How to Create a Facebook Group for Your Business [+ Why You Should]

Facebook groups have helped me find roommates in Boston, potential dog breeders for a family pet, and networking opportunities for women in the local area.

In short: Facebook groups are undeniably valuable.

More recently, companies have also used groups for their own benefit. For example, Peloton uses groups to connect its users and create a space where people can share training plans, training methods, and training plans with one another.

Other brands, including National Geographic and Instant Pot, have followed the exampleCreation of your own community groups that stimulate action, encourage engagement and increase brand loyalty.

Even HubSpot recently started its own private group. Marketer to marketer.

If you’re considering creating a Facebook group for your own business, then read on. Here we are going to examine the differences between Facebook Groups and Pages, how to create a Facebook Group, and whether or not it is worth the effort.

Let’s dive in.

Should I create a Facebook group for my company?

To determine if a Facebook Group is a good idea for your business, let’s start with the differences between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page.

Most businesses should have a Facebook page. A page allows you to advertise on Facebook, and it’s a publicly available profile for sending company-related updates and announcements to Facebook users in general.

If you’re a nonprofit organization, you can also post a “Donate” button on a page to increase donations from the Facebook community.

Looking at 1.56 billion People are on facebook. It is important that your business has a Facebook Page to increase brand awareness, promote new audiences, gain audience insights, and even chat with users who are looking for customer service.

As Gary Vaynerchuk told Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot, “… You can’t live in the game without Facebook.”

All of this means: A Facebook page is a prerequisite for getting your company active on one of the largest social media platforms.

A Facebook group, on the other hand, is much smaller and usually more exclusive than a page. For example, with a group you can set up open membership, approval membership, or even invite-only membership. Once members are accepted into your group, they are free to post and interact with each other.

Put simply, a Facebook Page is business-centric while a Facebook Group is community-centric.

A group is a good idea if you are interested in connecting or connecting with your customers, want to promote a sense of community around your brand, or want to showcase your brand as a thought leader in the industry.

One group is however Not A good idea if you want to use it to raise awareness of your products or services, or simply to publish company announcements.

People want to join groups where they feel like they belong and be connected to other group members, and learn about an industry in general – which takes effort, resources, and time to ensure your team can deliver .

If you don’t feel like you have the resources to build a valuable, engaging Facebook group, the best thing to do is to wait until you do.

However, once you’ve determined that a Facebook Group is the right decision for your own business, let’s explore how you can create one.

How to Create a Facebook Group for Your Business

1. On your company’s Facebook home page, click Groups on the left.

2. Click on “+ Create New Group”.

3. Enter a group name, then choose your privacy (public or private). You also have the option to invite Facebook friends right away if you want. Then click on “Create”.

4. Click Edit on your cover photo to choose from Facebook photos and illustrations, or to upload a photo from your computer.

5. Add a description of your group so that users know what your group is about. If you want to create a private group for customers, you can also copy and paste customer email addresses into your Invite field.

And that’s it! Your Facebook group is now ready to use.

However, to nurture strong bond and engagement, be an active community lead. To pin posts, create a poll in the group and read on.

How to pin a post in a Facebook group

A pinned post is one that stays at the top of your group’s timeline for seven days (unless you remove it first).

This is important after you’ve published content to drive engagement. For example, if you’ve published “Ask Me Anything,” you may want to pin this post to make sure users can easily find it even if group members post their own content on the timeline.

If you’ve posted posts to welcome new members to the community and to provide some necessary information about your group, you may want to keep that post to make sure new users have the right context the first time they join your group jump time (of course you also want to include a context in your description).

1. To pin a post, you must first write your message in the “What do you think?” Type and then click on “Post”.

2. As soon as the post is published, click on the three dots in the top right corner of your post and select “Mark as announcement”:

And that’s it! Your post will now be pinned to the top of your timeline for the next seven days.

Next, let’s examine how you can create a poll in your new group.

How to create a poll in a Facebook group

1. To create a survey in a Facebook group, first click on “What are you going to do?”. Box. Then click on the three dots labeled “More”:

2. Then click “Get” in your menu options.

3. Enter your survey question in the text area, then add your individual options to each text field. Click on “Poll Options” to optimize your poll. When you’re done, click Publish to publish your survey immediately.

How to create a Facebook private group

1. You have the option to create a Facebook private or public group the first time you create a group:

2. However, if you have created a public Facebook group and now want to make it private, you can do this by clicking on “Settings” under “Manage group” (from within your group):

3. Next, click the pen next to Privacy, then click the Private bubble (note: it takes three days to change a group from public to private):

To learn more about the benefits of having a private Facebook group, check out how HubSpot made the decision to start its own private Facebook group – and why the social team believes the Facebook group is critical to enabling deeper and more meaningful connections between HubSpot users and the industry as a whole.

And that’s it! You are now on your way to getting in touch with leads, prospects, or customers right in your Facebook group to increase brand loyalty and value.

If you’re looking for inspiration before designing your own Facebook group, check this out 9 of the best Facebook groups we’ve ever seen.