The Power of a Facebook Group

After reading the subject line, you may have the misconception that I mean to create your own Facebook group for your church or school.

No, I'm suggesting something much simpler than that.

I'm referring to the Facebook groups that already exist as local community hubs.

Ex: My two closest neighborhoods in Cincinnati have a Facebook group called "Oakley/Hyde Park Moms and Friends" that has 21 THOUSAND members. 🤯 It's extremely active. At any given time on any given day, people are posting or commenting every few minutes.

Most towns/neighborhoods have their own version of this. Maybe yours doesn't have quite that many members, but I can almost guarantee there are multiple groups in your area that receive lots of attention from locals.

Next time you have an outreach event scheduled, try these groups as a free, speedy, low-risk way to get the word out.

Rules for posting in a local Facebook group (IMHO #3 is the most important):

• (1) Abide by the rules of the individual group. Many have guidelines that prohibit "self-promotion." I'm a little fuzzy on whether a free church/school event should be considered "self-promotion," but play it by ear.
• (2) Make sure you're posting about something that the members of the group would be so excited to attend. Match the event with the audience.
• (3) Have someone else post. Notice the difference between, "St. Paul's Lutheran School invites you to their annual Fall Festival." and, "If anyone's free, my daughter's school is putting on a free fall festival this Saturday and it's open to the public. She always has a blast!"
• (4) Add a picture or two to the post. This keeps it from getting lost in people's feeds.
• (5) Don't put links in the post. Instead:
• (6) Respond to every comment as quickly as you can - ideally, with something like, "So glad you're interested! I'll DM you the link to more information."
• (7) Post when people are active on Facebook. Sunday evenings have worked well for me.
• (8) Your "someone else" (see #3) should ideally be active in the group on a regular basis: not just when there's something to promote. It looks great if they can get that "Top Contributor" badge added to their name.

If you give this a try, let me know how it goes! I think these groups are an example of a beneficial, healthy use of social media. You feel a little less like you're shouting into the void and more like you're connecting with real people! A win! 🎉😅

Until next week,