Facebook Groups are microcosms of the Facebook community as a whole. You may not be able to efficiently interact directly with the millions of people on Facebook, but you can have some very satisfying conversations with a smaller number of people who are in a group with you. Facebook Group Chat makes this possible, and you can use it to your advantage in your business.
Set up a Facebook Group by going to the homepage and clicking in the left hand column on “Create a Group.” From there, you do all the setup for the group, including inviting Friends to the group and adding a Group name and privacy settings. Since you can be in up to 300 Facebook Groups, it is a good idea to have several groups so that you can sort your Friends by target demographic. This streamlines the chat experience.
You have two options for how to start a Group Chat. If you want to plan for a Group Chat, you can send out notifications to your Group and request that everyone interested participate at a set time. This is the best way to get the maximum number of people from your group when you want to chat with them. The second option is to simply log on to Facebook and open up your Group’s chat window to see who is available for a chat. You can do this on the spur of the moment, anytime you have an extra block of time.
Once you start the Group Chat, you should talk about subjects that are interesting to your Group members. Yet, there will be times when you can bring in thoughts about your business. They can be serious thoughts about the state of your industry, or frivolous thought about the goings-on at your office. Be very careful about mentioning your product. However, if someone specifically asks what they can do about a problem and your product would solve or help with it, you might have a chance to interest them in your line. Just remember to be informative and not commercial.
The most important thing to do with Group Chat is to develop relationships with people who are in your target demographics. These are your Friends already; you are just cementing that relationship and making it one that has potential for growth. Use Group Chat to widen your contact with your consumer base, and you will reap the rewards over time.
Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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