With all the misleading Facebook training programs online, do you now how not to act in a Facebook group?

Hello everyone, my name is Devon Dudeman. John has been kind enough to allow me to be his guest here at Learn About. Today, I’d like to talk to you all about Social Media Marketing, or more specifically, Facebook marketing.

I don’t have to tell you this, or maybe I do… but social media is not going away. In fact, it is getting bigger and bigger. What does that mean for us? It means we must make a committed effort to utilize social media in the best way possible.

I believe that is already an active theme among the members of this community, but I must reinforce it nonetheless. Regardless, I will only be talking about Facebook Groups today, and how we must conduct ourselves while using this utility.

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For starters, I want you to look at this. It’s a screenshot of a typical Facebook Group; one that is in the online business industry. Tell me what is wrong with this picture…

As I hope you can see, there is no engagement! All we see here (and all you usually see) in these groups are one no name after another, haplessly posting email swipes or other ad copy, praying that they can make a sale.

Unfortunately, there is no engagement among the members. There are only ads, and ads, and more ads. This kind of practice is commonplace, but unacceptable. What’s worse is that when you try to stimulate engagement in the groups, no one seems to care, or they take it as an invitation to spam you. So the question is what we can do as marketers that will help us effectively leverage these communities.

First, we must remember that our goal in Facebook Marketing is to build relationships, not to sell our products.

I know that may shock some of you to hear that, but it’s the truth. That doesn’t mean that we can’t make sales from our contacts on Facebook, but it means that we must be thinking long term in our marketing mix.

Some of you might disagree with me by saying that having many contacts in Facebook doesn’t mean that you will have success. That is true to some degree, but I can guarantee you that you won’t make a dime if you do what most people do in Facebook groups. More importantly, we must not be myopic (short sighted). Many people are only interested in generating a few sales here and there, they prove this by how they conduct themselves. While it’s true that you might make a few bucks spamming every possible location, you’ll never get repeat business, and you’ll never develop a strong brand.

Remember! The final word is this: Facebook Marketing is all about building relationships, and connecting with other people.

So how exactly do we do that, then?

Good question. How do we reach out to others, stimulate engagement, and cultivate relationships? Well, just look at how you do in offline. You introduce yourself, find common ground, focus on the small talk, and then eventually talk business. I said talk business, not give them a cheesy pitch.

The first step in this is to be useful to the community. All too often, people are so wrapped up in their own world that they neglect to provide value to anyone else. Remember to give first before asking to receive. I don’t like to use myself as an example, but I try to regularly spark up conversations among people in these groups, or I link to a useful article.

At times, I have been guilty of putting up an ad on the group wall, but I write the content myself, and I have made sure that I’ve been engaged with the group before I do. The other benefit of providing value and being sociable in these groups is that other people will approach you.

Above is an example of someone reaching out to me. While most of the approaches I get are from “noobs” or spammers, great deals of them are genuine contacts. Have you ever been to a networking meeting for business? It’s the same idea online and offline.

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You must be polite, interested, and sensible. Benny here has demonstrated this to me. He is acting as if he has just walked over to me and started talking to me at a networking meeting. Notice how he opens up the conversation…he isn’t spamming me, he appears interested in what I have to say, and he even throws a comment in there. (This shows that he took the time to look at my profile before approaching me.)

This in turn leads to a great conversation and a great business contact. The stronger the tie, the better my chances are of getting a loyal customer, or an exceptional affiliate. To me, gaining an affiliate is more powerful than gaining a client because affiliates are what power our businesses automatically. This depends on where the connection was made: Benny was from the group “network marketing”, so he’s more likely to become an affiliate than a customer. If he came from a group called “creative writers”, he would most likely turn out to be a customer. Do you see where I’m going with this?

That’s what I mean when I say that we cannot be short sighted. The benefits of leveraging social media go beyond just generating brand awareness or consumer demand, but about creating a powerful network for your business. That won’t happen if you’re just posting ad copy on these groups’ walls.

In conclusion, we must remember that social media marketing is more about building relationships than getting sales. Social media is a public forum that consists of communities where much information, data, and ideas are being shared quickly. Facebook groups are one of these types of communities and can become a valuable medium for making business connections, recruiting affiliates, and generating revenue.

It's not a one day game! Like much of internet marketing, it takes time and a consistent effort to garner positive results, but the effort will not go unrewarded if executed properly.

I expect that you will be kind enough to share this article among your colleagues. But more importantly, I expect that you will keep this information in mind when you are conducting yourself in your social media marketing endeavors.

What has this taught you about how not to act in a Facebook group?

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About the Author: Devon Dudeman is the director of sales at Weicherding Enterprises.