15 Ways to Explode your Facebook Group Growth | How to Grow Facebook Group
Starting a Facebook group for your blog is an awesome way to get to know your followers on a deeper level. It’s good for market research and it can add a level of personality to your marketing.
Before you get started…
Before you start learning how to grow a Facebook group, I want you to create a document with all the information you might need to share. Have this document on hand when you start creating promotions for the group, you’ll have everything you need to get started. Plus, you’ll be consistent across all platforms which is a total bonus! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Name of Group
- List of 3-5 Benefits of the group
- Who is the group for?dd
- Link to group
There are a few things you can do on Pinterest to drum up likes for your Facebook page including Static/Video Pins, Carousel Pins, and Story pins.
Static and Video Pins
Using a static pin, you can link to your Facebook Page directly or a landing page that shares a little bit about what the benefits of following the page/group are.
Even better if you pair the link with an image that has a strong benefit Call to Action on it.
Story Pins & Carousel Pins
Carousel pins and story pins are essentially the same in content. The key difference is WHERE they go into the Pinterest ecosystem.
Carousel pins appear in the same place a static pin would and exist within boards the same way. These get designed in a program like Canva or Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop and get uploaded in a group as one pin.
Story pins are a bit different. While they exist inside the Pinterest ecosystem the way a standard pin would, they also appear on the home page (mobile only) of the followers that follow the board you pin it to.
The key difference is the way they get created.
While a story pin can be created in Canva, Pinterest has a native tool that you can use to create these. Think Instagram stories (more on that in the next section) when you create these. In fact, you could use some of your Instagram story footage here.
Stories on Pinterest are still fairly new, so play around with this one a bit!
Related: What are fresh pins and why does your Pinterest strategy need them?
There’s a lot going on on Instagram these days including feed posts, stories, reels, DMs, IGTV, and IG Live.
And Instagram is an awesome place to promote your Facebook group! Why? Instagram is technically inside the Facebook ecosystem and is already built for community building.
Perfect.
The Link in your Bio
The first thing I want you to do on Instagram is to change the link in your bio to your Facebook group link.
While you could add this link to a landing page service, like Linktree, I have to be honest with you: I’m not a fan of linking a landing page on Instagram. It confuses people and confused people don’t follow through with the call to action.
You want them to complete the CTA!
Now, let’s talk about all the ways you can promote your Facebook group on Instagram.
Feed
Using the information that you gathered at the beginning of the blog post, craft a caption that describes the benefits of the group and then ask for comments or DMs for the link/to join.
As long as you are posting regularly, you can promote your group regularly.
Stories
There are 2 approaches you can take when inviting people to your Facebook group in Instagram stories: video and graphics.
You can use the graphics that you created for Pinterest as a base, then adapt them for the functions of IG stories like polls and the question box. Here are some ideas:
- Use the poll sticker and ask them if they’d like to join your FB group Yes/No. Then DM the ones that say yes with the link to your group.
- At the end of your video, say something like,”DM if you want to join us inside the group!”
Reels
There is a TON of creative freedom when it comes to Reels, so I’m not going to tell you what to create here. Let your personality shine. In the caption, talk about the benefits of joining your group and then give them a CTA to get them in.
DMs
I’m a huge fan of using DMs on IG. It’s like texting with your internet friends and followers! But, I have an example of an icky way to use DMs to share with you.
A while back, someone followed me on Instagram then sent me a DM and asked if I was a social media manager. I said yes, then they proceeded to ask me to join their Facebook group.
I don’t know this person, nor did they put in the effort to interact with me before pitching their group. And, at the time, bio literally had “social media manager” in the bio area.
I don’t know about you, but this strategy just feels plain icky to me. It’s something I won’t implement in my own Instagram strategy and I wouldn’t recommend it to you.
IGTV
Unlike Instagram Stories, IGTV allows clickable links in the caption of IGTV videos for any size account.
That means that when you create a video for IGTV you can include a link to a blog post, opt-in, or, yes, a Facebook group.
At the end of your video, talk about your group and then provide the link to join in the caption.
IG Live
The two main things you can do in an IG Live to promote your FB group
- Pin a comment with the link to the group in it.
- Invite your audience into your FB group at the end to wrap it up.
Related: 9 Ways to Improve your Instagram Feed
Email List
You have an email list, so you should use it! Here are the 3 strategies that I’ll be using to invite my email list into my Facebook group.
During your Welcome Sequence
Adding an invite email into your welcome sequence is a great way to start integrating your email subscribers into your community!
Keep it simple. Tell them what goes on in the group, why you love it, and how they can get into your loving community.
Before you go live in a FB group
One of the big benefits of having a FB group is the ability to go live with them. You can do that on a fan page, too, but you can make it a “group bonus” in your Facebook group.
So, before you go live in your group send them an email to let them know what’s going down! I would recommend a
In your email signature or P.S.
At the end of every email you send your list you probably sign your name and add a P.S. Use them! Not everyone that gets your welcome sequence will join your FB group immediately, so it’s always a safe bet to put an invite at the bottom of your emails.
Related: ConvertKit vs Flodesk: Why I won’t be switching anytime soon
Inside the Facebook ecosystem
There are a few things you can do inside Facebook (besides create a post on your personal profile) to invite people into your Facebook group including 2 free and 1 paid option.
Use the invite feature
When you go into your page, you have the option to invite your Facebook friends to like your page.
You can choose everyone if you want or you can choose specific people that you think would like your content or benefit from what you share.
Run ads to your group
Unfortunately, Facebook has become a little bit of a pay to play platform in the last few years (booo!). But, you can always run ads to get people into your Facebook group if that’s your jam!
Install a button on your Facebook page
At the top of every Facebook page, just below your cover photo, is an option to add a call to action button. When you choose to create the button, then choose the “learn more” option. You can connect any link in this option and you can link to your group! Whoop!