Facebook Groups Simplified

Last week Facebook launched three new enhancements.  You can now Back-up Your Facebook Information, monitor your applications from the New Applications Dashboard, and create New Groups with enhanced functionality.  This post will complete this trifecta by giving you my perspective on the new groups.

2010Oct10_FB Groups

 

New Group Features

All of the Facebook groups in existence prior to this update are grandfathered – meaning they will operate exactly as they always have. The new groups provide new features that allow the group to:  

  1. Post documents that can be shared with the group.
  2. Communicate to the group via a unique email.
  3. Chat with the collective group.

The Intent of New Groups

Facebook product manager Chris Cox explains that the new groups are intended to "resemble a human space."  I take this to mean the group is suggested to be not a collection of members – but an entity that represents them.  

Knowing how the Web works, I can only expect this has a lot to do with advertising opportunities.  You can set that aside as it is something that is always in play with anything you do on the Web.  

This also explains why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggests Facebook's new groups are intended to be small – less than 25 members.  So, the issues that are arising with respect to privacy and spamming are in part the result of creating groups that comprise members who are similar, though not necessarily aligned.

Micro-Communities

You can easily discern that groups are intended to bring us closer together into micro-communities. When this happens, there is a greater likelihood of alignment.  The larger the group, the more likely there will be differences.  This is why groups split to achieve that alignment.

Groups exist because of the human need for belonging.  One of the problems already with these new groups is some are throwing together large groups for personal reasons.  This is what is creating all the fuss over privacy.  My suggestion is to start with a small group to see how this works.  

How to Start a Group

It's very simple to start a group. 

  1. Go to Groups.
  2. Name your group.
  3. Edit your group to establish a unique email address.
  4. Set your Privacy Settings.

Important Considerations 

The name of your group should be simple, using key words that communicate to the members the purpose of the group.  For example, I established a Small Business Marketing group and a Green Industry group, among others.  

I'm not exactly sure how I'll use those groups, but I'll figure that out as we all learn more.  One key consideration that should not be overlooked is that the emails for the group should reflect the group name.  These emails are unique and when specific names are gone you'll have to make alternate choices

There are three privacy setting for your group.

  1. Open – Both the group members and their content is public.
  2. Closed – Group members are public, but their content is private.
  3. Secret – Both group members and their content is private.

How New Facebook Groups Can be Used

As entrepreneurs and small business owner, you are most likely interested in how Facebook's new groups can be used to enhance your business.   

Open Groups – In any industry, there is a keen interest in what the leaders have to say.  In my mind, this is an ideal opportunity for associations to use Facebook groups to engage and educate their members.  

Closed Groups – The only purpose I can think of for having a closed group is to encourage exclusivity – membership in an exclusive club or fraternity.  The problem I have with this is it goes against the grain of social marketing, because the sharing of information is what encourages others to join the group.

Secret Groups – This structure seems ideal for freely sharing information with a group that is aligned for a specific reason or purpose – and is active on Facebook.  I'm going to suggest this to a group of my colleagues that are planning upcoming educational events on social media marketing.

A Caveat

Regardless of the privacy settings you choose, you have to keep in mind that Facebook has access to all of the information you share with your group.  

A final note is that you will want to double-check your notification settings with respect to groups by going to your Facebook –  Account/ Account Settings/ Notifications/ Groups.

If this has been useful – be a friend and click on that Facebook Like button to share it with YOUR friends.

Until tomorrow, Jeff

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.