The Power of Catholic Facebook Groups
How to use Facebook groups to market your product and collaborate with other Catholic business owners.
While I’m personally not that active on Facebook, I do use it all the time professionally by joining Facebook groups. Groups are communities on Facebook, either private or public, that are formed around like interests and run by one or more admins or moderators.
Facebook groups can be a wonderful way to:
Form personal connections with other authors and business owners.
Learn from other business owners and grow in your knowledge of business and marketing.
Find other business owners to collaborate with (giveaways, newsletter swaps, etc.).
Connect with your ideal readers, clients, or customers, ask for feedback, find beta readers, or seek reviews.
Promote and sell your products.
Facebook groups come in all flavors. When you join, you’ll typically agree to a set of rules. For example, some groups are perfectly fine with you promoting your product, some only allow promotion on certain days, others never allow promotion. You always want to abide by these rules and be respectful of the admin’s policies. Some groups allow you to join as your business page, although most I have joined from my personal Facebook profile. You’ll find many of the conversations you participate in may have nothing to do with your book or business, and it’s nice to have these conversations on a personal level.
A few tips:
Don’t self-promote if it’s not allowed. Many groups will have a specific thread on a certain day dedicated to self-promotion.
Try to give more than you take. Offer advice, answer others’ questions. Chime in on posts to genuinely help as opposed to just promote yourself.
This might just be me, but I think all business owners should disclose if they are recommending their own product. So if someone is asking for gift ideas or book recommendations, by all means, I share my book! But I usually preface it with: “You might like this product I sell in my shop.”
Before joining a group, make sure it is a good fit for you personally. Unless it is a group meant for promotion, I would caution you from joining a group JUST to promote your product. It helps if you have a genuine interest in the group’s topic as this will lead to more organic conversations and personal enjoyment of the group.
Whatever topic or genre you are writing on, or product you are selling, there is probably a Facebook group for it! This is a great opportunity to find those niche communities for niche products. Use Facebook’s search bar to look for groups by keyword.
For paid subscribers, I’ve already done the research and am including a list of Catholic Facebook groups to get you started. Enjoy!