How to Use Facebook Groups for Business Growth It is now a reality to use groups for positioning yourself, acquiring new customers, and many things more

Today, most of us are part of one Facebook group or another. But have we considered using the groups for business growth? Probably not! But it's high time we start doing it effectively. Leveraging a Facebook group for business can yield delightful results. But before you create a group and start inviting others; it is important to know certain things, so that the group and its activities, create desired impact.

Wondering how to promote your brand in Facebook groups? You can do it either by creating your own Facebook group or by joining one managed by others. It is now a reality to use groups for positioning yourself, acquiring new customers, and many things more.

Scroll down to know more from experts about how to use Facebook groups to support and market your business.

According to Skannd Tyagi, founder, E Info Solutions, Facebook groups are a pool of people with common interest areas. "By joining such a group you have access to people who match the profiles of your target audience. These groups will provide numerous opportunities to create awareness about you and your brand simply by being proactive and helpful. To explore such opportunities, just write the keyword in the search section at the right-hand menu of the group's page, and get going," he shared.

Pramod K Maloo, founder Kreative Machinez, a digital hub for business promotional and marketing, believes, there are multiple benefits for entrepreneurs who are part of Facebook groups. He enumerated six of them-

Discussion - Facebook groups are sort of like the new kind of online forum. They have great features like polls, and large-format status updates to encourage group members to interact with your content. You will get regular updates on what is going on in the page, other social media handles.

Polls - Polls can be used to get customer insights and to understand what the customer wants and to receive immediate feedback from polls. Groups are a great source of immediate feedback, and if you build a niche group from the beginning, the feedback you receive will be extremely valuable.

Selected People, group - People who have been in constant interaction with a business page are definitely the ones who are interested in the services they provide. Therefore, making a group of those selected people and giving them the required content and information for what they usually look at. Drive these people to get engaged with the call to action, via campaigns, contests, takeaways etc.

The credibility of the brand - Having groups can help increase the credibility of the brand. The discussions that happen in the groups can also be used as answers or questions in Quora. By doing this we will increase engagement and presence on other social media handles.

Reach - It's a viable way of building a highly engaged community of individuals who are likely to be interested in your business. You can reach out to masses without spending on Facebook ads.

Economical- If you can reach out to the masses plus targeted masses without pinching your pocket, it`s a great deal. So remember to always provide value to the customers and give them reasons to stay in the group.

Maloo also advised against talking about one's business and products every time. "Sometimes small talks are important to make your products worthy. If you keep on talking about your products, things will be monotonous and people will lose interest. Also add company employees in the group, to increase the number of positive reviews about the services/ product offered," he advocated.

Potential to Attract Future Customers Absolutely Free

Ajay Mittal, Founder, Kolkata Clean Air and Mera Workshops, has over the last few months, spent time talking to individual business owners to understand about how they generate business. Interestingly, one of the top platforms for them was Facebook and Whatsapp groups which were helping them attract more customers. He found that these groups can really help grow all business, be it, small or large, B2C or B2B.

The point Mittal wants to make is the sheer potential of Facebook group in attracting thousands of members, many of whom could be your customers, absolutely free. "If you compare this with any other marketing techniques, and the cost of reaching out to 10k eyes balls which are mostly targeted as potential audience having one or more common factors, and you will understand the immensity of the potential. That is not all, Facebook group posts allow easy communications and response which results in much higher engagements," he opined.

Another interesting thing is that the posts stay in the groups forever so many people who view these posts can always search back when they are in need of the requirement, even months after the post was made.

Starting a Facebook group could be a great strategy if you are ready to do some hard work in building a successful group as Facebook Group Admin has much higher visibility and privileges than any other members. Mittal maintained that if you are into a business that has potential to take a community along you, should start building a group today.

Engaging successfully in a Facebook group

To engage successfully in a Facebook group you must make interesting posts. Now, what is engaging to a Facebook group might be very subjective and it depends on the target audience. It also matters what is the time you have made that posts.

There is no real secret to what makes a post successful, but a few things that you can consider as tips from Mittal's observation:

1) Keep it short, easy to understand and very clearly highlighting the value proposition.

2) Most responsive posts are that are linked to a current event for e.g. Posts on beautiful hampers on Valentine's Day or Mother's Day will attract more response around those days.

3) Ensure you have a completely updated and active Facebook profile as that is important for people to trust you before enquiring or buying from you. Most people after reading a post will visit your profile before connecting with you to buy.

4) Make sure you engage in other posts but somehow connecting your comment with the post and not randomly posting your comment on every post. Best is to read through comments and reply to people who you see as your target audience.

Isn't it a great opportunity for business owners to grow their business using these free techniques? All one needs is to be consistent and explore more and more groups to discover platforms that help to generate business, find ways to engage with target audience. What is even more interesting is that it is not limited to just B2C business; in fact B2B businesses have much higher potential but with a totally different strategy of selling directly but through education based marketing and engaging communities by sharing tons of value to appear as an expert in your domain.