For the past few years, Facebook has been focusing its attention on groups. During 2018 the platform already introduced sponsored groups, creating an opportunity for brands to associate groups with their page. In this way, thousands of brands created communities around their products. In some cases, this allowed them to recover the lost reach of their pages.
With sponsored groups, a double function is achieved: on the one hand, to mobilize users to participate in the communities, thus offering an added value to the platform, and on the other hand, to open the way for companies to reach their most objective public. To this purpose, Facebook launches the sponsored posts, a new option to monetize groups.
Through the sponsored posts, a group administrators will be able to partner with the brands, and together offer new experiences to those who participate. The new sponsored posts within the groups will be an extension of the brand’s content tools. What is the main purpose of these monetization tools? To help individuals, brands and organizations generate reliable and sustainable income over time.
Monetizing groups
Unlike the creation of ads in the community feed years ago, new sponsored posts within groups will now include a “paid post” tag similar to those shown on the general social network feed.
This set of new tools launched by Facebook will enable large communities to significantly monetize their group audiences for the first time by partnering with companies to create publications of their brand. In this way, sponsored content will be an opportunity for administrators to generate income. And at the same time, brands will have direct access to the audiences best focused on their products or services.
The process of enabling Facebook group administrators to partner with brands and energize them in their community will be much more defined. Facebook already offers paid subscription options for some groups, so administrators are paid for the time they spend creating their communities. At the same time, sponsored content will add even more opportunities and provide brands with a direct line to their target audiences.
More than a billion users are part of Facebook groups
Facebook claims that of the more than one billion of its users who regularly participate in groups, almost half of them are part of communities considered essential for online interaction.
In other words, there are many Facebook users who seek to participate in very specific topics within closed communities. If they are reached with offers linked to the topics of their interest, the brand in question can be made known. And, of course, boost your sales.
This means that there are a large number of Facebook users who get involved in very specific topics within these closed communities, and reaching them with offers related to these topics could be an excellent way to increase brand awareness and even direct sales.
Even so, administrators will not be able to leave anything to chance. They will have to work to gain the trust of the groups, trying to create a good balance between organic content and promotions.
These sponsored posts can only appear in public groups with more than 1,000 members that also meet Facebook’s Monetization Eligibility Standards. These are a series of parameters to follow in order to comply with the rules of the platform, such as creating content in a supported area, sharing authentic content, residing in a supported country, sharing authentic content, or complying with payment terms, among other rules.