S1E3 | How to Get Your First 100 Members

“Many people try to create a group and grow a group, but there’s no enticing reason for you to join their group. It’s like: ‘Come join my group.’ Ok, why?”

Welcome to the third episode of the Engaged Groups Podcast! In this episode, I cover what to do and what not to do when growing your group.

So it can be tempting to invite friends, family, and neighbors into your group so it increases your numbers. But here’s why it’s probably best to not push Aunt Martha into joining your group…it hurts your engagement in the long run.

Let’s think about Aunt Martha for a second. Aunt Martha doesn’t comment, she doesn’t post, and she doesn’t watch your videos. She’s really in this group as a favor to you, she doesn’t have much interest in your topic. If Aunt Martha isn’t engaging with your content, it’s going to make your post show less people in your group. Which isn’t great if you’re trying to launch an offer and it doesn’t go to everyone in your group.

Or maybe your Aunt Martha doesn’t really have a filter, and she really isn’t great with technology. (Maybe you had to show her step by step how to join your group.) When you’re posting about your group she’s in the comments, asking you why you didn’t come to family dinner, or if you could return her casserole dish, or if you’ve *finally* got a boyfriend yet. It throws off the energy in your group completely. You’ve got to love Aunt Martha, but maybe she doesn’t need to be in your group.

Here’s another example of what you shouldn’t do when growing your group: clicking the invite button, sitting back, and calling it a day.

Let me dive into what it looks like on the receiving end of your invitation. Their experience is that you invited them, and that’s it. It feels cold and, well, uninviting. You didn’t reach out to them and tell them about how awesome your group is, and tell them why they should join.

I’ve gotten invited to groups that are specific to a certain location, and I’m not even in that country. So they didn’t do their research. Or I’ve been harassed to join a group so many times that I had to block the group from sending me more invitations. This isn’t the experience you want.  

If you want to invite someone into your group, the best way is to have a conversation with them. Tell them why you’re inviting them to the group. Then they can see your group’s cover image and description, and see if it’s a fit for them. It’s more like inviting them to a dinner party. Clicking the invite button is more like dragging someone by their arms and legs into your house.  

The best way to grow your group is with an event. I love creating challenges, which has led to many people asking me to show them how I create challenges.  

*Psst. I have a Challenge Workshop available on my website!*  

The challenge I ran in July 2020 was something else. I did training for 10 days to teach people about Facebook groups, and what they could do to increase their engagement. I had 998 people join my challenge. 740 people joined my Facebook group. The other 258 were already in my group.  

I needed to make time so they could see the results of this challenge. People’s groups increased engagement by 50%, some increased by 800%.  

The reason people joined my group was so they could be a part of the challenge.

You should have a ‘why’ when you ask people to join your group, but you should also have a ‘why now?’ A challenge answers both of those questions.  

Get to your first 1,000 members by having an event within your group. Tell them what your event promises, give them results, spread the word, and you’ll attract people that are excited about what you’re offering. And that beats a thousand Aunt Marthas.