Group Love: What Facebook Groups mean for marketers

Facebook recently announced an overhaul to its mobile app that puts one long-standing feature more at the forefront: Groups. Facebook has said that there are “tens of millions of active groups on Facebook”, and that it often becomes the most meaningful part of how many people use the social media giant.

You’ll now find the groups tab smack dab in the middle of the updated menu bar. Tapping the tab will bring you a feed full of all the groups that you’ve joined over the years – and most likely had forgotten about – as well as suggestions for new groups to join based on what you’ve liked in the past.

This new shift is, in part, signalling an end to the ‘traditional’ newsfeed towards an era of micro-community building. But that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten entirely about the News Feed either – you’ll be able to post to any group that you’re in, directly from your News Feed.

Facebook is so keen for you to use groups that they’ve even rolled out an ad campaign called ‘More Together’ to promote them. The campaign shows how people from diverse backgrounds can come together over shared interests, like the ‘Sci-Fi Universe Facebook Group’.

So what does this change mean for marketers?

If you already have an active Facebook group for your brand, you’re likely to see an increase in new members. If you don’t have one, then you might want to find an interesting angle with which to get your social audience more connected.

This new approach will require campaign-led thinking and more community management. Brands will have to brace themselves for members to be honest (sometimes brutally so) about the product, as they work out their new freedoms in groups.

But if you can get an engaged user base that just loves talking about the ins and outs of your product, you could be building a community of evangelists who will grow your brand organically.

Can we really do “More Together”? Yeah, we think so.