How to Build a Community on Facebook

Facebook is the most populous social media app in the world.

With over 2.91 billion monthly active users, the potential reach of Facebook ads is 2.11 billion users, that is 72.5% of its total monthly active users, according to Hootsuite.

The platform is mainly used for communication, networking, digital marketing and the establishment of various communities to promote diverse ideas and beliefs. Interestingly, many people are unaware of a unique feature called Facebook Community.

What is a Facebook Community?

The Facebook Community is an unofficial page designed for people to discuss an organization, topic or celebrity. This could be a Facebook group managed by a single admin or series of moderators who ensure that the community standards are upheld and certain unlawful/hurtful posts and comments which violate the purpose of the community are not permitted.

Community pages do not “officially” represent the business or person they discuss. Although sometimes a Facebook user can see the community page badge on the top of the page which denotes it is not an official page, a community can be built around an official page.

In this article, I'll share tips on how to use Facebook Community to connect like-minds, establish and grow new relationships.

1. Create a Page or Group

The first step towards owning a Facebook community is by creating a page or group. This way, it is easier to distribute your ideas and connect with people of like mind and serve as a point for reference in various conversations around the subject matter involved.

If you intend to build a community around your page, kindly click on the page icon and then, on create to own your page. Upon doing so, you’re expected to fill in details as to your Facebook page – that is, provide a profile picture, and add a bio and subsequent information to the page.

If the intention is to have a community around a group, the creation of the group is quite similar to that of the page. The only modalities involved are the inclusion of rules set up as guidelines in the rules section to guide the members of the group, and the use of admins and moderators to permissively pass or grant access to contents shared in the group.

A created page or group gives that sense of community and distribution of similar ideas that the creator wishes to share. These ideas could emanate from various ideas – education, technology, entertainment, etc.

2. Invite people to the Page or Groups

There are no communities without the need and sake of people. These people make up the community that is expected and are meant to be invited. This sense of invitation could be done through the creators of the page or the community feature on the Facebook page or through admins and moderators of the group.

Another means of the invite is done through referrals from Facebook posts by various users (including the page creator). Human psychology is triggered by loving a particular thing and discussing it with people. This way, there is an eased sense of communication and conviction as most of these posts are personal and respected judging by who posts about them.

In late 2022, I had a conversation with a book reviewer and author, Lengdung Tungchamma who remarkably grew his page from 0 to 60,000 followers around the subject matter of books. He had told me the hack was done by having people invite people and his content posts about the Facebook page. Currently, the page is at 170,000 followers and since its creation, the page has enjoyed constant community engagement.

Furthermore, the explorable use of Meta apps like Instagram and WhatsApp can be utilized in inviting people to the Facebook page or group. The copied links can be shared across stories and statuses.

3. Create Relatable and Humanistic Content

Humanistic and relatable contents are prime for building a community on Facebook. These contents are expected to carry the ideology of the page, especially from a human angle that relates to the people who follow up.

Most times, Facebook communities lack the human sense and touch of a community through its contents. Lengdung had made a name for himself by creating content [solely] on books, their reviews and also reasons as to why people are expected to read qualitative books.

Humanity can never be robbed of and it plays an important role in the interactivity of social media apps, especially Facebook. The more humanistic and relatable the contents are the higher chances of getting an interactive community on Facebook.

4. Engage New and Old Members

Memberships on Facebook communities are very important irrespective if they are on pages or in groups. It is important to constantly engage them, either through shout-outs, acknowledging new members or page followers, and giveaways. This way, there is a sense of belonging among these members.

Also, in engaging members of the group, you could ask questions or have an open mic session to get to network within the page or group.

5. Be Active

Activity on social media is as important as a full-time job. This way, attentiveness is triggered to what is needed to be done and what content is meant to be shared judging from past engagements on the page.

When an admin is active, they can note important concerns, engage with the audience and expose the page to potential new followers. One of the easy ways to be active is by commenting on members’ posts, tagging members within the group and also, and optimizing the Go Live feature.

6. Set a Schedule

A schedule is very important towards growing your community. This schedule helps with content management, time management, and understanding the various content timeframes and windows.

A schedule could be a daily or weekly post that would engage the people and have them interact. This way, you can be able to multitask and effectively run your personal life without certain interference.

It is preferable to have these scheduled posts automated as sometimes, you may miss the window for posting.

Conclusion

It is vital to own a community on Facebook. Away from the business benefit, it gives to creators, these communities connect like-minds, allowing them to establish and grow new relationships.

You can start by becoming a part of Techloy’s community on Facebook.