Drive Traffic To Your Site With Facebook Groups
Hi, Everyone...
Today I want to do a brief post on Facebook Groups.
From what I have seen, these can be MORE efffective than a Facebook Page and help drive traffic from the platform to your website...
That is of course what we are all seeking to do with our content focus learned here, but this additional stream is worth investing some of your online marketing hours to set up and cultivate...
THE NUMBERS BEHIND FACEBOOK (AND GROUPS)
To show you a little proof of what I am speaking of, read through the following statistics:
- There are 1.94 billion monthly active Facebook worldwide as of March 2017.
- There are 1.15 billion mobile daily active users globally as of December 2016.
- In the first quarter of 2017, there were 1.28 billion people daily active users of Facebook (an 18% increase year over year).
- Facebook Like and Share buttons are viewed across almost 10 million websites daily!
- In Europe, there are over 307 million people that use Facebook.
- The largest demographic unit of users is the age group of 25 to 34 (29.7% of users)
- Facebook has five new profiles being created every SECOND.
- On usage, the busiest traffic period occurs mid-week between 1 to 3 pm.
- People will see your posts more likely during these peak times, but engagement increases during evenings
- Usage data shows that Thursdays and Fridays are days when engagement is 18% higher than other days.
- There are 300 million pictures posted per day. So lot of photos and other information being posted means you have a lot of competition, so you must target your marketing efforts on Facebook strategically.
- The average time spent per Facebook visit by users is 20 minutes. You must have relevant, interesting and unique posts and offers marketing to get the most return on your efforts.
- Every minute 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. Pretty busy users and a huge amount of information flowing that competes for user's attention. Quality and strategy on your part is essential to get heard and seem.
- Half of the 18-24 year-old group using Facebook do so immediately upon waking up. Facebook is important to these users, make your content important to them.
- 20% of website page views in the United States occurs on Facebook. If you ignore these 20% you are losing out. If you plan and execute effectively, you have a huge potential for handsome returns.
This synapsized version of the statistics and observations behind Facebook comes from an article posted on the Zephoria Digital Marketing website on the top 15 valuable Facebook statistics (you can do a Google Search and get more details).
Bottom Line: You simply cannot afford to ignore Facebook. It represents a huge potential market.
WHY FACEBOOK GROUPS?
There are options to create Facebook Pages but I advocate doing both. Here are my top 3 reasons for creating and using Facebook Groups:
Facebook might not be "cool," but it's crazy effective...
(1) Facebook Groups Work.
Even though you may hear that all the cool kids are going elsewhere such as Instagram and Snapchat (and many are) there are huge numbers using the platform on a regular basis (see above)
Many businesses tried using Facebook years ago and abandoned their efforts when they did not see results. Nonetheless, I believe it is more a case of HOW they were trying to reach the targeted audience that resulted in their failures.
You can see the numbers are there. It is in figuring out HOW to effectively crack into that audience that will make or break your efforts. There are many thousands successfully doing just that right now.
Facebook Groups are members that are interested specifically in the subject the group is about. You are not shooting something out to the masses, these are people that want to hear what you have to say.
(2) Facebook Group Updates Result in Notification Being Sent To All Members.
Whereas Facebook Pages and your personal account rely on the newsfeed alogorithm for exposure (so you have no control on who sees your posts), with a Facebook Group, members will receive a notification on each new post you make.
This means that members WILL see when something new is posted by you. It is better than pages or your personal site posts, which as mentioned is a more haphazard chance that interested people will know when something new is posted by you.
You can more easily drive traffic to your Group Page!
(3) More Organic Visits - Up To 15x MORE
Ryan Stewart posted an article on Facebook Groups, and wrote about a test he did comparing the reach between Pages and Groups.
His test results showed that for the same content he published on a page and on a group at the same time, he received 15 x more responses using Groups to get the word out on his link within the post than with the same post on his Facebook Page!
(Source: MOZ Site, Article: How [and Why] to Build a Booming Facebook Group, Dec 2015)
(4) Ability To Leverage Content and Resiults Using Groups
It just makes sense that if you know you are going to get a tremendous reach with Groups, you can then strategically plan for ways to tap into that targeted audience and get more traffic, leads, and conversions.
Of course, there are ways to leverage the effort of setting up and running a Facebook Group. You can get more attention, more members, and more success with traffic, leads, and conversions if you plan and implement that plan effectively!
CONCLUSION
This is a teaser post...
Now you know WHY Facebook Groups should be of interest and WHY you should spend a bit of your online marketing business hours working to develop this potential traffic source...
Next...
I will be doing a tutorial on Facebook Groups soon (working on it now)...
I want to show you how to create a Facebook Group, how to build it up, and then point out some ways that you can leverage it into more traffic, leads, and sales for your affiliate marketing business.
So...
Have a great day, and share below please what your experiences have been with Facebook Groups. I am interested and can shape the training on your input!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Recent Comments
93
Dave, in my niche they do not allow any links most of the time. So you cannot do much with this. I am not interested in collecting likes. I have found only one group where I can add links to my reviews. This results in just a few visits to the site. So generally very bad experience, like with all social media except Flipboard (which in fact stopped working).
I have two Pages and again just a few 'likes'. So these things do not work for me, but do not understand me wrongly, I know that many are doing great with it. I just do not see how to drive traffic to the site if they do not allow links.
Are you suggesting that creating a Group would be better? I guess the start would be very slow, a lot of work to get traction.
You know, the same was with Reddit, no links of any kind allowed. So I decided to be smart and created 5 sub-reddits of my own. I was adding links and was getting some minor traffic from there, until the moment I received an email saying that if I continue I shall be permanently suspended and this info will be sent to all reddit members. What a great chance to become (in)famous. After that, I never visited my subreddits there.
Hi, Jovo....
Yes, it can be tricky...
Reddit is brutal, I believe they would follow through on their threats too...I am leery of doing much there...
On Facebook, a way around no links would be to start your own group, then add in links to the first comment on the post (you add this of course)...
State this in your post so people will go to the comment and the click through...Not ideal but is workable...
I have linked Facebook Page and my personal timeline posts to my articles here on Wealthy Affiliate and they do show properly and the link works - people who click through come to Wealthy Affiliate (they are brought directly to the posted page here)...
On Groups being better than a Facebook Page, I think they can be combined and Groups are better in some ways...i.e. the notification to all members when something new is added to every member's notification menu...
Since members have shown an interest already by joining the group, they are more likely to view your posts take action (click through)...
Using a combination of Facebook Pages (for branding) and your Group (to add engaging, useful, valuable content and to sprinkle in links to your content) you can leverage your overall Facebook marketing effort, and build a name for your brand, etc...
Your niche is a good one for this I think....
I look forward to reading about others' experience, you have added to the quality of the conversation here, thanks for that!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Many thanks. I might really try with a Group. Did not understand what you were saying in "then add in links to the first comment on the post (you add this of course)...". Can you say more? But you will have a tutorial, so OK can wait.
Yes, Jovo, I will add an example into the tutorial...I have seen this in several of the groups I belong to i.e. the IM, travel, Video Marketing, and Work from Home niches...
This is one simple little technique, I am testing more as I go along to see which are most effective, so will add these to the training/here as I get more data that show they work or at least improve results...
Cheers!
dave : )
I have joined a few groups related to my niche, and strated offering advice and quite often, posting links to reviews I have done on products they are asking about. about 45 percent of my (admittedly small amount ) traffic from social media, the majority coming from Facebook.
Groups are incredibly important.
Thanks for sharing your experiences...
This dovetails exactly with what I would recommend, which is to start your own group, let other members in the groups you are a member of know of your group, and further leverage your group through similar groups...
You can then control the focus of the group and as admin or moderator can pick and choose valuable and useful content (some of which is on your website) to get the CTR to your page(s)...
Because with groups they will see when you post to your group, it will immediately be associated with you and over time, your website and other offerings.
Another tip would be to add a comment with a link over adding the link to an image on the post itself...
That same post can be shared on your timeline and to your Facebook Page...You then may get more visibility on other's timelines because Facebook algorithms favor showing posts that do not take the viewer away from their platform...
So many ways to do this social marketing smartly, I hope we get a lot of tips, advice, etc, that we can all learn from and implement in our own online marketing programs!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Definitely, this article validates some of the experiments with Facebook groups you were doing 2 months ago, doesn't it Paul?
I will have to have a look at them, they may offer some more insight to what I am creating for the tutorial....Thanks for that tip Kaju! : )
Thank you Dave.
2 Days ago I created my Facebook page for my site and also a group. But not got I going yet. So I desperately wait for your tutorial!
Every post you write I am soooooooo glad to follow you.
Have a great day and an spoiled weekend
Xxx
Uta
Bitte!
Good to hear that you are tapping into Facebook...I do think it will be worth your time...
It will take some time to make it effective for your online business, just as with content marketing used here, but it does work, plenty of proof available out there...
Appreciate the wishes for a great weekend, finishing up for the day soon here and will be heading to the pool! Sunny and warm out there today!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Excellent post Dave, and from the results others have already told me, Facebook groups are extremely effective. Looking forward to the training.
This begs the first question: how do you conduct research to find the best and most relevant Facebook groups that you should be targeting your website to?
Also you need to be careful: Facebook will ban you if you are targeting these groups too aggressively. This has been brought up in the past by Paul Goodwin.
Thanks, Kaju...
This is yet another way to generate some organic traffic that costs little other than some thinking and creation of valuable content (or an image or video that will pull in views and send to your content)...
You and Paul are right on the aggressive side of working with groups...Easy to go overboard and get dinged by Facebook...Hence the need to learn how to work with Groups effectively...
On research for similar groups, you can do a search using keywords, or other ways might be people that follow well-known figures in the niche, see what groups they belong to, etc.
Your feedback will be helpful as I create the tutorial!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Awesome, I understand from Paul that if you get banned, Facebook will only penalize you by taking you off the platform for only 3 days.
So it may be worth pushing the envelope!.
Yes, I have been penalized for the three day period hehe...Live and learn, Facebook ads are kind of tricky too...They like that Ban Hammer! Cheers! Dave : )
Great Carol....I think the training will be more helpful, it will walk through the steps to set up a group and discuss ideas for growing it and then monetizing it...That is the same goals we have for content marketing as we learn here, and indeed there are some similarities or overlap between the two...Cheers! Dave : )
Dave, great article and good information to know. While I don't administer any groups, I am a member of a number of groups where I do post regularly. I see notice traffic increases on my site when I post into certain groups, highlighting how beneficial they can be.
Setting up a Facebook group is another task on a long list which never seams to get any smaller....
Thanks again for the content and I look forward to the training.
Thanks for the feedback Brendan!
The good thing about this place is that you can bookmark the training and other posts of interest and access them whenever you need them!
I am going to make the tutorial a simple step by step setup, then go into more detail on how to use different tactics to leverage your posts and reach...
Certainly, I can relate to the "long list" point hehe, mine never seems to get any smaller! The more I learn, the more I need to learn!
Using the bookmark feature, all the things that you will get too eventually will be there for you to tap into as it fits into your schedule!
Cheers!
Dave : )
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Good stuff Dave .. Cheers, William.
Thanks, William...You are having great success with your Facebook activities as I have seen from your posts...
Are you doing anything with Facebook Groups and if so, what has been your experiences?
The idea is to help everyone get the most leverage possible from their facebook activities...
That big of an audience simply cannot be ignored, but more than likes or shares, click-throughs, leads, and conversions are of interest...
Looking forward to your feedback!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Thanks Dave .. yes I am doing a range of stuff with Groups .. it is not highly focused yet .. my answer will be rather long, I will write is as a separate post over the weekend. Cheers, William.
Cool! I will be looking for the post, William...I truly believe that Facebook can be as worthy of our efforts to get traffic (also organic) as content is on a web page...
It is all part of the big picture, of course, by no means would I suggest abandoning what we learn here...Dovetailing efforts creates a bigger pictire, much like pieces of a puzzle...
Cheers!
Dave : )