Pivot Your Practice and BulletProof Your Future - How Free Facebook Groups Can Help Practitioners Give More Personalised Help To Their Tribes

It has taken me a while to get my head round Facebook Groups and how to use them. But the light has finally dawned and I now see how they are like old style clubs where like minded people gather to talk about their area of interest. Are you a practitioner with a speciality like working with relationship problems, or body image, or sore backs, or improving performance??? What is your signature topic or passion? If you have an area of expertise and a passion for it try setting up a FB Group.

It is the place to start your club! If you want to interact more personally with clients, offer very targeted information and help, offer a Facebook group where you’ll get into deeper discussions related to your area of expertise.  This isn't the same as your Facebook Business Page - You will probably need both so think carefully or you will just end up duplicating work - and let's face it, your time is too precious to do that with it. 

Consider your Group part of your marketing journey: after they follow your Facebook Business Page, send them an invite to your highly specialised group/s. Getting these prospects into a group gives you a new level of intimacy where you can get to know them better and understand their challenges.

Choosing the Correct Privacy Settings for Your Group

Facebook allows three different privacy settings for groups: Public, Closed, or Secret. The setting you choose is dependent upon your goals for the group.

Public groups are rather self-explanatory: everyone on Facebook can find your group, see the group’s name, description, and the member list. While members still need to request to join a Public group, there’s no expectation of privacy and viewers can see all the published posts when they scan the group page. Consider this one step above a Business Page, where you can interact with people who have already expressed an interest in what you do. For example, I have a Public Group for people who are Changemakers. Whose value system includes actively doing things to change the world for the better. Many of them are my friends as we already are attracted to people who share similar values - but over time more people have joined who I don't know personally but have seen my posts on their friends timeline and jumped onboard. 

Closed groups allow a bit more privacy in that only group members can see what is posted. Anyone can still find the group name and see the description but postings and the member list will be private and only group members can see that info. This type of group also attracts people who are interested in your products or services but offers more privacy so they can post frequently or share details of their lives without making it available to the entire world of Facebook.

Secret groups take privacy one step further in that no one can do a search and find your group on Facebook. Only current and former members can see the group name and description and only former members can ask to re-join the group. This setting is ideal if you want to cultivate a VIP or invitation-only atmosphere, especially if you’ll use this as a mastermind or brainstorming group where top secret topic information will be shared. I have been part of groups like this and it is good to know that what I post won;t be seen ever by the rest of the world and that I am part of a tight group who share things. These groups have been a stage beyond a very specialised programme I might have been part of and is where we have kept in touch with the trainers and each other after the programme has finished. 

Do You Need a Group? How to Decide

Facebook Groups are very easy to set up but ask yourself if you really need and enjoy this type of social mingling. Keeping groups active and interesting takes work – on a daily basis – and if you forget to post even once, your engagement will start to lag and people may lose interest. So be sure you love social media and you love to help your target audience. Groups can be helpful to set up as a membership place for people who are doing one of your longer programmes and they tend to be busy during the life of the programme unless you really work at keeping them active. 

My group is active because I love to talk to them everyday - but I would think carefully about setting up another group now that I know just how much energy and time it takes to keep the contact personal and live. Running one or maybe two Groups is feasible - otherwise run things off your Business/Practice Page to begin with. There is no point in making more work for yourself until the need for a Group naturally merges. 

Use your group to answer Frequently Asked Questions about your topic. Ask members for market research input as to what types of products they would love to see next. Use your group to host Facebook Live Q&A sessions. Offer something else exclusive to group members to keep them active.

While you can still ask these same questions on your Business Page, you may get more answers in this intimate group setting, especially since these members have already prequalified themselves as being interested in what you offer.

If you'd like soem help with deciding if it is a good move for you at this moment give us a shout. We'll help you think it through on one of the Open Office sessions.

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This is a series for coaches and therapists who are passionate about their work and their clients but struggling to find a way to make things work post-Covid as clients melt away and money becomes an issue for most people.

This is a time when most of us are scared. Nothing is known or predictable and many of us are dithering about what to do. In fact, this indecision is paralysing us and that is something that will derail the success of any practice. Therapists and coaches who are successful are people who have learned to do two things.

One is be flexible enough to pivot their business to what will work now - and the other is to break through enough of the fear barriers to get productive again.

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If you want quick and easy steps to setting yourself up for a safe and happy future doing the work you love, join me for my free webinars. I usually give at least 5 tips for moving forward and implementing in ways that will move you forward in all of my webinars. Each is about a certain angle on the issue. They, on their own will have an immediate effect on your mood and your outlook on life with your business. Get off the hamster wheel and take some time for yourself with my webinars, learn and act, learn and act – that’s the way to start flourishing.

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