New features for Facebook promotion that you didn't know about

May 30, 2019 published the first article in the series about the group “Do not create groups on Facebook” , where he showed by example that there is no point in creating a group for personal promotion, this does not work. Introduced two terms: clustering a group and dying off of an audience. He showed two fairly well-known groups (Websarafan and Your Arena), how they developed and what they came to.

The article caused a heated discussion. I made a few additions and the result was a cycle of three articles. Already in the process of writing, distributing and discussing, I came across some unknown features of Facebook. Fixed the findings, studied and eventually got a draft for a new article. I believe that what I’ll tell you about is unknown to most users.

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Originally drew the attention of the audience in the profile community.


Post-question on the topic


Typical "authoritative" answer

The reaction was funny: no one understood anything. Some have suspected me of amateurishness. At that moment I realized that most people from the profile community are simply not in the subject. And he went to the English-language Internet in search of information. But even there disappointment awaited: virtually no information on the subject of interest. Therefore, before you description and reflections on some of the features of Facebook, which you probably did not know.

New Facebook features you may not have known about

If you make a post on behalf of a business page in any group, then in the mobile Pages Manager application you can see the full analytics of the post:


Example of a post in a group


Detailed analytics of a single post

We see the coverage, the number of reactions, clicks, clicks on the link.

Another button Raise the post. Allows any post in the group to make advertising.


This is how you can start advertising

We receive the lifted post on behalf of the business page. I did not find any special conditions for placement - for example, targeting group members - but maybe I looked badly.

Accordingly, when we make a successful post in a group and collect a lot of likes, then everyone who responded to the publication can be invited to like the business page on whose behalf the post was made. After that, the post can be advertised (to raise the publication), attract interactions and likes. This is a well-known functional, but in the context of analytics and advertising of exactly the post in the group, we get new opportunities.

Analytics works only in the mobile application. There is no special section in Business page statistics, you can only see it in the Notifications section of the Pages Manager application, if you go to the target post in the group. Personally, I discovered by chance.


The Notifications section in the Pages Manager application

Just by chance I found one group where post views from the business page are shown on the desktop:


An example of the coverage indicator when viewed through the desktop

The word Seen and the number appears next to Share and likes. It is interesting that already in the process of writing this article, this figure disappeared and my screen was miraculously preserved.

One more thing. If you make a post with reference to another post or note, i.e. if the link leads to other content inside Facebook, then the analytics is not shown.


An example of a post with a link to another post within Facebook - there are no indicators

In the case of notes, this does not play a special role, inside the note there are still numbers with shows and views:


If you make a link to a note, there are also no indicators ...


All indicators notes on the author's page


Inside the note there is an indicator of readings.

Personally, it seemed to me that the relevance of Instant Articles is growing: now you can get organic traffic from groups and monetize.

My hypothesis: we are on the verge of new strategies for personal advancement

Now every post from the business page in the group receives detailed statistics. I personally made a table with the analysis of the announcements of articles in groups. Drawn quite an interesting picture of the scope. I immediately saw the potential for each group and ... the number ceased to play a role. It matters only the active part of the audience, which is indirectly displayed by the number of views. A group of 12 thousand and 2 thousand may be on the same level in coverage.


Sample table for analyzing posts in groups

In my table with the analysis of publications in groups, the number did not even begin to be considered as a factor. Only involvement and potential in the form of coverage.

Analytics of the posts of the business page in the groups is visible only through the mobile application, but there was a group where the Desktop had the indicator Views. I found only one such. I suspect that the technology itself is only being tested. Check with yourself, maybe find something interesting. I find it hard to believe that I am the only one who saw this.

It’s interesting what we get in the statistics of a business page: posts in groups are not counted, they do not appear anywhere, but the overall statistics clearly summarizes the data from these posts. Otherwise, mathematics does not converge.


The total content coverage of a business page includes posts in groups.


The amount of coverage of posts on the page does not match the total coverage

Perhaps in the future there will be an analyst on posts in groups. Hope so. In favor of the fact that business pages get opportunities for promotion in groups, another factor says: you can connect the service of postponed posts within the group.


Group settings Adding an application.

Just the other day I tested the Hootsuite connection. Everything works, you can make posts through the scheduler. Create a content plan for the month ahead for publication on behalf of the business page in the group.


We test the publication in group through service of a planning of publications

Admin, skip it!

The article “How the group works: the forest around the mountain” raised the topic of self-praise as the main driving force for the development of the expert environment within the group. In any human group there are personalities - Persons - who stand out, tend to emphasize their brightness. Attached to Facebook groups, these Persons do personal self-publicity. If their activities are downgraded, artificially limited, this leads to the degradation of the information space. Already gave an example of Websarafan:

An example of a post in Vebsarafan: sexism, stupidity and flood.

In order for the group to develop, evolve, it is necessary on the contrary to maintain self-praise, to preserve the spirit of healthy intelligent competition. This motivates experts to publish high-quality content, share research, discuss and improve the level of professionalism.

But with the content, the more expert there is a problem: long and expensive. It is difficult to make one person, to hire a team is not very cost-effective. The cost of creating one article per 10 thousand characters (approximately like the one you are reading) starts at 8,000 rubles. Not the fact that she will ever bring direct material benefits. In conditions when only self-employed single specialists participate in a group, when opportunities for system marketing are limited by companies, it makes little sense to invest resources in content and distribution.

But everything changes. Now each company, web-studio or technical service can build a network for distribution of content in groups. In foreign groups. You only need to join groups on behalf of the business page, publish content, track performance. This gives new opportunities for Facebook promotion, motivation and sense of investing resources in content creation - longreads and webinars.

As a result, everyone benefits: participants receive high-quality articles and video broadcasts, the development of the information space, and the growth of the active part of the audience. Organization, content producer gets the opportunities for content marketing, personal PR. The administration of the group acts as the primary censor, editor and wraps up candid trash and non-core content. For this interaction, one little thing is needed: the opportunity for a business page to become a member of the community. In the group settings, you can allow or deny pages to join the group. One switch separates the group and experts from the new features.


Checkbox-permission pages to make a request to join the group

I will give an example. Here is my table with the analysis of publications in two groups.


Two groups with different posting conditions

The first group is numerous (12 thousand participants), but there are few reactions. While I was publishing on behalf of my personal page (profile), it seemed to me that the group was frankly dead. But as soon as I made the publication on behalf of the business page, I immediately saw the reach. Zero reactions, but the potential is there. We need to work on the announcement and the topic that will attract the audience of this particular group.

The second group is smaller in number (2 thousand participants), but gives more involvement. There is a target audience, there are likes and comments, there are contacts with the moderator, but ... No coverage numbers. And this is a problem. The marketer inside me struggles between emotions and facts.

Choosing between two groups, what to choose: where is the analyst and there is a forecast, or a group with a high involvement of the previous post? Being a sane marketer, I choose a higher a priori probability. Like or may come or not, it depends on a combination of factors, including luck, but the coverage, the size of the active part of the audience is a constant, a constant indicator, predictable, with potential use.

But everything can change when I see coverage in the second group: although the group is smaller, the size of the active audience can be comparable or larger than in the first. You only need to allow my business page to join the group.

Conclusion

I really wonder if I just saw new opportunities to promote business pages in groups? Write in the comments if you have a post analyst, what do you see in your Pages Manager application?

Facebook changed the rules of the game, complicated it somewhere, gave new opportunities somewhere. But it has changed, not killed. The rules are complicated, but the game is still the same. It seems to me that we are on the verge of new horizons, I think in 1-2 years the page promotion strategy will change dramatically and a new breath will appear. Personally, I vote for it. I would like to add about the future capabilities of Messenger and a single data transfer protocol between Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, about the future cryptocurrency as a means of payment within Facebook - I am really looking forward to it, I think it will bring something very interesting in terms of promotion. In the meantime, we are following hidden updates and sharing insights.