. An example can be found below from the Sales Talk with Sales Pros group:
Essential Facebook Group Features
Several new group features have just rolled out late June (and one of which is still in testing). These features are incredible, making it easier to monitor and moderate your groups. We’re going to dive deep into each one throughout this post, getting into a lot of detail of how to use them and the impact they have, but for now, we’ll just summarize what they are:
- Group Insights. I was really, really happy to see this. We have them for Pages, after all, and we know how valuable that those are. These insights can give us information on membership, growth, and engagement data.
- Membership request filtering. Now you can require all new potential members to answer questions before joining, like “why do you want to join” or “how long have you been in the industry” and also (this is what we do on AdEspresso University, that is a customer only group) “what’s your customer email address so I can verify?”. This can help weed out bots or people who probably shouldn’t be in the group.
- Scheduled posts. You can now schedule posts in your groups, just like on your Pages. This can help keep things moving along (though you should never assume your group can be left on auto-pilot).
- Simplified member clean-up. It no longer takes multiple steps to get rid of a member and all their content; now it’s just one easy process.
- Group-to-group linking. This one is still being tested, which allows a group to recommend similar groups. The linking feature could be extremely helpful if you’re breaking down one large group into different groups. As Paul Fairbrother explains:
You could break down one large group into different niches based on subject of interest, product use case, or even languages.”
Should I Use A Questionaire to Screen Members?
Thanks to the new questionnaire screening feature, groups can decide if they want to require users to answer questions before they can be accepted for membership. And yes, you should absolutely always make users fill out a few questions.
After all, if someone is too lazy to answer the question “what’s your email log-in for the subscription” or “how long have you been in the graphic design industry,” they don’t deserve to be part of the group. Even if you let them in, they won’t be an active contributing member, which hurts the group in the long run because it inflates member numbers and engagement ratios look lower as a result.
To add a questionnaire, go to the Members section, and then Member Requests.
Here, you’ll see the option to “Ask Pending Members Questions.”
You can ask several questions, but keep them simple, because users only get 250 characters to answer each one.
How to Remove & Block People from Your Facebook Group
Sometimes, despite our best efforts to be selective with group membership, there’s still that one user who causes problems.
You should absolutely not hesitate to remove people from the group (and block them) if they are:
- Violating group policies
- Spamming the group, including with self-promotion if that’s discouraged
- Being abusive towards other members
While you may not want to get involved in what seems like personal or political matters, remember that the group’s activity 100% reflects on you as a business. If you don’t weed someone out who is being racist, sexist or being insulting to other members for whatever reason, your group engagement will drop and people may think less of your brand.
If a member is warranting removal or blocking, find them under the members’ screen. You can search if necessary. On the opposite side of their profile picture, you’ll see a small cog. When you click on it, you’ll see the option to “Remove From Group.” Click on it.
If you remove someone from the group, they can ask to rejoin later. This can be used to “suspend” members. If you are certain you never want to see them in your group again, you can click to check the “Block member” box at the bottom of this page. They won’t even be able to view the group name or find it in searches if you choose to block them.
You can review blocked members at any time in the membership search area.
Facebook Group Moderation
Facebook group moderation can be a big task—I won’t sugarcoat that. And I think that you shouldn’t start a group until you’re really ready to take it on. This doesn’t mean that you need to be living on the computer, waiting for posts to pop up, but if users ask you questions or if there’s an issue, you’ll want to be available reasonably soon to resolve it.
The biggest tasks of group moderators include:
- Keeping an eye on content to ensure nothing is violating the group’s policies, that there’s no spam and no major conflict
- Add (or remove) new members as needed; this includes approving member requests. To accept new members, you can go to “Manage group” and then “member requests.”
- Delete spam or other unwanted content from the group
- Reviewing content that has been flagged for review by other users. You can find this under “Manage group” and “Reported to admin.”
Other tasks may include posting every so often to keep engagement up and replying to questions, concerns, and even general posts.
How to Add Facebook Group Admins & Moderators
There are two different types of Page officials: moderators and admins. Moderators have the ability to approve membership (and remove and block members), and review posts and comments within the group. They can also pin or unpin posts and view the support inbox.
Admins can do everything moderators can do and more, including adding or removing admins or moderators. They can also change the group’s settings, including privacy settings, tags, and the description.
To add a new admin or moderator, go to the member screen. Click on the cog next to the individual, and choose “Make Admin” or “Make Moderator.” You can change their status at any time.
Facebook Group Insights
Facebook’s brand new group insights are incredible, and I’m so excited that we have them.
To access your group insights if you have them, you’ll see the tab on the left-hand side of the group’s navigation bar. Right now, only admins have access to group insights; group moderators do not have access to them.
(Side note: group insights don’t kick in immediately like Page insights do for new businesses. You either need to have the group established for a certain amount of time or hit a certain number of members. Facebook hasn’t released exact information on which yet, but over time this may change, and insights may become available immediately like they are for events.)
When you first open the Facebook group insights page, you’ll see a quick overview of group growth, engagement, and membership details. The navigation of the insights is straightforward, divided into these 3 groups.
You can export the details of your insights at any time by clicking on “Download details.” 
You can choose to download insights from one, two, or all three of the sections.
Growth
Under the Growth tab, you can see how much your group has grown in members.
You can also see how many membership requests you’ve accepted and how many you’ve denied.
This can help you evaluate several things, including:
- If your group is growing consistently
- The ratio of relevant vs. non-relevant membership requests you’re receiving
- If people are interested in joining and finding your group
Engagement
I think the engagement tab is the most important to pay attention to; it shows you how much activity the group’s posts are getting.
You can see information like the number of posts being shared in the group (by you and other members), how many comments the posts are getting, and how many reactions (which include likes). Underneath this, you’ll see the number of active members currently in the group. This is a crucial number, so you can monitor the overall health of your group.
Beneath this, you’ll see popular days and popular times, helping you evaluate when to post to get the most visibility on your content. You’ll also see the group’s top posts, who posted them, and their reach and engagement.
Members
Your members’ insight can give you some better insight into who your audience members actually are. Much like Facebook’s Audience Insights, this tab will show you member information like:
- Age
- Gender
- Countries
- Cities
This information can give you insight into your audience’s demographics, and allow you to cater offers and content most relevant to them.
You can also see who your top contributors are overall.
How to Offer Value in Your Facebook Group
Your group is now officially set up and (hopefully) running. It’s now up to you to determine how you want to offer value to your members. You want there to be direct benefits that they get from the group that they couldn’t get from the Page, and you want it to be obvious.
AdEspresso University, for example, has a number of AdEspresso campaign experts on-hand (with Paul Fairbrother leading the charge) to answer any and all Facebook Ads questions that others outside of the group would have to pay consulting fees to ask.
There are other experts and members of the AdEspresso team, including myself, who can all chime in when we have something to offer. Even other group members are often able to provide great insight and provide fantastic answers, making it a strong community.
Ideally, you should have someone on your team ready to answer questions every few hours. This alone is something people are willing to pay for outright.
Having group-exclusive content is also a great way to make group membership a must-have.
Whether you’re sharing insider news or giving them exclusive opportunities to weigh in new features you’re developing, this gives people a reason to be engaged in the group and actively paying attention to it.
A great example of how to do this is to say “hey, we’ve got big exciting news coming, watch soon!” so people feel like they have an exclusive heads up, without you risking anyone leaking information too soon.
Most importantly, address all questions and comments.
At least make sure the individual’s questions are covered adequately by other users. Every user needs to feel important, and if you’re able to do that, the group as a whole becomes a lot more valuable.
Two Ways Businesses Can Monetize Facebook Groups
You want to be really careful if you’re trying to monetize your Facebook groups, because genuine connection and interaction should always feel like the absolute focus for the customers.
I’ve seen paid groups go down, fast, when users felt like the business cared more about the financial transaction than their questions (which the businesses absolutely did, to be fair). This is still social media, after all, and people seem to take it particularly personally when they feel snubbed on social.
Note that while, as the writing of this post in late June, there are only two ways to monetize Facebook groups, a third option is being tested. Since it hasn’t been announced, we’ll share what we know and what this could mean with the caveat that it’s not actually a method of monetization just yet.
1. Offer Group Membership with a Purchase
One way to increase profits through a Facebook group is to include it with another purchase or membership, like AdEspresso University.
I took an incredible writing class last year, and once it’s over, all the instructor’s students are invited into her secret Facebook group upon completion. Here, the instructor offers the group exclusive job leads and answers questions as her past students have them. This group alone is just as valuable as the class and worth taking the course for, to be honest.
Plenty of businesses can use groups in this manner, however, and promote them upfront to increase the value of what you’re selling, increasing more sales. You can even raise the price of the product thanks to the group add-on.
I’ve also seen some events that have specialized groups if you purchase a ticket. These groups can be great networking opportunities (and sometimes just as valuable as the conferences themselves).
2. Use the Group to Promote Paid Products or Services
If you want the group to be free and zero-commitment of purchase, that’s fine! It doesn’t mean that you have run out of opportunities to monetize the group. Instead, you can use the group to promote other products and services that your business sells.
AdEspresso University’s pinned post, for example, features information about AdEspresso’s other paid marketing services that users can purchase. This is done quietly and non-aggressively, so users know there is no obligation or requirement to use these services, but that they’re there if you want them.
This is the perfect balance for social media, like a good salesperson—it’s there if you want it, but they’ll leave you be if you don’t.
Every so often, you can share new product or services information. Even the occasional “we have a last minute cancellation for our VIP consultation services, PM us immediately if you’re interested. First come first serve” can do wonders with users who are engaging with you on a regular basis.
Subscription Content (Potentially Coming Soon?)
TechCrunch recently broke the news that Facebook is currently testing a subscription groups option. This new feature will allow groups to charge between $4.99 to $29.99 (USD) a month for access to paid-only subgroups that feature exclusive content.
This is, unsurprisingly, about as monetization of Facebook groups as you can get.
The feature is still in testing, so there’s a lot we don’t know, but it looks like during testing Facebook isn’t taking a cut of the profits, but iOS and Android is.
Whether this stays the same, only time will tell, but I’d be shocked if Facebook itself didn’t find some way to monetize this new feature.
Once you’re able to charge for entry of sub-groups, you can offer value for an actual monetary price. This is exciting. The question remains, of course, whether or not users will be willing to pay for the group on its own, or whether they’d see it in a package deal like we currently have for AdEspresso University.
This will be something to watch, and once we know more, we’ll update this post.
Tips to Increasing Activity In Your Facebook Group
Part of keeping your group valuable (and membership up) is to maintain engagement and activity high within it. There are several ways to encourage activity and keep it at a consistent level, outside of the obvious “offer value” which we covered above.
Some of the best ways to encourage activity and engagement in your Facebook groups include:
- Use diverse types of media. This can make a big difference, because no matter how great your posts are, they’ll likely still have to compete with all the other posts in users’ feeds. Toss in some video and pictures to increase visibility and engagement.
- Ask for feedback, making use of polls. I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it: people love to give their opinions, and in a group setting, asking for feedback shows that you really care about the members’ opinions. It also helps with that level of exclusivity: if only members get to weigh in on new features or panels at an event, who wouldn’t want to be in that group?!
Creating polls is a fantastic way to do this, and it’s visually appealing so users are likely to pay attention to it. You’ll see the option to “Create a poll” just like you’d see the option to upload an image on a regular post within a group.
You’ll ask your question in the box where you usually post a status, and then you can add different options underneath. You can also choose whether you want to allow people to add their own choices, or to select multiple options.
- Be extremely responsive. If you’re responsive, sometimes your own engagement can help keep the group’s heartbeat going. Other users will see that you’re excited to be there, making them more likely to interact, too. People stay where there’s a lot of activity (never forget about FOMO).
- Ask open-ended questions. This takes feedback a step further and is more general at the same time. Open-ended questions can help give you new ideas for content and posts to work with, and they can also incite more discussion amongst you and other members than simple “yes” or “no” questions. The Blogging.org Facebook group leader Zac Johnson does an excellent job doing that in the site’s group, as seen here:
- Don’t be afraid to tag other members in posts. I’m in a group for women writers that lists freelance jobs, and one thing I love about it is that the moderators and other members will jump to tag each other so that the right candidate finds that job. Similarly, I’ve seen plenty of groups where members tag each other for expertise and opinions, even if it’s just a discussion. This is extremely valuable, and when you tag members, it shows that you remember them and you value their opinion. It’s an excellent way to get them engaging more often. Just don’t get spammy with it.
Final Thoughts
Facebook groups have always had plenty of potentials that businesses could use to their advantage, and now with the new group features, they’re more effective and powerful than ever before.
While you shouldn’t choose between a Page or a group, you should use both to build awareness and a community around your brand. The group’s exclusivity and more personal interactions will help you do just this.
What do you think? Do you use Facebook groups for your business? Have you started a group involving or centering your brand? How do you increase engagement and followers within your group? Leave us a comment and let us know what you think!
I’m trying to close a group but have 10 “Hidden Members” ~ how do I get rid of those so I can remove myself and officially shut it down?
Carrie Seger. I don’t know how to close it but you kick the members, that part is easy.
I have a group member who has never been able to post. He is not blocked from posting and it is without approval that all members can posts if related to topics listed. Is there a setting on his personal account tgat may be causing the issue? It is not only our group but all the groups he is a member of. He has asked me what can he do to fix it.
Coukd the 10 hidden members be those you may have blocked from your personal account?
Facebook now has a feature for group admins where you can remove hidden or “unavailable” members.
Go to Members. Your page splits into two sides. A left side with your admins and moderators and a right side with blocks. In the right column there should be a section that says “unavailable” and “Blocked”.
Click on Unavailable and delete any hidden members.
What if you as the admin left the group thinking you had deleted all members prior to shutting it down only to find there are still 2 hidden members and now you can’t rejoin because you have to be approved by the admin?
How do I add members. It will not let me add any more members. Do u get suspended for a bit to add members of maybe we added to many In one day?
Happening to me now 🙁
I made a group last week and it already has 18000 members .very active and engaging and not one of us can see anything in tg newsfeeds .please help
My Facebook group, a group for artist was shut down for review going on 3 weeks ago. The report was a false report by someone who was jealous. Anyway 3 week now. Isn’t that a bit much? How long can I expect to wait?
I have a closed group which is very busy and has almost twenty thousand members but not one person can see the posts on newsfeed .even I can’t .the setting are all correct but nothing is working .it’s only a week old .please advise
A group blocked me and removed posts. I have no recourse. My activity log shows that posts I made prior to the block are gone.
I am confused how my activity log is not even showing an art work picture I posted to the group also prior to being blocked. The art work also contained text a long explanation of the art work. I can’t find this on my activity either. Another artwork was placed in the groups post, which is still there but still does not show on my activity log that I posted. How can I protect my artwork if it shows in a group but not my activity log as being posted to the group?
That’s because there’s an option to remove all comments from the member Andrea. That’s why you are having that issue they were deleted. Those comments no longer exist.
there is an option through which an admin can delete the posts made by the member in the last 7 days prior to blocking
A Face Book group blocked me and removed posts. I have no recourse. My activity log shows that posts I made prior to the reason of the block are gone.
I am confused how my activity log is not even showing an art work I posted to the group also, prior to being blocked. The art work also contained text a long explanation of the art work. I can’t find this on my activity log either. Another artwork was placed in the groups post, which is still there if I wish to continue with the group when the period of penalty is over, but this art work still does not show on my activity log that I posted it? How can I protect my artwork if it shows in a group but not my activity log as being posted to the group?
The other party (reason for my block) had her post removed. This post showed her indiscretion and the reason I was blocked. The Admin have more or less removed the evidence and punished me.
Most concerning is that I can’t see my Artwork post on my Activity Log.
Ana,
Thank you for the fantastic article! Quick question – is there a limit to how many people can be in a group and if so does it vary by type of group? I heard it is a max of 250, but I am a member of a closed group that has over 30K members.
hi
i create group . But i can not see the group insights
Why?
Loving the information on this web site, you have done great
job on the posts.
Is there a way to view the answers to the member request questions after the person is approved? For example, if you want to check back on why someone was approved, can you review their response?
thanks in advance
This is a great article – thanks you. Do you know if the answers of questions can be found somewhere in the group or is that info lost once the member is approved?
Do you mean if there is a way to view the answers to the member request questions after the person is approved?
Unfortunately not 🙁 sorry
lost 🙁
So how do new groups get the admin /moderator star badges? Do we need to hit a certain amount of members first? I see most all other groups have this feature.
Hi, that’s my question too 🙁 I’ve got a group with 1.4K and still no badges for admins and moderators
Did you figure this out? My group is actually old but still doesn’t have badges
We have nearly 5000 members still no badges…
I wish we could SEE who answered the questions later so that after they are accepted we know who DIDN’T answer the questions.
If an admin of a group charges a fee for any member to sell in a Facebook group they created, are they violating any Facebook policies? I could not find any documentation on this. If it is not, would it be considered reportable income? I am interested to find more documentation around this.
Did you ever find an answer to this?
Actually any kind of monetization of a Facebook group is violating the Termos of Service.
Hi
Can we see who uses the search bar in our group, and who/what they search for, we have 1000+ members
Thanks Dave
Can anybody on the internet view a group, even if they are not Facebook members?
If I decline membership to someone in my FB group by mistake, can they ask to join again so I could approve?
yes, they can, unless you blocked them! 🙂
Great article!!
I was Added to a Group, but I show as ‘Other Member’ instead of under the ‘Member’ list. What is ‘Other Member’??
I administer two Facebook buy and sell groups. Today, I cannot approve posts. I click on “approve” and nothing happens. Also, “Group Insights” keeps posting a notification on my pages. I click on it and go there and look and when I go back to my pages, the notifications are still there. I don’t know how to remove that notification. Can anyone help with these two problems? Thanks.
I don’t have an answer for you, @Mary Blood, but I have the same issue and it’s driving me crazy!
I administer a Facebook buy and sell group. One member request keeps showing up after repeatedly declining the member. I have tried to block the request but it keeps appearing instantly after declining. What to do?
my fb group is growing but The total number of mambership doesn’t reflect that How to solve it
my fb group is growing but The total number of mambership doesn’t reflect that How to solve it
Why the problem showing
Some awesome tips, I use Facebook groups for marketing very excessively, So these tips helps a lot. I’ll try optimising my groups more and learn how insights works.
Thanks for the info!
I’m a member of our alumni fb group. Lately I can not view new post. I searched my name on member’s list and still I’m a member.
Can’t believe how detailed article this is. Some very useful info you wouldn’t find anywhere else. I use MaherPost app to post to all joined groups, does anybody have any idea whether it is safe or not?
Thanks for the info. As an admin in a FB group, is there a way to tell when/who opts to leave the group?
Is there a way to place individual members on ‘moderate’ so that only their posts require approval from a Moderator or Administrator? I’d really like to do that with new members until they show that they understand the posting rules.
Hi, i Always read your article.You are doing a great job
Keep it up.
Thank You For Giving Me Such Great Information.
My page “LENS” being under review for last 48 Hours or more ,,, but the reason is not clear to me ,,, it is disabled… How can I make it active?
Do you know if there is a limit to how many posts TOTAL can be in a Facebook group? For some reason, I am not able to make a post. I am the Admin. When I click Write Post, I start typing & the box clears to while & I cannot type the post. Strange….
Is there a way of sending an Invite for people to join a Closed Group instead of just adding friends to the group?
Dear sir or madam
I would like to report that my group is being interfered with by a third party who clearly don’t want it to do well.
Some features are disabled such as news feeds don’t roll like it used to notifications are also disabled I don’t get new members notification please advice ne what will I do?
Total members is more than 96 k.
I am an admin for a group. There is a member who cannot post in the group. He is not restricted from posting and all members post without having pre-approval. Is there a setting on his personal account in privacy that coukd be the issue? He is the onky one having problems. It is not only with our group that he is having issues but with all the grouos he is a member. I have insured it is not from our end. None of tge admins or owner has him blocked. Hope youbcan help. The owner and us admins woukd appreciate any insight.
I created a public group yesterday and the only way one can see it or join is if I invite them. So in order to join I have to have them friend me so I can invite them into the group
A few things that are a pain in the arse with these groups, especially as an admin, anyone can post, but only the poster can edit the post, and only friends can add friends. And now for some strange reason, my tags are only occasionally working???
I started a private group and started adding people. All of a sudden, it is just showing them as “invited and not added” to my group. It isn’t a random thing. It is everyone since the first “invited” one happened. I am an Administrator.
This is happening to my Star Trek group. We can no longer add members, only invite them. I would like to know why it has changed. We have 14.3 K members but we can hardly grow anymore like we used to. It’s very infuriating and I’m thinking about archiving because it has kind of lost its appeal. It feels like we are out in a wasteland of sorts. We never get join requests, whereas we used to get a lot.
I’m an admin. with a lost and found animal group.
I’m looking for information regarding making photo albums. When I create an album, it is automatically duplicated in the group’s feed.
I’m looking at a way to avoid this. I deleted the album in the feed, but it automatically deleted the main album.
If there’s anyone out there who has a solution to this problem, I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.
Hello, I recently started a public group and was notified that when members go to the group page they are not able to see all posts. As an admin I can see them. My fiance is not an admin looked on the group page and confirmed that he also was not able to see all of my posts either just as other members had told me. I have a bid site so the only bidders I am getting are those that happen to be on Facebook at the time I post and see my post in their news feed. Any help is appreciated. I have contacted Facebook help and have received no response. Thank you!
How long does Facebook keeps post on group website
Thank you for the most detailed post about FB groups. It is a big job to describe all the aspects. This site is a most useful one I’ve found about all topics in digital marketing.
I’m in a closed buying-selling group and recently have found that I can only view 9 photos of products for sale in a post that can have up to 30 or 40 photos total. Any idea why that is, and how I can change my settings so I can see all the photos in posts?
In my Group where the tabs are that say About, Discussion, Members, Events, etc. theres a tab titled “Recommendations” which has a list of group recommendations where members have posted businesses in comments as recommendations and they end up in that section. I did not add this section to the page and a lot of the businesses recommended there are not recommendations I would approve for the group.
How do I remove these recommendations within this tab and if I can’t, how do I delete the recommendations tab entirely?
Adding my self here, because I need this answered also!
Good info. Lucky me I discovered your website by chance (stumbleupon).
I’ve saved it for later!
I admin three groups. All but the largest group has the new group features like announcements and rules. Why doesn’t my largest group have these? (750 members, closed group)
For some reason, I cannot figure out how to implement the “Discussion Topics” feature in Facebook groups. I have it in a few other groups, but I am not able to create a new group with this feature.
Is there a special setting? Where do I find it?
Some really great tips, especially since the recent changes to the Facebook algorithms for business pages mean that organic reach is down.
What’s the best way to offer access to paid info in you FB group? Is it The purchase membership? I would like to open a private group but keep certain materials available to those who have paid.
I created a public Group which I would like to be searchable/viewable by anyone regardless of whether they have a FB account. How do I do this?
I am not able to view the members of any closed groups anymore. any idea why?
Good article, but what about events in the group?!
When I add one it goes under my name instead of the page name!?
Hi, I am on a Microsoft Laptop and I cannot see the “Personalize your invite” button. I made a lady admin of my group who uses a Mac and Safari – she can see it.
WT… Is that intended by Facebook?
I have a Group offering clothing to individuals, it has become a scrolling nightmare to locate the clothes for our members. I have been asked many time if there was a way to organize in to sub categories/groups to make locating easier. Why is this not a feature allowed in a facebook group and it should be. Please consider making this possible. Thank you, Kandy
Hi, I admin a neighbourhood-type group for the small town I live in. I ask people to answer to answer a question about reading and following the rules. However, many people do not answer. I can see from their profiles that they live in my town, and I’d like to approve them, but they are missing the questions. I can message them, but only as myself, so if we’re not friends, it will just disappear to the spam folder. Facebook should have a function where an admin can contact people wanting to join, reminding them to answer the questions or asking them for more information. It shouldn’t have to be down to messaging between individuals who don’t know each other.
I would like to create a secret group however I wanted to know if Facebook would automatically suggest other groups with the same interests in my group , I know for sure they suggest lots of groups to members but I want to make sure it doesn’t happen in a secret group …ty
Members that posted immediately after creating the group are being tagged “Founding Member”. NO THEY AREN’T. Has anyone figured out how to remove this flag?
I just figured it out from my own group. Under the group cover photo, click the More button then go to Edit Group settings. Then go to Manage badges, click off founding members and it should delete all the founding members badges.
I’m looking for the option to even MANAGE BADGES. It is not in one of the groups I admin, but is in a different group I admin. Do we know if this is just FB rolling things out super slowly or am I missing something?
Great article. I printed it. Shared it…. and followed it to set up my new closed group ‘the Dogs of Canning with Councillor Patrick Hall’. Unfortunately no-one seems to be able to find my group when searching for it in FB. It’s as if it’s invisible. I have checked the settings and it’s definitely a closed (not secret) group. HELP!!!! I’ve seen this exact same problem all over the internet… no one seems to have an answer. One thing, I have not selected any ‘tags’ or selected an appropriate group category (nothing seemed to fit). Could that be an issue? People are typing in the EXACT group name and still are unable to find it.
this is happened three times now that I have been removed after I complain that they censored a thread not because of me but because it was getting a little heated in fact this last one that I was on the heated was going on when I got in and walked into it and I saw that the girl was being hammered by all the other people because she had said she didn’t like people brushing whole groups of people or countries and I agreed with her but,, they killed the thread at that moment when she had left me a message already on my notifications that she appreciated it and liked it and that meant she is calm down when everybody else is hammering her and she was so nobody knows cuz she calm down and so that group now may be treating her accordingly to what they remember the last thing you said I on the other hand said I don’t like censorship so I’m not joining any more Facebook groups at all I’m removing myself from the ones I have been put on and I’m telling everybody not to put me on anymore or blocking that from happening but I want to know what happens to my art that’s left on that group when that happens and I bet the answer is going to be another wrong
I am managing several pages for a client. I am looking to clean up and streamline their Facebook pages. As of right now they don’t have a group. They host marathon and running events (non-profit). As of now they have their main Get Bold facebook page (it has the least likes/followers). Then they have several other pages one with about 4,300 like/followers, each of these pages are specific to the event. I’d like to know if I should take their Get Bold main page, convert that to a group. Then take the page that has the most like/followers and update that to be their main page? Then I can delete all other pages, so instead of each event having a separate page … each event would be added as an event on the new Get Bold page. This way we would have the benefit of the large following being moved to their main page, where followers would see all events and in addition now they would have a group. What would you suggest?
i search for list of group that accept post automaticly
I’m having a hard time adding members to my secret group. I am able to add people who “like” my public page, but only the first 40 come up in the list. Invites sent to people’s emails don’t always work. The only way I’ve been able to add some people is to friend them, add them to the group, and then unfriend them. I don’t want to make it a closed group unless I have to.
Any suggestions?
I am for some reason no longer able to pin posts in the groups I admin, is that a feature that is no longer available?
I did not see anything about troubleshooting Facebook on this page. I administer two groups and cannot see either one. I have the same problem trying to load other groups that I have joined. There is either a totally blank page with nowhere to log in or an error message. I am trying to access through Google on a laptop computer. Thanks for any help.
Hi. Great post.
I understand that I can give someone else the right to manage my FB group, so for example they can create new posts in the group, remove old ones etc.?
I’m asking just in case I wanted to sell my FB group to someone else. I hope such things are possible?
Awesome content! I was hoping to learn why we suddenly can’t approve members who areadded to our group? Is there a reference regarding notifications that prospective members must also approve before being added to a group? Hoping you have insights! 🙂
Awesome content! Hey how many groups can i post comments to in a day?
I set up a ‘Social Learning”group. but I can’t seem to find individual completion progress for each member. Do i have to wait 28 days like it is the case in “top Contributors”feature? The thing is that I promised them a completion certificate upon completion. I can’t tell out of the 300 hundred in my group who finished the units who didn’t.
My course is scheduled for only 10 days to finish.
Any help?
Thanks
Why’d you feature niggers in your article? I don’t browse sites such as this to have my senses offended by the co-mingling of Europeans and racial aliens, disgusting, you should feel ashamed.
How long does ‘new member’ status last?
2 weeks, if you go to badges in group settings and click it gives you information on each of the badges…
You can also turn each badge off from there so they don’t show at all, or individual members can turn their own badges on and off as they please…
Judith, you have to mark the post as an announcement first. Once it is an announcement, you can pin it as a post.
This allows you to have several announcements, but one at the top of your list.
I have both a personal page and a group page. I can share pics from my group page to my personal page, but I cannot share from my personal page to my group page. According to my settings, it shows that People can share to it. Why can’t I? Please help.
An exciting update for all Facebook group admins is the fact that you can now connect your Facebook pixel to the group. This allows us to track members behaviour on our website (add to carts, purchases etc.)
I wrote a summary here https://newsfeed.org/facebook-will-soon-allow-admins-to-add-pixel-to-their-facebook-groups/
I am currently trying to customise my group URL and every time I enter the new word and click ‘customize address’ nothing happens. Had anyone else had this issue? The customisation I am trying to use is available and I have been able to do the same before for other groups, but it is not working for myself or any other admin.
For the last 3 weeks, I have noticed that I cannot see the “seen bys” on my secret FB group. They show up for a second, but then disappear. The only people I see are the people who “liked” the post. Did the Group Insights replace that see by feature?
I’m experiencing that same issue in my group. Not sure what I saw happening?
for over 5 weeks, I too have been unable to get my ‘seen by’ feature to work, AFTER somebody clicks ‘like’, apparently. The counter then drops back to just the one who clicked ‘like’, then subsequent ones who click ‘like’ as well. This is really throwing us off the entire game plan. How may I FIX THIS? I’ve had my Group on FB since 2009, and maintain 222 members. Yikes!
I am also having this same issue with the”seen by” counter, and its very frustrating. This has been going on for a few months now! How can this be fixed to go back to the original way it was working?
There seems to be a recent issue with Seen By in a Group, it has dramatically reduce in number, but people are telling me that they have seen the post? the group is only 200 members so nowhere near the seen by cut off.Spectr
Quick question… for some reason when I post to a group that I moderate (I am not the group owner) it posts as me. I am an admin and have been for a while. I have been trying to figure out how to post as the group name and not as myself. Can you help?
I am trying to add a member as an admin, but I do not get the gear icon, only “…” and there is not an ‘add admin’ option. Anyone else have this issue or can help?
thanks for the article. i am creating a new group and i notice that i don’t have the ability to have potential members answer questions but in my other groups I do. Is there a certain type of group it needs to be in order to have this option
Can you tell if a person who has been added to the group has actually accepted the request from another member?
I am on the committee of a community group and manage and are an Admin on our general page – previously a group page was set up and it’s not satisfactory as we want people to respond to and share our page notifications – Problem is they both bear exactly the same name so we are not getting our messages out to the people we want to reach (not the group) So the answer would be to close the group Yes? But no-one knows who is the administrator or who set it up. Arrrgh! Can we still close this group???
Can I review the questions members initially answered to join the group?
I set up a Club group and a club page,all the admins on the group used to be able to post as ADMIN but now it seems that that option has been removed or settings have changed.How do we get that facility back as some things,information etc need to be posted by ADMIN rather than an individual club committee member.
I have a page with a link and 35 people have liked my page but have not joined the group. Why does fb ask ppl to like the page of a promotion? How do I remove the like page and change it to join group?
When I share my website link to facebook post. I get this error (“Posts that look like spam according to our Community Guidelines are blocked on Facebook and can’t be edited.”). My website has no content that violates fb community guidelines. My website link is namobot.com Please help.
What happened to topics. They were the best Idea ever. I fell under some pretty strange circumstances and for no one to say diddly about them through this entire article isn’t right. So I just started a singles group right.. About a week into it I have rules up and I’m slowly tinkering with topics and units. I’m cold marketing the group to another large group. And apparently I ruffle some feathers unintentionally. Next thing I know I’m shut down. That was on the 28th. So I do my research and discover it could be 21 days. So I build a knew one. Just after I got on a weekendation. When I get back, the facebook update has rolled out. Now from the looks of things because I belong to other groups, had I at least made one topic, I would have been golden. I would have at least been able to get to it. However that was not the case at all. Now since the rollout and new group and no heads up. I don’t get to use the new topics at all. I really liked how the topics were placed on the right. And on a side note. I am glad they combined the app and the browser side settings to all match. That is nice. Lol anybody with any suggestions would be great.
Great info and I appreciate it! When I try to add tags it wants to self populate with FB Groups. What if I just want to add things like ‘bohemian’, ‘gypsy’, ‘artisan’?
I do accept as true with all the ideas you have presented for
your post. They are really convincing and
will definitely work.
Thanks for the post.
I am a part of a Facebook group which is involved with quilting. They have recently encouraged members to display their blocks by adding them to albums created for each block. Previously the feed was a pleasure to scroll because each post came up individually. Now, however, the Album pops up instead, which is a royal pain. I have discovered that I can force my post into the feed by commenting on it myself. But the album still pops up too. My question is this: Is there a way that the Admins can make it so that Albums never pop up in the feed when new items are added to them? Or better still, can individual members customize the behavior of albums in their own feeds. I have already posted my discovery about commenting your own post, but that does not solve the annoying album behavior. Any thoughts?
It really is hard to come by educated people for this topic, but you seem like do you know what you are dealing with!
Thanks
Our school parent organization wants to create a group for the parents. However, we want to use our organization’s information rather than our personal information to create the group so that as our students graduate, the new officers become the admins and the old leave the group. We don’t want a single person to be the “Creator.” Is it possible to do this?
Hi
As a moderator how can I send a notification of a post to all group members?
Thanks
I would create a group chat! Works great for me to inform my group members of important posts or a live that will be forthcoming. etc.
I moderate a group with around 1,300 people, and it is VERY time-intensive. My biggest problem is identifying new replies. For example, if a post gets bumped to the top that has 50 comments, I have to go on an Easter egg hunt and open up *every single comment* to identify the one or more comments with new replies. Sometimes I see a blue line on new replies, and sometimes I see a time stamp on the last reply. However, this is inconsistent. Is there a more efficient way to make sure I’m not missing any new replies?
if you’ve removed yourself from a secret Facebook group and clicked the little box that says “do not allow friends to re-add” is there a way for the individual to remove that block and allow admin to add that person back again?
I was recently invited to a private group and was sent via email a join link. I hit the link and got an error.
Sorry, this content is’t available right now.
The page may only be visible to an audience you’re not in.
What needs to be done to join???
Nobody is seeing my posts on my group page which I’m the administrator. The last 2 weeks only 1 or 2 shows as “Seen”. How do I fix this?
We are trying to use Facebook groups for our church. We’ve created a “Mom’s Group” closed group and linked to our church page. However, we don’t want every church page admin to be able to see inside the closed group and conversation. Is there any way around this privacy issue?
Excellent article. Thanks
It seems you suggest that the group be created from one’s personal FB page. I’m trying to find out if one can create a group from a business page and so have it associated in some way with the business page. Or is the group page totally independent of the business page. Thank you
Sir group post are not showing members new feed like or comment also decrease resently I am change the setting public to private but after few hour I again changed its into public group but problem are that member are not find any single post of a group
Sir recently I am change the setting of my group public to private but after few hours I am again changed into a public now members are report that they not find any single post on new feed like or comment also decrease
Excellent guideline. I appropriate you write really good content. But some people face problem for buying group members. Because If you have lots of group members then possible to get traffic for your websites.
Excellent guideline. I appropriate you write really good content. But some people face problem for buying group members. Because If you have lots of group members then possible to get traffic for your websites.
Great article thank you for taking the time to write in such detail. In my small group of just over 80 more than half would usually “see” my post. That number has slowly been dwindling and my most recent post was only “seen by 4”. Do you know what would be causing this and how I can fix it?
The exact same thing is happening in my closed FB group. I have 79 members and was averaging 30-40 views but now I’m lucky if 4 people view something! So aggravating!
The same thing is happening to me and has been for a few weeks now. It’s so upsetting! It helped me to see how had “seen” my posts. I have over a 150 members. It started anywhere between 50 to sometimes over 100 seeing my posts to now I’m lucky if I get 1 to 4. I don’t understand how this happened all of a sudden over the last few weeks. Does anyone else know? In this article it mentions where you can contact Facebook and ask them a question. I still haven’t figured out how to do this. Anyone else?
What is up with that? I’m so frustrated I’ve lost momentum in my nice little community in my group, people aren’t seeing my posts. THat’s not fair! It goes against what this article says about prioritizing FB groups over pages!! These people WANT to see the posts.
You cant fix it. Read my other comments on this page. Fb has destroyed the essence of what a fb group used to mean. Its become a mish mash of hyped up technology. Inconsistent from one day to another.
What does the hand symbol next to my name mean when I post in a group?
Also what does the shield symbol and coffee symbol mean next to someone’s name when they post in the same group?
Are there any other symbols that appear after the users name?; if so what do they mean
I have a buy sell tread group.
My rules are You need to live 50 to 75 miles from where i am.
you must post in English.
NO BUSINESS ADD.
Are these rules against Facebook policies
how do we share files in a closed group
i was doing great till half way thru 2018 something changed and now they cant open any of the files i post in our group
is there a reason why
yes i have it set so they can see it open it etc but not one member in our group can open files anymore
like we created rules and put them in a doc and we keep it in our files for reference no good if we no one can open them anymore
What I’m struggling with is the option to limit the potential members to multiple countries. Specifically I’d like to make the group invisible to Asian Facebook members, as I’m blocking 25-40 spammers from Indonesia specifically per day. All of these accounts are brand new (less than 6 months old) and with 2-3 friends and multiple groups that they belong to.
I have a facebook group I created with my Fanpage, it shows my fanpage as an admin but not myself.
I am the admin of the page but have no way of accessing the group settings or adding admins which means it’s pretty much dead.
Any ideas on how I can regain control of the group?
I have created a group and I now get an error message saying “this group has reached the limit on the number of members a given group can have.” but my group only has 265 members, please help!
I am the only admin of my group, and all of a sudden I do not have have admin priviledges. How can I get control of my group back?
My group is Public and there are no restrictions to it but when someone looks for the name that is not part of the group it does not come up. Why is this? I tried everything and its like my group is invincible. Please help.
I am the only admin of a group and accidentally removed myself as admin. How can I undo this. Please HELP!
Viewing any of the groups that I am a member of I do not see the left hand side menu and therefore cannot access features eg files. Have I got a setting set that causes this and how top change this?
My post views in my group have dropped from around 60 out of 200 members to 2-4 views in the last couple of months. I am doing nothing different to cause this. A recent poll verified that the wanted me to keep giving the information I am offering.
Any ideas as to why?
Looks like this issue affects a lot of groups. I have a group of ~100 members, usually posts had about 80-90 views. Now it is 5-15… This must be a bug on FB side.
Not a bug. Its the fb nutty algorythm that “administers” your group now. Its destroying the whole focus of having groups and keeping all members updated. High profile groups 2000 members probably wouldnt notice, but the average group with 100-200 members is where it is really apparent. Your members need to react. If they merely “see” they dont receive your posts in their feed. Some of my members have missed my posts and have manually typed in the name of the group to keep updated. Guess what? they have received recent posts and reacted. But it wont last if they dont react to everything! Its become a farce. My other replies on here demonstrate my anger.
Would love to perpetually get updated outstanding weblog!
Can someaone help me please? I’ve got a group with 1.4K members but admins,moderators,new members, conversation starters have no badges. When will the badges show up? Mant thanks
I have a closed FB group of 120 members and find that it is being “seen” by less and less members. The first posts were seen by the most and they decrease since then. Members report not being notified about posts. Videos only get “seen”by nearly half and even with more commenting, members are not seeing posts. Is this some sort of FB algorithm?
Its fb logic!
I have posted my anger on here about the absurdity of what is going on with fb
I run a group and the essence of it has been totally lost. I and many others Im sure, have the same problem you describe. Its Fb or their nutty algorhthm that “administers” your group now. Deciding who, how and when. I am fuming. The dynamics of the group has been destroyed. My posts disappear into thin air. Havent a clue who sees them but have been carrying out a little research and I only have fb to thank for their wretched ridiculous high tech hype for destroying the hard work of administrators and time spent keeping their members up to date. If your members dont react they dont get im afraid…and they may miss out considerably and just give up being a member. High profile groups eg 2000 members or more dont feel it so hard. Probably dont notice. Very sad. Im talking about the average 100-200 members
I am having trouble with Facebook Blocking me as an admin from adding people to the group. How does Facebook think people are able to use the group if we can’t even add people on a regular basis. There is never a warning just blocked. What is the solution for this. Seems like Facebook is knocking people down from exactly what they are trying to build.
Several people have this issue including me but I haven’t seen and answer yet. 🙁
I have linked groups to a VIP page I have before, but this past week, I’ve tried multiple times to link the VIP page to another group I manage, but NEITHER group is visable as an option in each others’ groups and I can’t seem to find anything on the internet to help me figure this out. Is this a FB glitch or is there something i need to know about how the groups are set up that may be causing the issue.
“Glitch” is being very polite. Fb is full of them
Does Facebook Groups have a way to include a non-Facebook member (someone who refuses to get a Facebook account for whatever reason) in a Facebook group activities via email? For instance, a small apartment building has a private group, but not all of the tenants use, or want to use, Facebook. It would be nice to be able to include these holdouts in the goings-on (posts, photos, etc.) of this group via email bidirectionally, meaning they get an email containing all posts *and* their email reply registers as a post in the group on the Facebook side. Is this possible? Yet? Hoping so! Thanks!! 🙂
Hello Everyone, I have asked this question on the facebook group forum and received no answers. From what I understand it you classify a post as an announcement it stays at the top of your group discussion. I posted an announcement to our group page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/cbmga.org/ , it is a new class announcement) and for me and at least one other member if we go to the group, there it is at the top of the page but at least one member (and unknown others) when they go to the group, the announcement is NOT at the top of the discussion. Can anyone solve this? I would really like the announcement to be at the top of the discussion for everyone that goes to our group page.
Have to press on the announcement button found in the menu running along the top with the chat, posts, discussion, announcements buttons etc It used to be as you say but all changed for the worse now. My “add announcement” button has disappeared now. And im desperate to add one.Hope you can find yours!
Our group is secret and we do not show the option to ask questions of new members. Is this because we are secret?
Thank you for a fab article covering it all, woow great job.
Would you know why on my group (and not any other) the right hand side panel is gone away about 3 days ago and I cannot seem to be able to restore it at all? It is the one with members numbers, welcome post, grup description, tags etc?
I would appreciate any advice and thank you in advance 🙂
Have a good day 🙂
Its a shame that fb has reached the stage where it has to reteach its members on how to use it. You probably werent born before it became hyped up technology sop
I’d like to know about allowing group members sharing their events. Pros and cons. Does the group appear to endorse the events. Is there an easy way to moderate. I’m also curious about whether I should allow pages to join the group. FB now allows it and I’m concerned about the group being spammed by biz pages. Right now my page is the one attached to the group and I don’t want that attachment to be weakened. Thanks
I am an administrator. I cannot add on new members. I keep getting the message, something was wrong and the person wasn’t added. There is also a list of people supposedly in preview mode but I don’t see any options to approve their membership.
What is going on?
I’m in the same boat. Now my members can only invite and it is really killing us. I’m about ready to archive but the people do enjoy the group. It’s upsetting to me.
Ongoing for ages and ages. My experience anyway
We still can’t delete our own posts from a group that we no longer are in. This needs to change asap. When someone leaves a group or gets kicked from one, they should be allowed to choose if to delete their own post and content from it.
I have a few posts that generate over 800 comments in a month which has proven to shut the post down. How many comments is max? I have started deleting comments as I go to avoid this. Will it affect my engagement score to delete them or does the engagement stay the same regardless?
If Facebook deleted a group… can it get back??
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Thanks for the article, it´s really interesting.
I would like to add topic tags to our posts so that we can easily find old posts about x, y, z.. and all the other topics we post about. I’ve seen it in other groups as a box in the right hand side bar “topic tags” and a little tag icon that allows you to categorize a post as you make it – but here it doesn’t appear. Does anyone know how to do that?
Thanks in advance,
Your help is needed. In my secret group, members who invited people need to resend the invite. At this time, what I can tell, only the admins can see the resend invite. Is there a way for members to resend the invite or us admins?
Question: if someone chooses not to join your group after you have added them, will you be able to add them again? I’m hesitant to continue adding friends because i don’t know if I’ve already added them! Thank you for this very informative post.
This is all good, and well done Facebook. I am looking forward to the new group abilities.
However, where is the being informed of persons whom have left group. This is to not re-invite and/or place on an approval needed list, if they want to rejoin etc.
This question may end up in a void somewhere, but I haven’t seen it answered anywhere. I have 3 questions to filter new members. If one of my current members adds someone new, I have it set so that I must approve, however, they don’t get the filtering questions! Help! Is this a bug? I don’t see a setting for it.
If I have a public FB Group and created a public FB Group Event and invited non-group members to join it, is there a reason GROUP members are the only ones who can hit GOING? I thought if the FB group event is public, anyone should be able to hit GOING not INTERESTED. Is there a policy about this or a fix for this?
It appears that I am blocked from added people to my own group. It doesn’t say so directly but when I add, nothing happens. Could this be true? How do I fix it?
Same here 🙁
I am having a hard time gaining engagement of a group. Would you suggest removing all members and starting over?
Are they actually receiving your posts? This is the problem these days. Fb decides who and when. Groups have been severely flawed since …well…read this above page again. Should it be really necessary to have to teach people how to use fb?
Once it was written for ordinary people. Not robots.
If you can find the “add announcement button” (mine has disappeared…there we go) first ask if they are receiving your posts, and ask for feedback. The algorythm will prick up its ears when people react and thus feed them your posts.
OR suggest to your group members that they manually need to look up the group s name in order for the algorythm to detect interest, and thus will show your posts in their feed. This is how it works these days it seems. Fb has twisted it this way. If they are not receiving your posts then how can they react anyway? That is why I have suggested the above.
The ability to add “tags” is flawed. The only options I get are to add current pages that exist but none of them that pop up are even relevant to the tag Im trying to add. Go figure, Facebook … a multi million dollar platform, can’t even get tags right. Sad.
I’m trying to invite my Page Fans to join my Group. The Group is linked to the Page.
But when I go to the Groups tab, and click the Invite button next to the Group, I get the following message: “There aren’t any fans of … to invite at this time.”
Why is this happening? There are many Fans that have not been invited to the Group yet, so that cannot be the reason.
Thanks!
Is it now possible to change Facebook group name with more than 100 000 members?
When I go to add members; no members come up. I can’t change the photo. I can’t do anything past creating the group. I hope I’m missing something obvious. Please advise.
Dear fb, I always have loads of troubles w fb groups. Groups bully me w rules that people break. I always get in trouble and never do anything wrong. There needs to be more Human Resources for problem solving cause nobody sees situations correctly and blame wrong person. The block can’t always be a solution. Please please do something about groups.
Your style is so unique compared to other folks I’ve read stuff from.
Many thanks for posting when you have the opportunity, Guess I’ll
just book mark this page.
I am a member of a travel group that has a “Recommendations” tab which shows goods, services and locations that have been recommended previously in the group in an orderly categorized manner. How can I add a “recommendations” tab to my group?
Why aren’t group members seeing my posts? I am posting daily, but only see that some have no views, some only 2 views, none more than like 6 views ???
Its happening to many. The essence of group membership has been destroyed by fb whimsical great and unclever ideas. Read this page again for example
I am wondering if it is possible to host a Facebook Premiere in a group like you can on a Like Page?
Very new to this. Can someone tell me the difference between “Seen by” and “Viewed by” on a live video?
Wouldnt bother about “seen by” On my fb group I have now lost this very useful tip. I now feel my posts (i’m an admin)go out into thin air and not to members. Havent a clue who sees them anymore. Only fb decides and might let you know about 1 or 3 reactions! Farce fb has gone just a little over the top with their cleverness UN.
Can Facebook remove members from a closed or secret group? There are a number of posts going around which suggest that facebook (rather than the group’s admins) have “culled” members who haven’t posted within a certain timeframe.
Thanks, I will go to study in more detail.
I’ve just been made admin in a group recently and want to know if a messaging system can be set up directly to the group opposed to individual admins being messaged?
I am the admin of a group of 9k people and Facebook does not allow me to add any more members even other people are trying to add to my group and nothing. Several people have the same issue here but o answer so far.
Hi there. Great article and information. I have a quick question. I have a page and I would like to join certain groups under that page name and not my personal profile name. Is this possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
I have a group of 96 members and I used to be able to see ‘seen by’ numbers for every post. They were constistently in the 15-40 range. Over the last 6 months I’ve had posts that have no ‘seen by’ info and posts that have very few seen by (1-6) and then some posts show a seen by number that changes over time from high to low for one post. I would understand if it has been taken away altogether but it seems to come and go and be very inconsistent.’
Fb has bugged up membership groups. All what you say here is my experience too. Fb has become a mish mash of hyped up technology which as you say is inconsistent from day to day. I have put my comment which has to be moderated. Fb had become farcicle. Ridiculous. Why the heck do we need this page an epistlye of ribbish, to explain to everyone HOW to use fb. WHY has it become necessary???? Laughable.
Fb has become a mish mash. They are not into the right minds of simplicity or organised. Its a nighmare and quagmire of “oooh arent we (fb) clever?” Group membership has been bugged. Half the members dont see feeds anymore. Fb decides WHO will see them, depending upon reactions. Now fb listen here, if people dont receive feed on something of interest to them HOW can they react- rather very silly. I suggest you reinstall technicians that have the minds of normal human beings instead of churning out all the rubbish (inconsistent by the way from day to day ) by mindless robots. Facebook has become farcicle. Not like it used to be…easy straightforward for people to know what they are doing. Fb has become outrageous and ridulously high hyped in technology, that isnt cared for very much. Take this page for example. What a load of …. should you REALLY have to go into an epistle of explanation on how to use fb. Get real
Thanks very much, very informative. However, I’m trying to discern how to either create a FB group from my business page or link my FB group to my business page. Every walk-through I’ve found to explain this has been antiquated since FB keeps updating things. Please help if you know how to accomplish this, thanks again.
How do I post as an admin? When I post it appears as just another member
What is the maximum number of GROUP Posts the whole GROUP can post into one GROUP per day?
Trying to understand total GROUP POSTS that can be made not for 1 individual. How many NEW Posts can ALL GROUP Members make in total?
Can a group take 5000 NEW POSTS a day – even if they are video posts?
Hello. I created a Facebook Group, but I share posts as me not as the Group. Is that how is it. It’s just doesn’t feel right? Please help
If I am not a member of a group and click to view the post, will it say “seen by” my name?
I admin a group page. It says I have messages but when I click on the message box there are no messages Help.
Yesterday, I lost everything on the right hand side of 5 of the 6 pages I administer. Everything from the description down.. the members, the most recent photos, the most recent posts. Any idea how to get these back. One of the pages was left OK.. Not sure what happened or how to fix it.
If It appears I have been removed from a group with no explanation what so ever & the admins are not responding to my request for an explanation. Is there anything I can do about it. I know this may sound silly but I’d obviously like to know if someone has made any false allegations against me ?
I joined a group as my page, made a post and want to delete it now but I don’t have the option to delete. How do I delete it?
I have a class reunion page set up. I usually thought that when I posted something on it a notification went out to members. That doesn’t seem to be happening anymore. I’ve confirmed with some members who didn’t get any notice. How do I fix this?
Excellent article.
How do we post a ‘join the group’ on the facebook page?
Thanks
I am the admin of a secret group. Someone, not a member, reacted to a post I put on the group. How does a non member comment or react to anything in a secret group? His wife is a member but the actions I speak of show in his name, not hers. Thank you.
If FB truly wants to promote groups then why is there no longer anyway to post directly to your groups from photos, social media or links on the net? This needs to be reestablished asap or groups will die. If I can’t post to the two groups I’m an admin for then there is no way to keep them active and viable. If I can’t post to the groups I’m a member of then those groups will also expire. Wake up FB. THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO KEEP GROUPS GOING…
I made a group last week and it already has 18000 members .very active and engaging and not one of us can see anything in tg newsfeeds .please help
I run a gardening group over the last few months I find it hopples to add new members f/b removes them before they reach my group also this month they have been stopping my posts as not in f/b policy