Remember forums?
Delphi Forums, one of the first, started in 1983. Forums provided an early version of social marketing, gathering together others to discuss common interests and causes. While Delphi still exists today, most forums don’t. They are difficult to grow and maintain high levels of engagement from members. Think about it — those who start forums are asking potential and current members to spend time each day doing something they don’t normally do, which is going into the forum on a separate site and engage in conversation. Not easy.
Let’s put this in perspective. Delphi started in 1983 and has 4 million members. Facebook started in 2004 and has 2 billion.
And Facebook wants to give you no excuse to leave.
Initially as an alternative to forums and to create more community amongst its members, Facebook created Facebook Groups. These sub-groups within Facebook can be created by any individual or business on Facebook. They allow you to create group messages, conversations and community. You can either keep them completely open, closed but discoverable (when you have to approve all members joining), or secret (that you can only find with a link).
When it comes to business, Facebook Groups are a powerful tool. Here are a few of Facebook Groups’ many uses:
- Benefiting customers: Facebook Groups can be offered as a benefit of being a member of an organization or a customer of a business. A restaurant can create a Facebook Group where recipes…
