Today I want to talk to you about why your free Facebook group is actually hurting your business. Now, some of you who are listening might be saying, “Rick, what are you talking about? My group is amazing.”

Well, I want to share with you a common theme that I’ve been seeing for years now. I see this time and time again when it comes to free Facebook groups: they’re actually hurting your business.

As with anything, there’s always outliers and exceptions. People have communities that are actually worth their focus and their attention. They’re being very intentional and strategic about the community.

But more often than not these Facebook groups are actually doing your business more harm than good, and I’m going to share the top two reasons why in today’s episode.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The challenges of being beholden to Facebook’s algorithm
• Are you giving away too much content for free?
• Is your Facebook group sabotaging your paid membership?
• My recommendations for where to host your community

Links & Resources:

• SuperFastBusiness
• The SuperFastBusiness podcast
• Follow James Schramko on Twitter
• Circle
• 10XPRO
• The Art of Online Business website
• DM me on Instagram
• Visit my YouTube channel
• The Art of Online Business clips on YouTube
• Full episodes of The Art of Online Business Podcast on YouTube
• The Art of Online Business Podcast website
• Check out my Accelerator coaching program

*Disclosure: I only recommend products I use and love and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.

Got A Question You Want Answered On the Podcast?

Ask your questions or let me know if there is a topic or guest you’d like to hear from in the comments below or click here to visit my contact page and submit your question there for a chance to be featured on one of my upcoming Q&A episodes.

Follow The Art of Online Business on iTunes and/or Stitcher

Please support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!

Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy:

How to Create a Thriving Community (Without Burning Out) with Anna Hetzel

Outdated Online Marketing Strategies and What To Do Instead, with Brittany McBean

(Part I) How to Reduce Churn and Keep Members Engaged, with Diana Tower (Membership Series)

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Rick:
Hey, my friend, I want to let you know that we only have three more spots available this month for my Accelerator coaching program. We only allow 35 people in the program, and we only have three spots available this month. If you want to grab one of these three spots—application only—go to RickMulready.com/Accelerator.

[00:00:21]
This is for established online course creators. Maybe you have a membership or you’re an online coach, or maybe you’re a teacher entrepreneur and you want to grow and scale your online business. You’re not really sure what next things to be doing in your business in order to achieve that. Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed or heading towards burnout.

[00:00:41]
You’re not really sure how to grow your team, for example. Well, we help you create more profit and a bigger impact in your business with less hustle. We do that by helping you optimize your sales and marketing, your systems and processes, and your mindset.

If you’re interested in grabbing one of these three spots, go to RickMulready.com/Accelerator.

[00:01:34]
Hey, what’s up my friends, Rick here. Welcome to episode number 595 here on the show. This is another quick tip episode, a Friday quick tip episode.

Today I want to talk to you about why your free Facebook group is actually hurting your business. I know there’s going to be some of you who are listening right now, who are saying, “Rick, what are you talking about? My group is amazing.”

[00:01:58]
Okay. I will get to that just a second, but I want to share with you a common theme that I’ve been seeing for years now. I see this time and time again when it comes to free Facebook groups, and that is they’re actually hurting your business. They’re doing more harm than good for your business.

[00:02:17]
As with anything there’s always outliers and exceptions, right? People have communities that are actually worth their focus and their attention. They’re being very intentional and strategic about the community, but more often than not these Facebook groups are actually doing more harm than good.

[00:02:41]
I want to share today the top two reasons why I say that.

So, number one, you are at the will of the Facebook group algorithm. If you have a free Facebook group and you post something, just because you post something in that group does not mean that everyone’s going to see it, especially if you have a larger Facebook group.

[00:03:06]
Right? One of the single biggest frustrations of people that I work with who have large Facebook group communities, is that. It’s become so hard to get any kind of reach with their posts. I mean, it’s your group, right? Like you created it. And so of course you want, see, you want people to see what you’re posting, but yet we post something, you know, ourselves from, again, it’s our group.

[00:03:32]
Post something in there because we want, you know, our thousands of people to see what we’re posting. And then it’s crickets, right? It gets hardly any reach, a super, super small percentage of the people. Overall number of people in the group actually see it. So it’s like, well, why am I even posting?

[00:03:50]
Right. So that is number one. Number two is when we create free Facebook groups, we usually create them just to build a community of our people. Right. There’s some of you there’s many of you, I’m sure that that have a, an actual intention behind creating a Facebook group or why you created the Facebook group that you already have.

[00:04:17]
But again, what I usually hear from people is that, well, I just wanted to, to attract my ideal people. So I wanted to, so why not create a Facebook group and, you know, have all my people in this Facebook group community and start talking. Right. Maybe we’re hoping that we can use it to move people to our email list.

[00:04:39]
Maybe we want to do live trainings in the group. Maybe we want to use it to learn what are people’s challenges are, right. The questions they ask and the language that they use, which is a very good reason, by the way, we have the best of intentions. What usually happens with these groups though, is they become a place where people come for free help.

[00:05:04]
Either you, as the group creator are in the group, freely answering their questions, you’re doing, you know, you’re showing up on a regular basis and doing Facebook lives and all this other stuff. Right. And then also others in the group. Are giving all the answers to what people are asking as well. Now don’t get me wrong.

[00:05:25]
I am not saying I’m gonna repeat that. I am not saying that offering free help is bad. Okay. To an extent, right? There’s there comes, there’s a, there’s a, there’s an extent to that, right? You reach a point. I mean, people DM me all the time, for example, in Instagram. And they asked me a question and I’m more than happy to answer as many as I possibly can.

[00:05:48]
The problem becomes with the Facebook group, when people are getting all the help they need for free in your Facebook group, and they don’t need your paid offer or offers as a result. Again, this is something I see over and over and over. I mean, why would they pay for something when they’re getting all the help that they need for absolutely free.

[00:06:13]
And it’s when this is happening is when there’s. I mean, you’re running a business after all, this is not a hobby and you deserve to be compensated for your expertise for your specialty, for your zone of genius. So here’s a perfect example. Someone I work with right now has an amazing membership. They also had a very large Facebook group and the Facebook group had become this community where.

[00:06:46]
Number one, the creator, my student, whenever they posted anything, it would have an abysmal reach. No one would see their posts. Okay. So problem, number one, And that is by the way, I can hear some of you thinking right now or saying out loud right now you’re yelling at me like, well, they’re not doing engagement, right.

[00:07:05]
Or they’re not posting, you know, silly engagement questions just to boost the engagement and game me out. Okay, maybe, but is that really adding benefit to your Facebook group community? Right. And so, number two, my student they’re doing live trainings, answering people’s questions in there, and then other people who were in the group were getting all the answers that they needed, whether it was from my student, right.

[00:07:35]
The person running the group and created the group or from others in the group. And many in the group, by the way, we’re also current or past members of my students membership. And so why would people in this free Facebook group community want or need to join the membership? When they’re getting all their questions answered for free?

[00:08:01]
And after lots of deliberation looking at all the numbers and coaching on this, the decision was made to close the group. Now this was a really scary decision and I totally get that. I can totally empathize, empathize with that. And as it’s as scary as it was to do this funny thing happened not too long after the free Facebook group was closed.

[00:08:27]
Number one engagement in the membership went up, which can have a direct effect on retention and churn because people who were already members of the membership, they were also in the Facebook group and they weren’t logging into the membership community. They were just in the Facebook group and asking questions and getting everything they needed.

[00:08:51]
And they weren’t even logging in to the membership. I mean, they were paying for it, but they weren’t even logging in. Okay. And then so engagement went up engagement in the membership, went up, which again, is going to have a direct relation to retention and reducing churn. The other thing that happened is new signups to the membership increased.

[00:09:15]
What they were seeing was people who are in, who are once in the Facebook group, they were now joining the membership. And they were commenting things like, wow, I had no idea. All these other things were available to me inside this membership over here, even though my student had been, you know, clearly messaging and communicating and everything like that, about their membership.

[00:09:40]
The so many people were in the Facebook group community and just sort of like, all right, cool. This is where I go. I don’t need to see anything else. Or they weren’t aware of anything else because they were so wrapped up into, Hey, I’m getting everything I need over here in the Facebook group community.

[00:09:55]
And I very much projected these two trends, increased engagement, which can lead to increased retention, decreased churn, and also a continued upward trend in new signups. As a result, they’re going to. Thus increasing revenue and increasing profit and also increasing lifetime customer value because people are staying in the membership that much longer.

[00:10:23]
Okay. And then lastly, you don’t own the house that you’re building this community in. Right? So this is another reason why I don’t love free. Facebook groups and heck for, for this purpose, for this reason alone, you know, so for our Accelerator coaching program, we have a Facebook group community. Like our community is in a Facebook group.

[00:10:52]
If I were, and there’s been there’s years of, years of content in there and conversation, this is gold. Right. by the way, at the time recording this right now, we have three open spots for my Accelerator coaching program. So it’s application only if you want to apply, go to Rick mulready.com forward slash XL.

[00:11:20]
Okay. This is for established online course creators coaches, or teacher entrepreneurs who want to take their business to the next level and want my help and my team’s help and the rest of the Accelerator community, to help you with it. And, I have kept the number of people in the group. And right now we have three spots.

[00:11:44]
Okay. So going back to that, the reason I mentioned Accelerators, if I were to do that again, if I were to start over, I would not do a Facebook group as part of the program. I would take the community and put it into a 10 X pro, which I’ll talk about here in a second. and the reason for this, again, just let me just, I just got off on a tangent there.

[00:12:06]
We don’t own the house basically where our community is living. Right. we don’t own Facebook. One change to the algorithm or worse Facebook one day up and decides that, you know what, we’re going to remove this group. You’re kind of screwed, right. You know, my good friend, James Schramko from the super fast business podcast and super fast business.com refers to this as owning the race course.

[00:12:31]
This is a term that he coined like 12 years ago. I first heard him say this, owning the race course. You want to be in control of as much as possible in your business and not be at the whim of an algorithm or a platinum. And when we have a free Facebook group community, we are very much if, if we’re relying on that community as the lifeblood, for example of our business, we are very much at the whim of Facebook and the algorithm.

[00:12:59]
Okay. So here are today’s takeaways for you. All right. Number one, if you are thinking about starting a Facebook group for your business, I really want you to consider what I’ve just shared with you. What is the intention? Behind your wanting to start the group. Now, if you have the intention of, I want to create a community where it is solely to listen to the challenges and problems that the people that I want to be helping are sharing so that I can grab language.

[00:13:35]
I can see exactly what they’re asking so that I can use that in my marketing and so forth. And that is it. Cool. All right. I would say, okay. I still don’t love it. Right. Cause there’s other ways to do that. I mean, get on a zoom call with people, with your target people, right? Get on the zoom call, get on a zoom call with your, with your customers.

[00:13:57]
There’s other ways to do that right now. If you already have a Facebook group. Does it, I want you to think about this. Does it align with your original intention of having a group? Because again, most people, most people start a group with like, oh, I just want to create a community of people to attract the people that I want, that I want to, help.

[00:14:18]
Right. And then it morphs into this like free, you know, free help. So, does it align if you already have a group, does it align with your original intention of having a group? Could it be hurting your business? Like the example of my student, you know, could it be hurting your business right now? Think about number two.

[00:14:37]
Think about what might happen if you close the group, would you know, what, what would that do? Right. And I’m, I’m not telling you to, just to up and close it. I, my goal with this episode here is to share with you how having a free Facebook group could very well be hurting. Your bottom line could be hurting the amount of revenue potential that you can be generating in your business.

[00:15:04]
Right. So if you were decided to close the group, how might it increase the revenue from your paid offer or paid off? How would you get the people from the group that you’re closing into your offer? Right. And think through those things. And then number three, because we don’t own that house. I would encourage you to look at other platforms to build your community.

[00:15:31]
Like I mentioned 10 X pro.io. They have an awesome community and forums functionalities built right into it. In fact, the community function, they call it a social wall and it looks and operates very much like a Facebook group. Okay. And among other things you can do forums in there. You have, they have prebuilt funnels.

[00:15:52]
You create your, you put your courses in there, create your courses, affiliate center, et cetera, et cetera. I am a proud affiliate because I use 10 X pro in my business. Love them. I love being able to consolidate all these expensive tools into one very manageable. Monthly payment. So if you want to check it out, go to Rick mulready.com forward slash 10 X pro the number 10, the letter X pro.

[00:16:18]
Okay. Or outside of that, you can go to a platform like circle, right. Which is a tool that helps you build communities and so forth. Many of you have already heard of, of circle right now. You might be saying, well, Rick, I don’t know in those platforms either. Well, no, but you can very easily export. information in there and you have people’s email addresses, not the case with Facebook groups.

[00:16:41]
Okay. So there you have it. My friend. Probably a controversial viewpoint on Facebook group communities, but this is something I see over and over and over. And my goal here is to help you create the best possible business for yourself so that you’re creating more profit for yourself, more impact without all the hustle, right.

[00:17:04]
And creating. A successful business, whatever success means to you. So thank you my friend, as always for listening. If you haven’t already make sure you hit subscribe to the podcast here on whatever platform that you listen. And until next time my friend be well, and I’ll talk to you soon.

[00:17:21]
Hey, my friends, if you are an established online course creator and/or coach, or maybe you’re a teacher entrepreneur, and you want to be growing and scaling your online business to the next level—whatever that next level looks like for you—but maybe you’re feeling stuck in your business. You’re not really sure what next steps to take and things to be doing in your business in order to grow and scale your business.

[00:17:43]
Maybe you’re doing all the things and you’re feeling overwhelmed. Maybe you’re heading towards burnout. Maybe you just want to plan how to grow your business without working longer and harder.

Well, that is exactly what we help you do inside of our Accelerator coaching program. This is about helping you create more profit and more impact with less hustle. Because, my friend, this is not about working more hours, longer hours, and harder, et cetera.

[00:18:13]
This is about helping you get unstuck so you stop spinning your wheels and you are creating the business that is ideal for you, and helping the kind of people that you want to help while generating the revenue and profit that you want to be generating.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in, this is one on one coaching, group coaching, and a mastermind experience where we give you a growth plan that you follow step by step. This is personalized coaching.

[00:18:47]
You’re also surrounded by support and other coaching from the other members, and accountability. That is what embodies our Accelerator coaching program.

This is application only, and it is rolling, ongoing open enrollment. This is not open/close.

If you want to learn more and apply, just go to RickMulready.com/Accelerator.

[00:19:08]
Alright, my friends, thank you, as always, for tuning into the episode here today. Super appreciate you.

Until next time, be well, and I’ll chat with you soon.