Facebook Groups are the new way to communicate on the platform. It’s time to pay attention to Facebook Groups. Facebook is trimming your newsfeed of friends and family and promoting groups because that’s where people interact most. Now for some this will be a real bummer, I know it is for me. I have a confession to make, I’m a Facebook stalker. I rarely interact, I’m just there for the good stuff, this really is how I keep up with people, I see their posts I know when good stuff happens and when they need a lift.
What I really see on Facebook is mostly group conversations, which is fine, but I’m in a lot of learning groups. So much of my feed is focused on problems learning something new and fixing that. While it’s great information, it is not entertaining in any way. It is also frustrating because the same questions get asked repeatedly, that’s when I realized that people don’t know how to be good community members on Facebook. So here’s my tips
How to discover groups
Facebook is encouraging discovery, they are trying to connect you to places and people you have common interests with. Just choose Groups from your menu and they will offer Groups they think you would enjoy. You can even see the Groups your friends are in, go ahead and ask to join. Facebook wants to encourage you to stay on their platform, since Groups have the most engagement, that’s where they want you.
What to do when you ask to join
Be sure you really want to be a member, if it isn’t something you are interested in, back away. If the Group administrators ask questions about you before they allow you in to the group, answer the questions. This is how they weed out spammers, ensure you are a good group member and that you fit. So if you truly have an interest in something, tell the admins. As a group administrator, I deny requests from people who won’t take the time to answer the questions. It takes but a minute and helps us get to know you.
Read the rules of engagement
Every group worth its salt will have some rules, sometimes they just use Facebook’s recommended rules – you’ve seen them, be kind, no hate speech, no spam, others have crafted their own rules. Read them and abide by them. If they say no links, that means no links. If the group is about stolen vehicles, don’t post your event poster. Be reasonable, just because you are in a group doesn’t mean you can sell, sell, sell.
Be helpful
The point of a group is you have common ground with people, if they ask a question you can answer, go ahead. Be kind, be helpful, this is how you make friends so when you need a question answered, someone will help you too.
Too many posts
Let’s say you joined a group and it’s cluttering up your newsfeed, you appreciate them and don’t want to leave the group, but it’s too much – what do you do?
- Go to the Group page
- Find the header
- Find your Joined tab, if you click that you can choose
- to Leave the Group OR
- Unfollow Group
Unfollowing will keep you in the group, so if you get tagged you’ll see it, and it also lets you go to your group tab and click on the group and catch up when you’re ready.
Notifications
I’m a big fan of Notifications, but you can choose which ones you see from a group as well. If it’s a highly engaged group and you want to see it all, tell FB. If you only want to see what your friends post, that’s ok too – go to that same spot on the header bar where you can leave a group and choose notification and make the right choice for you
Adding Members
Sharing a group is good, inviting members is good. Do not add people to a group without asking them. Please let them decide.
Search Bar
Because the same question gets asked often, learn to use the search bar. You’ll usually find it on the left side, put in your keywords and it will bring up every post that uses the keyword. This is especially helpful in large, active how-to groups.
If someone asks a question and it starts with “I know I’ve seen this, but I can’t find it – do the search for them, find the post and right-click, this brings up the “copy link”, click that and paste it as a response – this will allow them to see the original post without you spelling it out for them again.
Following posts
If you want to follow a post, but don’t have anything to contribute, go to the top right down arrow on the post, click, then choose Turn on notifications for this post. There is no need to type in a comment like “Following” – that just wastes other peoples time
Editing Posts
You can edit your posts. If you put in the wrong word, mispelled something, don’t type *misspelled in the comments, go in and edit. Same routine, down arrow on the right, choose edit, make your edits and save
Save Posts
Remember you can save posts too, want to read it later, Right click and Save Post, then you can find it under your Saved posts. Particularly helpful if you run across a how-to post that you know you will need later.
Types of Groups
Different groups are set up different ways, but navigating to the Group Page gives you lots of info. You can see members, if there are Learning units, you can see those, events may be listed. Go check out one of your favorite groups and see if there is info in there for you that you’ve been missing. If you are looking for one to join, grow with us at Unscript Your Life with Shelley and Rich