Cool Stuff to Do With a Group Page in Facebook

If people have joined your group, it means that they likely care about your business or cause. This means you have your target audience right at your fingertips for mini-market research campaigns. Use the “Ask a Question” feature to poll your audience. Ask questions, such as what new product they’d like best, what type of event they’d rather attend or what their favorite widget you make is. This simple feature is not only fun for members, but it also helps you keep your finger on the pulse of your target audience. If your group is not related to a cause or business, you can use the poll for other purposes, such as a location for your next in-person meeting or what food you want served at an event.

In late 2012, Facebook and file-sharing service Dropbox announced a partnership that would allow members of Facebook groups to upload and share documents within the confines of the group. This makes Facebook Groups an alternative resource for group projects, whether it is professional, academic or hobby-related. Removing email from the equation can make document sharing and co-editing or co-authoring between multiple people much easier, plus it gives the ability to use other group functions to talk about the project.

Creating a group for the sole purpose of recognizing good customers can be a great marketing strategy, says Bob Knorpp of "Advertising Age." He explains that segmenting certain people from a business’s Facebook fan page by inviting them to join an exclusive group shows a customer that his voice is valued. He uses a car manufacturer as an example -- the main business page hosts a variety of content applicable to general users -- whereas a private group of drivers of a specific car model could speak directly to product engineers and other owners of that model. "Entrepreneur" agrees, stating that private Facebook groups are a great place to provide customer support.

Facebook Groups allows group managers to appoint members to officer roles. In his blog post “5 Tips to Reviving a Fading Facebook Group”, John Haydon suggests rewarding members for contributing regularly to the conversation by giving them a title in the group. A group truly can only be active if members are engaged with one another, so if conversation gets stale, so does the group. Encourage people to share and post by showing them they will be rewarded.