Facebook Groups: Turn Your Clubhouse of One into Many

Are you like me and thinking of starting a community page on Facebook and are unsure of how to proceed? Well, a major component in of your decision making will be choosing whether to create an open or closed community.

So, let’s go over a few pros and cons so that you can move on and start developing meaningful and rewarding connections online.

To begin, an example of an open community is a Facebook group page. Anyone can join once they have requested membership and answered a few relevant vetting questions.

A closed community would be comparable to a Patreon page where not everyone will join because the community must pay to join and share content. On the other hand, a closed community would also include those that require new members to wait for a formal invitation from a peer who is already a group member.

Now, let’s go over what makes open communities a great or less appealing choice for your Facebook group page.

Open communities are great because they:

· Maximize the number of people who can benefit from the information you and your community members share.

· Have more lenient rules around who can sign up and contribute.

· Have lots of members, so you have access to a variety of people with excellent knowledge and advice.

· Have search engine optimization (seo) benefits, so the topics and information discussed within your group will be easily discovered by more potential members who use google search.

Open communities aren’t so great because:

· Anyone can see the group’s discussion posts, so people won’t be as likely to have deep or personal conversations on a group page.

· As the community leader (or administrator) for your page, you might become overwhelmed with screening content to ensure discussion posts are high quality.

· They may have low member activity levels.

· It might be harder to foster a sense of belonging for group members.

To show you the other side of social media groups, here are some desirable features and disadvantages of closed communities.

Closed communities are great because:

· Members are more likely to feel respected and have meaningful conversations here.

· It would be easier for community leaders to keep conversations on track since members have been hand-picked and vetted with relevant questions before being granted access to the group.

· They are more likely to offer members valuable tips and advice that could improve their lives or help them reach personal goals.

· They are more likely to have higher member activity levels.

· You can choose to increase the exclusivity of your group by designating it as private, meaning it would not be searchable and easily found by internet trolls and spammers.

Closed communities aren’t so great because:

· They have stricter requirements for membership.

· They have shorter reach, so participation is restricted to a small group of members.

· Community growth is slower since people must find the group somehow (via social media posts, word-of-mouth, etc.).

Developing an engaged online community isn’t easy, but it can be done. Follow these last two tips, whether you decide to create an opened or closed community, and you will see amazing results.

1. Have active management administrators that ensure that your group offers its members value for time spent on your page.

This includes producing a constant stream of content, virtual events, and interviews with relevant people.

2. Don’t choose a group niche that is too specific.

If you do, only a small number of people will be interested enough to join, and it will be difficult to gain more group members over time.