5 Rules of Facebook Groups

…insert obligatory intro about how Facebook has taken over the world… include high level of metrics I find on google and sprinkle the words “astonishing growth”, “harvard” and “billions with a b”… reference and link to my similar glassdoor article…  ok, now onto it...

Here are my 5 rules for Facebook Groups (click here if you don't know what these are.)

Rule #1: Find customer groups and sign up for them.  If you don’t have a customer group, create one.

Facebook is more than just a message board. The fact that all the messages are tied to people’s Facebook accounts makes it much more valuable.  Why?  Because people (generally – see caveats below) are just more thoughtful about their contributions.   Most customer forums are ill formed hell-scapes of anonymous garbage...

...while a lot of the feedback on Facebook Groups is, well...  great.  You’ll learn about who your customers are, what they like, what they don’t like, and what motivates them.  Groups also allow your customers to share best practices and get more of out your product overall. 

So go on Facebook now, find groups for your company, and join them.  If you can’t find one (first look harder, because you probably missed it) go create one and invite your customers to join.   You’ll learn a lot and your customers will benefit – it’s win win (and a 3rd win because Facebook also wins, but they always win so it doesn’t matter).

Rule #2: Participate and respond

A Facebook group is not a focus group with 1-way mirrored glass.  You can - and should - participate.  Respond to their questions, complements, and complaints.  Why?  A few reasons: First, it humanizes you to your customers.   Because they'll see you’re a real person with a spouse, kids, and a dog - your customers are more likely to be thoughtful and helpful with their feedback. 

Second, it allows you to solicit feedback and get more responses when you do.  If you’re helpful, and people start to know who you are, your customers will be a lot more engaged when you want to learn something specific from them.

Rule #3: Don’t treat every piece of ice like an iceberg

Use feedback from Facebook Groups as a data point, not a comprehensive analysis of everything your customers are and want and are happy and unhappy with.  If you launch something, don’t over-react when you see a handful of angry messages about it.  If someone posts an idea, and it gets 10 likes and 5 supporting comments, don’t necessarily jump on it. 

For every 1 comment, there isn’t necessarily 10, 100, or 1000 people who feel the same way and are just silent about it.   How can you tell the difference between an ice berg and an ice cube?  Look for two things: First, does it come up more than once?  Even the dumbest opinion can gather likes, but more valid ones will be expressed independently by different people over time.  Second, do the commenters and like-ers also comment and like everything else?  

A comment from someone who rarely comments is an example of pent-up real frustration. A comment from someone who comments on everything is just a comment from someone who comments on everything.

4) If you do see an iceberg, focus on the ice, not the people pointing at it

If you see an onslaught of customer complaints about an issue, don’t worry about the thread or managing (or over-managing) your Facebook response to it.  By the time you coral PR and marketing in a room to coordinate a response, the thread will be either below the fold or gone (virtually) forever.   Do you remember what was trending on twitter or reddit or Facebook or whatever 3 weeks ago?  Neither does anyone else. 

(Here's a link to the video for the meme above in case you don't know it.)

Just take it as a data point and adjust your product or service accordingly. 

5) Have a healthy cadence for checking Facebook Groups

You should be on Facebook daily, but not all day.  There’s a fine-ish line between managing your Facebook participation and being ruled by it.  If you spend too much time there, you’ll have no time to actually improve your business.  Here’s a scientific chart to show you what you should aim for:

So those are my 5 rules.  Facebook Groups are incredible useful - you just have to know how to use them.