Facebook Groups: How to Nurture a Community on Facebook

Do you have a Facebook group for your community?

Are you considering starting a Facebook group?

To learn how to use a Facebook group to build a loyal community that helps your business, I interview Jared Easley.
More About This Show
The Social Media Marketing podcast is an on-demand talk radio show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

In this episode I interview Jared Easley, host of the Starve the Doubts podcast and co-author of Podcasting Good to Great. He's also co-founder of the Podcast Movement, the industry-leading conference for podcasters.

In this episode Jared will explore how he uses Facebook groups to cultivate an active community of podcasters.

You'll discover the benefits of building a Facebook group, as well as tips for getting started.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below.
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Facebook Groups
How Jared's podcasting conference got started

In January 2014 Jared and co-founders Dan Franks, Gary Leland and Mitch Todd were at New Media Expo when they overheard several attendees asking why there wasn't a podcast conference. The group realized if they didn't take a step to create something, someone else would. They decided to move forward, even though there were plenty of things that could have prevented them from even getting started.

Jared explains how they reached out to a few people who had put on large events, and asked for their perspective and advice. One person who gave them a lot of feedback was Phillip Taylor, who does a conference for financial bloggers. Armed with information, they turned to Kickstarter to crowdfund the conference.

They just needed a small amount ($11,000) to validate the idea, and they weren't sure if it would take 30 days to raise the money or if they'd even get it at all. They asked the podcast community if they would support the conference, speak at it and share it with their network. A lot of people said yes, Jared shares, "but it's one thing to say yes and it's another thing to vote with your wallet."

When the campaign was published, they hit that $11,000 within 9 hours. At the end of the 30 days, they had over three times the amount needed, which was more than enough validation to sell tickets, pursue sponsors and follow through. Six hundred people came to the first Podcast Movement Conference.

Listen to the show to hear more about the Podcast Movement Kickstarter campaign.

Why Jared started a Facebook group

The Podcast Movement created a Facebook page so they could do ads and other promotions leading up to the conference, but they didn't initially have a Facebook group. Although they went to other podcast-focused Facebook groups to spread the word, they had to be careful, because some of the groups had a smart but strict policy on self-promotion.

As soon as the first event was over, there was so much excitement that they realized they needed to create a way for the attendees to continue conversations. That's when Jared and his co-founders started the Facebook group. Not even a year later, the group has 1,600 members and is growing every month.

The group is called Podcast Movement - Past, Present, and Future Attendees, so it's open to all past and potential attendees. This way, anyone who is interested in podcasting can be involved in the community and the conversations.

Listen to the show to learn the original intent of the group.

How the two Facebook communities have helped Jared's business

The Podcast Movement group and page have served two different purposes. The Facebook page has been essential for Facebook ads and for getting the word out to people who might not already know about the conference.