06/22/2017
Facebook is taking a closer look at Groups and providing admins with more tools and options, including:
Group insights
Post scheduling
Membership request filtering
Thanks for the fantastic summary, Mari Smith!
😮 *NEW* TOOLS FOR FACEBOOK GROUP ADMINS: ☺️
1. Insights
2. Post scheduling
3. Membership request filtering (including adding your own filters)
4. Member leaderboard
5. Removed member clean-up ('bad actor' managing)
6. Group to group linking (for your sub groups, related groups)
Zuck & Chris Cox just streamed live from the first ever multi-day Facebook Communities Summit for group leaders happening this week in Chicago, IL... here's the stream: https://www.facebook.com/zuck/videos/10103817960742861/
I took a ton of notes and added my own thoughts - here you go!
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Cliff notes from Zuck & Chris Cox's talks:
Zuck:
The thing we all need to do right now is to work to bring people closer together. We’re going to change our whole mission to bring people closer together. Not simply to connect the world. But to build enough common ground so we can make progress together. We want to stay connected with people we know but we also need to meet new people.
For ten years, our mission has been to make the world more open and connected.
So, today, we’re setting a new mission for the next decade.
The idea for our new mission is to Bring the world closer together.
Our communities give us the sense that we are not alone. We all get meaning from our communities, whether church or neighborhood. They give us strength.
Studies prove it. The more connected we are, the happier we are.
We have to build a world where every single person has a sense of PURPOSE and COMMUNITY.
We care as much about people in India, Nigeria as much as right here in Chicago.
So, how are we going to do this?
Two parts of products focused on building meaningful communities.
Average person on FB is a member of 30 different groups, but maybe 1 or 2 or 3 are really meaningful.
There are more than 100 million people who are part of MEANINGFUL communities. They’re an integral part of your real world support structure.
If you’re diagnosed with a rare disease you can join a group and have support around the world. If you have a child, you can join a group and get support. These groups host get togethers, host dinners …
Groups help us in our offline world.
“If there are almost 2 billion people on FB, then how come we’ve only helped 100 million people to join meaningful communities?”
Six months ago, rolled out algorithm to help suggest more groups… added 50% more.
Goal = help 1 Billion people join meaningful communities.
If we can do this, it will not only reverse the whole decline in community membership, it will strengthen our overall social fabric and bring the world be closer together.
That’s why you community leaders are so important to this mission.
As I’ve traveled around, one theme has really stuck with me: EVERY GREAT COMMUNITY HAS GREAT LEADERS.
Group leaders: for people who are adopted, for disabled veterans, for black fathers
We have to give great leaders great tools. Historically, that hasn’t been the case.
When you’re trying to manage a group that has thousands of people… approving membership, moderating comments individually, takes time.
GROUP INSIGHTS — offer insights into your group members, how active, requests, etc.
MEMBERSHIP REQUEST FILTERING - sort by gender, etc.
REMOVED MEMBER CLEAN-UP - ‘remove bad actor’ and all bad comments/content. This is really important; we all care about making sure our communities are a positive and safe environment.
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CHRIS COX next… grew up in Chicago, parents in the audience
So excited after 12 years to be hosting an event in Chicago.
We’ve studied offline groups to really understand what makes them work.
1 in 5 groups are not in any groups that they find particularly meaningful.
The essential ingredient for any community is the LEADER.
We’ve heard from FB group leaders, the MOST important feature request is INSIGHTS. To not have to keep an excel spreadsheet to manage members, current and new.
Three sections:
1. Membership - where coming from, when joining
2. Conversation - what happening, what causing
3. Leaderboard - helps understand top contributors!! (LOVE THIS ONE!)
Importance of managing inbound requests - new filtering.
** Will be able to build your OWN filters as well! ** (Cool!)
Managing ‘bad actors’ - tedious task if somebody went rogue… will help get rid of their ‘rogueness’
POST SCHEDULING coming - woohoo!
GROUP TO GROUP LINKING - connect sub groups, related groups, etc.
Continuing to roll out Groups linked/for Pages. Public figures, artists, news rooms, etc.
See Washington Post’s group… very successful.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/postthis/
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MY THOUGHTS:
It's great to see Facebook creating more amazing Group features (love the insights, scheduling posts, better moderating, request filtering, linking groups, page groups etc.)... wonderful and value adding and positive. Yes. And of course I'm a big proponent of building community and helping people be closer, not just connected.
And, given the fact Facebook is 'running out' of ad inventory in the mobile news feed, I see Zuck and team creating a whole new 'version' of Facebook that will (eventually) be monetized through more ad content... perhaps other paid features, but most likely only ad dollars. Anywhere eyeballs go.
Almost 2Bn users on FB... and only 100m connected to meaningful groups. The more meaningful groups, the more user time on Facebook.
Facebook just recently released the feature for Pages to link to their Groups; and Pages can create and admin Groups, right?
Today, INSIGHTS for Groups announced. So, this could be the first step in monetizing groups. We'll see.
I see both sides of the equation (the bringing people closer together/meaningful communities and FB's monetization plans)...
Tbh, when I first starting doing FB talks in 2007+, it would really, really tug at my heart strings that there were more people who'd found their birth parents, or found babies to adopt, or met their future spouse, or been connected with organ donors, or found a whole new opportunity or job, etc. etc. (I loved the book Facebook Fairytales - check it out!)
I totally grokked the very raw, real, human mission of Facebook back then. Then, a few years later in 2010, when I went to watch a sneak preview of The Social Network movie, I was so optimistic that this would be the theme of the movie - all the amazing, profound, transformational human connections.
Yet, I was sorely and sadly disappointed that the whole movie was about the dang lawsuits. LOL! I so did not like the movie! Boo! (However, I did go back to see it a second time with a couple of lawyer friends, and saw the movie through different eyes.)
Anyway, it does warm my heart to see that Zuck and team are FINALLY after ten years, putting community, connections, creating closer, more meaningful relationships and support groups at the forefront of all other missions. Praise the lord!!
And, if it helps monetize Facebook further and ensure the stability and longevity of the company, then hooray!!!
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See the official announcement:
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/06/our-first-communities-summit-and-new-tools-for-group-admins/
