As I mentioned in my previous article, Blogging Secrets – A Beginner’s Guide, Facebook groups are a wonderful tool for growth. They contain a variety of threads that will help you to expand your audience and reach on all of the social media and platforms you use to grow your blog.
While Facebook Groups for blogging are great, there are some things you should be aware of before you join a group and start posting. Here are my tips for utilizing Facebook Groups for blogging!
1. Find the Right Groups for You
There are so many different groups for blogging on Facebook and if you are new, you might be thinking you need to join all of them. It is extremely easy to get overwhelmed searching through groups to join, and you are only going to be seeing the groups that are visible to the public (I love “secret” groups, but you have to be friends with a member to get an add)!
What I recommend is to search blogging groups in your niche. If you blog about parenting, join a group like Naptime Nation or other parent/motherhood groups. If you blog on Christian topics, find some groups with like-minded Christian bloggers. If you blog about a mix of things, try joining some different groups on the topic you will be writing and promote where applicable.
Choose a reasonable number of groups that you can realistically keep up with, but don’t join every single one. It is a good idea to keep an eye out for groups that might be a better fit or might give you a new audience. Don’t be afraid to leave one if you think it just isn’t right for you!
2. Read the Rules
This might seem obvious, but when you are beginner blogger who is just starting out, sometimes you can get a little too exciting. It may be boring, like reading an instruction manual or the terms and conditions of a service, but the rules in a group are extremely important. You need to familiarize yourself with them so that you can determine if the group is a good fit for you and so that you don’t get kicked out of a good group for breaking a rule you didn’t know existed.
Most groups have rules on self-promotion. Some allow self-promotion any time and any day, while others only allow promos on one or two days of the week. Others have daily threads that you must reciprocate on in order to promote a post or a social media account. Every group is different but one thing is for sure, you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot and get kicked out before you even begin!
3. Be A Good Steward
When you join a group and begin participating, you become part of their community. People in communities in real life help each other and warn each other of danger, and the same principle exists in blogging groups.
If you see someone’s article get stolen and plagiarized, alert them immediately so that they can begin taking steps to get back their intellectual property. If by some horrible chance this were to happen to you, you would want someone to tell you. So please, take the time to do unto another blogger what you would want to be done in the same scenario, even if it takes a few minutes of your day.
If something inappropriate, gruesome or voyeuristic pops up in your newsfeed from a blogging group (as is often the case if someone’s personal account has been hacked), let an admin know by either reporting the post directly, taking an admin in a comment or private messaging an admin.
Lack of reciprocation is a huge problem in groups that require it and many people are hesitant to call people out on this. I personally find that if I have someone breaking this rule with me, I tend to let it go because I don’t like confrontation. However, if it is being done to others I find it extremely rude and offensive and will let an admin know.
It is good to give someone the benefit of the doubt, but people who are repeat offenders (with no valid reasoning) need to be removed because they are literally stealing success and valuable time from other bloggers.
4. Keep Your Word
This goes hand in hand with #3. If you participate in a thread, you need to keep your word on whatever it is that you commit to doing. If you think that you might forget to finish it, try to complete your work before you even drop your link, or set a timer for after the thread closes at a time when you know you will be able to finish. If you think you won’t have enough time or energy to complete a thread, don’t drop a link. This will preserve your reputation and make you a respectable person within the blogging community.
5. Don’t Do Something Just Because Everyone Else is Doing It
I’m sure you heard this from your mom or dad during your childhood, and it probably involved a cliff analogy. In blogging groups, there are some behaviors that tend to get swept under the rug because the majority is doing it, and you might be safe to follow the majority…for a little while. Eventually, someone is going to get caught if something that is being done is immoral or wrong, and that someone might be you.
This can apply to incorrectly running a giveaway, not properly disclosing your affiliate links on your website or on social media, breaking the terms and conditions of WordPress or social media, etc. There are so many ways you can shoot yourself in the foot by going with the majority when you have a blog, which is why a lot of bloggers are now registering their blogs as LLCs to protect themselves legally. Know the laws and the terms and conditions of the sites you use, and don’t be tempted to go against them just because everyone else is.
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This is really something amazing tips now i am gonna follow it. Thanks a lot.
Great tips!
Thank you! 🙂