B2B brands are using Facebook groups to build high-value communities. Why are they doing this? Is it worth it? Should you do this too? Chances are, if you're searching for Facebook group examples, then you're frustrated by the lack of great content on how to actually create a Facebook group that increases revenue.
This is not a step-by-step tutorial on a group setup. (We know you're smart enough to figure that out).
In fact, when we set up our own group, we were really disappointed by the lack of examples, especially in B2B.
Our group, Growth Through Content, is a place where you can learn growth-focused content marketing techniques, make new connections, and have some fun with your fellow content geeks! Join our group here.
What we're covering in this post:
- What makes a community high value?
- Why create a Facebook group for your B2B company?
- Who should be in your group?
- How can you grow your Facebook group?
- B2B Facebook group examples
- How to keep people engaged
- How can you measure group success?
Oh, and if you're in a hurry, here's our top tip: create a group whose topic is related to the outcome that your product or service provides.
What makes a community high value?
Does the thought of making an FB group sound like a lot of work with no reward?
It is possible to create something worthwhile if it's:
- Valuable for the people in the community. Your FB group should be somewhere that members can come to ask questions, share wins, and get the advice they weren't expecting but desperately need. Anything less, and your group is just noise. There are thousands of FB groups populated by nothing but crickets.
- Valuable for the business. Building a community just to make more internet friends would be pretty silly. These Facebook group examples will help you to create a community of people who are your target audience. This isn't selfish. As a business, you need to be earning the revenue required to maintain a valuable community. As your group grows, so do the number of moderators you need to hire!
There will be a lot of work initially to add value to the people in the group. Your team will have to answer questions and engage with posts so that the new participants are trained to keep turning to YOUR group to answer their questions.
If you don't help them, you're training them to go somewhere else.
However, in time, your group will grow and other members of the community will give advice, so your team isn't handling everything alone.
Why create a Facebook group for your B2B company?
Not every B2B company will benefit from creating a community (whether inside of Facebook or outside of it). So these Facebook group examples might not be relevant for everyone.
The companies that can benefit from it have a global audience and a large market size.
Facebook Groups give us a lot of reasons to use them as our community platform (instead of a forum, a Slack channel etc.):
- Most people in your target audience are likely to already have a Facebook account, so there's no additional login info they need to setup.
- People can quickly and easily join.
- People can quickly and easily invite their friends.
- Posts with a lot of engagement will show up in their newsfeed when they're logged into Facebook for any other reason (entertainment, distraction, procrastination), meaning Facebook does some of the work for you, in terms of keeping your business top of mind.
- You can grow a larger group quickly so that you and your team aren't in charge of answering every question and providing value.
Who should be in your group?
Once you've decided to create a group, you need to think about its purpose and who will be a part of it.
While there may be demographics and JTBD concepts to consider as to you is your ideal group member, at the end of the day, there are two categories that are Facebook group examples fall into:
- Customers and users only: If you plan to use your group as a way to improve product engagement and stickiness, and if you plan to have heavy involvement from your team, this can be a smart decision.
- Customers/users and potential customers/users: If you want your group to serve as a customer acquisition channel, and you want it to be a place where people can talk not just about your product or service but also about the topic at large, then this is a better call.
Making your group for customers only (like Ahrefs, one of our examples below) can add some exclusivity to your brand, and help reduce churn. But it doesn't bring in new users and customers.
How can you grow your Facebook group?
Growing a Facebook community will require a lot of effort to grow to your first few thousand users. But after a time, you should get organic growth simply from word of mouth or from Facebook suggesting your group to new users.
So what can you do before Facebook is suggesting your group to the perfect people?
- Include an invite to your Facebook group in your automated email sequences (onboarding sequences, nurturing sequences).
- Post about your group on social media.
- Include a link to your Facebook group in your blog post sidebar.
- Include a link to your Facebook group in every email newsletter.
- Invite current customers to your Facebook group.
- Ask current customers to ask a topic-related question in your Facebook group (tell them they can go there for advice on the topic of choice at any time, making it clear it's not a customer support channel).
Initially, you'll need to hustle to get the right people in your group. But at some point, your group will grow itself if you ensure that it's an active, thriving community where members can celebrate each other and get their questions answered.
Facebook group examples
Now let's take a look at some examples. Some groups are exclusive or hard to get into. (For example, Webflow checks to make sure you're really a designer).
While others will be easier for you to join and spy on.
1. Webflow Designers (Global)
This group is a place where Webflow users can come and get their burning questions answered.
Not every company will succeed in creating a Facebook group around their business name, but it works for Webflow since the website designers using it will have plenty of technical questions all of the time.
Where to join: find the group here.
2. Clickfunnels
They are a funnel building software used by course creators, coaches, and other online businesses. Their group gets a ton of engagement. Topics discussed are not only building with Clickfunnels but also digital marketing and entrepreneurship in general.
Where to join: find the group here.
3. Growth Through Content - Powered By StoryChief
Our group is a growing community of content marketers, digital publishers, and entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses through content. Together, we share new tips and tricks so everyone in the group can learn what content formats and strategies are working best today.
Where to join: find the group here.
Join our Facebook Group, Growth Through Content!
4. Productivity Tips - Powered by Krisp
Krisp is a noise-canceling app. Their Facebook group is all about being productive. Users and Krisp team members share productivity tips, tools, and books. This is a great example of creating a group that is relevant to the outcome your product provides.
Where to join: find the group here.
5. SaaS Growth Hacks
This is one of the Facebook group examples that is most popular for SaaS entrepreneurs and executives. It was created by onboarding consultant Aaron Krall, and it is the main source of leads for his business.
Where to join: find the group here.
6. Ahrefs Insider
This business is an example of a "customers only" group (just see the requirements above). The group serves as a place for customers to learn more about utilizing the product and become true SEO masters.
Where to join: find the group here.
7. Facebook Ads Explosive Growth
This is a Facebook group for e-commerce store owners and Facebook marketers. It brings in a lot of qualified leads for marketing agency Voy Media.
If you'd like to create a group like this to help you get more clients for your agency, then you can take inspiration from the group's description.
Where to join: find the group here.
How to keep people engaged
A successful Facebook group needs to take on a life of its own. It's not about you, it's about the people in the group.
They'll help each other, make friends, establish work connections...all without your help.
At the beginning, people in your team may need to respond to each and every post to make sure that no member feels unappreciated.
Even with an active community, you may still want to login in and check for posts that you could respond to.
And, you'll also want to post prompts. Here are some ideas for prompts that everyone can comment on:
- Share a recent win
- Link to their website
- Share a link to something they're currently working on
- Ask for their best advice on a common issue
- Ask for their take on current best practices on any topic
How can you measure group success?
Beyond tutorials on how to set up a Facebook group, there's not a whole lot of information out there on how to actually run a successful group.
Beyond feeling good anytime you see a new post in your group, how can you measure group engagement?
We examined the example Facebook groups below to serve you up some benchmark metrics.
Based on our research, here are the numbers we recommend:
- A high-value group has monthly posts numbering at least .05% of the number of the members of the group. So, if you have 7000 members, you should hope to see 350 posts in a single month. Some groups may have more, and some may have less, but that should be your goal for a minimum.
- Your group should grow organically at a rate of .03% at a minimum. Initially, you'll need to use organic social media, your blog, your email newsletter, and invitations to grow your group. But when you are past the initial launch, you should see still see organic growth. This can be word-of-mouth or email automation in place that invites new customers to your group. Whatever it is, make sure you have that minimum level of growth. If not, something is wrong. For example, if you have a group of 4000 members, you should expect to add 120 people each month. If you have 500 members, you should be adding 15 people at a minimum.
- Your group should increase referral traffic to links in your group description. In order to more effectively measure how much traffic your group drives to your website, create a unique landing page for Facebook group participants to sign up with and pop that in your group description. Or use a UTM link. Or check Google Analytics for Facebook referral traffic. If your group is for customers only
As you build your group, you'll be creating a thriving community that has the exact same interests as your company. Some of the members will become customers. Some will become friends.
