subject: How Could a Small Business Optimize Facebooks New Group Functions? [print this page] How Could a Small Business Optimize Facebooks New Group Functions?
Once again, Facebook has captured the worlds attention with a new feature that has the potential to attract even more people to the immensely popular social network. The site recently gave its groups feature a dramatic makeover, tweaking it to be more sophisticated and useful. While the fan page has long been viewed as a brands best friend, this feature could eventually prove to be a very capable marketing tool. In this article, we will go over some ways small businesses can put the new groups function to good use.
Social Collaboration
The updated Facebook groups function comes offering some pretty cool features. Among them is a new interface that makes it easy for users to communicate through chatting and internal messages, as well as share documents on the site. This makes it a perfect tool for collaboration. For example, a small business could create a group for employees to communicate and collaborate on team projects, essentially using it to replace existing collaboration systems they have to spend money on . This a prime example of the potential the feature has as an enterprise-class business tool.
Target More Effectively
The new and improved Facebook groups could work wonders for small businesses from a targeting standpoint. Whereas the vast majority of users lost interest in old groups, the new version could possibly keep them tuned in by eliminating the clutter and maintaining relevance. This is something that benefits both consumers and the brands they support. Getting your target audience involved in the circle could result in more likes for your fan page and provide a positive boost for your overall marketing efforts.
Monitor Conversations
More than likely, legions of brands will flock to the new Facebook groups due to the tremendous marketing potential that exists. This typically occurs when a such a dominant force launches a new application. However, small businesses can optimize for this new feature by not diving in head first and creating their own group, but joining a few and getting the feel for the atmosphere. Find one related to your niche, participate and learn from your market. That knowledge you gain can be used to target your audience more effectively through your fan page and other channels.
Another Powerful Social Weapon
The new Facebook groups could mean big things for small businesses engaged in social media marketing. As we mentioned earlier, this is not a new feature, but it is certainly far more useful than what was available before. For the most part, the previous groups were inactive and just taking up space on the network, abandoned fan pages and a host of other more interesting features. With the new version, marketers will have the opportunity to foster conversations that result in traffic, leads, and conversions. These benefits alone definitely make it worth keeping an eye on.
