New FB Group Rules You Need to Know About
Hello, dear FB Friends!
Hope you’re all having a lovely day. Here are some of the changes that FB now considers when helping you (or not!) to grow your FB Group.
I hope you find this useful :)
- FB algorithm is all about meaningful interactions and good user experience. What does this mean? In short - not all reactions to your posts are created equal in FB eyes. They want their users to have a happy, fulfilling experience on the platform so, sad face, angry face reactions are going to have your post suppressed in the organic reach. FB prefers happy face, love, wow... Positive reactions win over negative reactions. Also Likes are not as important any more. I guess that is just too lukewarm for FB algorithm.
- Contests, Giveaways, Free Downloads are being not favored by FB now. So, if you are doing any of these you need to be creative with the language. Use a pic or a GIF (more about GIFs in a mo) and text to achieve the best result.
- GIFS are all a rage on FB now!They will give you the best rankings in the algorithm. This is new and they are even overtaking FB Lives in importance (great, just when I decided to do daily FB Lives). I have to admit that I’m not 100% clear how this works and what is the best way to use Gifs to get you engagement etc, but as I’m finding out about it, I’ll let you know.
- FB does not like if you nudge your visitors about how they should feel or react to your post. You should avoid inviting the reader to like, share, comment your post. This is called the engagement bait and FB will suppress your post.
- Sales or direct promotions should be less than 20% of your FB content.
- If you are doing Collabs where other people in your niche post in your group, you should avoid using the word TAKEOVER because it’s been flagged by FB and it will get your organic reach down.
- Links within your post are going to hurt your post. Especially if the site where you are sending your audience is getting the most traffic from FB. FB is now measuring inbound and outbound traffic patterns of the site that is linked to your post.
- Don’t share your posts from your Business Page to your Personal Profile.That is now against Terms of Service and can get you banned. If, however, someone else (who is not the administrator) shares the post to their profile - that’s fine.
I collected these as I was doing a bit of research on how to run my new FB Group the best way and not get banned. I’m sure I must have missed some other rules - I will update this post in my group as I find out more.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! Alenka :)
Have you started growing your FB Group Community?
If not, what's stopping you?
The link to my FB Group is on my profile in case you feel like joining. Thanks! :)
Recent Comments
125
Very interesting. I must admit I don't use Facebook much but do have a group of over 22.000 people. It will interesting to see what happens going forward. Thanks for the update
Oh wow!!! 22.000 people in your group! That is amazing :) I hope you have all of their emails as well.
Maybe you could let us know how to build such a successful group? Would love to read how you went about getting those people into your group. :)
Best,
Alenka
Alenka,
The two screenshots below are what I am now getting when I try to share my business link to my Personal FB Page. I do not have a FB Business page. And from my past experience with FB back in 2013-2015 with a FB Business page I will never have another one.
Facebook IS NOT our friend.
Sonny
Yeah...FB is harsh. But, also super useful for so many things.
Very sorry you are having issues with them.
Best,
Alenka
This is great information Alenka and very timely as I have 2,600 people in my Network who all have Groups. I've been trying to find out what's going on with FB - they're not at all good about telling Users about changes - this Post of yours is very welcome. Thank you!
You are welcome! Wow, amazing success with your group! Do you collect emails as well? Do you have a chatbot?
Hi Alenka,
Thank you for your reply. I don't collect emails from Facebook, I do from my Websites. I've considered a Chatbot but, to be frank, I haven't looked into it!
Are you going to tell me a bit about both? That would be great!
Sean.
Alenka,
Thank you for keeping us updated on these moving targets at Facebook.
It is becoming more and more difficult to engage since FB is setting rules that are unnatural. I am saying “unnatural” because if I am a cafe and want to giveaway free coffee, The natural thing to do is to go to the door where traffic is, put up a sign “free coffee” and announce to all passerby, free coffee.
Now on Facebook I have to think of a way not to say “free” when I want to giveaway free coffee.
However, since it is their platform, I guess we have to comply if we want to use it.
Food for thought, will such action change the behavior of people in time to come?
Yes, you are so right. I've resisted doing any business on FB for the longest time, exactly for the reasons you describe. However, I see that it's also a platform that can literally transform your business for the better so I'm trying to utilize it. But, I'm aware it may be snatched away at any time. This is why everyone should collect emails, so even if your FB Group is banned, you still have your potential customers.
Best,
Alenka
Alenka,
Thank you for all of you great research and the info shared with us here.
I personally find even more reasons NOT to build a group on FB, not only in light of the new rules but because of the arbitrary and irreversible way in which FB and Google ban or terminate accounts.
The impact would surely be even greater when not only a business or personal page is banned/unpublished but when an entire group is dealt the same fate.
There are better alternatives out there for groups and communities without draconian rules and which give full control to he group creators to grow and to thrive and I suspect that when the US regulatory agencies and judicial branch investigators will be done with the deep inquiry into multiple violations by the US media giants, there will be so many facing a rude awakening and they will find that they had built on sinking sand.
Of course everyone is free to conduct their marketing as they see best fit, however, ignoring what is around the corner is a serious matter.
Blessings!
Hello
Yes, you are so right in what you say. I totally agree. However, for the time being, I see building a FB Group as a fast(ish) way to collect emails and connect with a very targeted audience.
I'm also active on my YT Channel and have a website. So, if my FB account gets banned it won't mean the end of my business (even though it will be an inconvenience), but also I would have collected some emails and have a list of potential customers from the group.
I would be interested to find out about the places you mentioned where we can build communities without the strict rules. Looking forward to your post if you decide to write one addressing that subject.
Best,
Alenka
See more comments
Hi Alenka
Thank you for sharing all of this. Oh boy, am I going to get into trouble with Fb, I share from my business to personal page all the time and invite people in my group to share too (also all the time, especially now as I'm doing a daily challenge thing).
Do you know if these are things still coming into effect, or are already in place? How will Facebook penalise us - and idea?
Blessings
Louise
Hello
I've found out most of these things only this morning. I've been doing the same sharing form my fb page to personal profile. I've asked for more clarification because i just don't understand why would this be a problem... In any case, I'll stop sharing the posts in this way, but will just post directly (the same post posted directly to page and then directly to profile).
If I find out more I'll update this post.
Good luck with building your FB community. Do you have your FB Group? This is what FB wants us to do actually. Build groups, communities... They are also super useful for collecting emails.
Best,
Alenka