Okay – you’ve found some great groups to join and are ready to begin participating. You might be tempted to simply post a blurb about yourself with a link to your business several times a week. This isn’t a good idea, though. For one thing, many groups discourage blatant selling. The goal of joining Facebook groups is to network and build your relationships to grow your business.

Here are eight ways to take advantage of Facebook groups and make them your secret weapon for networking.

1. Share good stuff. Just like any social media site, it’s a social place. That makes it a great place to share helpful, and relevant, stuff. Share funny advice or articles you’ve come across that others in the group would enjoy. This raises your visibility and shows others that you are keeping on top of certain topics. 
2. Give support. Build your credibility by supporting others. Provide helpful answers and advice. Support other group members if they are having problems with something. If you don’t know the answer to a problem, point them to someone who does.
3. Get more leads with kindness. Being supportive and helpful draws people to you. Keep your responses and posts within the group upbeat and positive. 
4. Don’t overly self-promote. How annoying is it when you visit a group and all the members are promoting their stuff? These aren’t helpful posts. To network and really grow your business, you should be helpful and giving away your best tips.
5. Build quality relationships. In any business, building relationships keeps customers and clients involved and coming back to your brand. One way to build good customer relationships is to be involved in what is going on in the groups you participate in.
6. Attend events. Many groups will hold events like webinars or meet ups. These are excellent ways to network and get to know the members of the group. You want to be where these people are gathering.
7. Participate. It’s one thing to join a bunch of groups in your niche. But what good will it do you if no one knows you’re there? You need to participate to become visible. By being visible, you become known.
8. Ask group members to test a new product or service. You could offer a discount or freebie to a certain number of members. This works well in almost any niche. Invite people from the group to test a new dish you’ve created, a service you are offering or a product you are creating. And don’t forget to ask for feedback. 

As you already know, using Facebook is an easy way to build relationships with others. The secret to building relationships and networking with other like-minded people who are interested in what you do and offer, is to belong to and participate in Facebook groups. 

To summarize, be helpful, kind and supportive without being spammy and overly promotional in order to begin networking and building relationships that can benefit you both.

This is Part Two of a Three Part Series.  Part Three will come next week.  If you missed Part One, it can be found here:

https://realtytechbytes.com/networking-with-facebook-groups-to-grow-your-business