S7E1 | Why it is important to keep your group engaged

“When you ignore the value of engagement, you lose revenue.”

Welcome to the new season of our podcast! We’re switching topics this season to talk about engagement, because some don’t understand why engagement in a group is so relevant to their business. 

I’ve been immersed in online communities for a while. I’ve seen people pause or archive their Facebook Group, which means people can view your page but no one can comment or post. I have a feeling that they later regret doing that. 

They sometimes come back to unarchive the group when a launch is coming up, and go into their group and share their offer. The offer post won’t have much engagement, and anything else wouldn’t get many likes or comments.  

Why is this? Because the community felt abandoned. You paused the engagement and now you unpaused it to make money. The group lost the community feel, the excitement, the love, and the joy that used to be there. 

I’ve also seen scenarios where any group member is allowed to post promotions in the group. There can be thousands of people in the group, but everyone wants to promote their own stuff. Everyone’s in it for themselves, nobody is in it for the community. When you as the business owner go to promote your own things, you’re probably not going to get a lot of sales. Although people are coming into the group and posting, this will not help you in the long run. 

You want to create a community so that when you have something to sell, those people are cheering you on because you built a relationship with them. 

Engagement is all about connecting, and having conversations. It’s key for you to get to know your audience, and to let them get to know you. Think of a dinner party. If people aren’t connecting on something, they’re likely just going to stare at each other. The topic of your group can be a great way to connect people. 

You can foster this connection by asking questions about a topic everyone is interested in. Ask them to post a picture of their pet, or their work setup. This is what connects people in your group, because this is what connects people during dinner parties. 

You also need to keep engagement going because it will help people to actually see your posts. When your group engagement drops, less people see your posts. Higher engagement means that a larger percentage of your group is going to see the post. 

You don’t want to let your group get quiet. If you’re unsure of what to do in your group to get engagement started, don’t worry! I have something for you. It’s called The Engagement Plan. At the end of our two week time together, you’ll have created a 30 day engagement plan for your group, and will understand how engagement works so you can be strategic in your community. Learn about the juicy details and bonuses here and we’ll get your group engaged! 

Thanks so much for joining us for Season 7, we have a lot of great discussions in store for you!