The Final Recipe: What I learned from managing a Facebook Group
For one of my graduate classes, our final project was to develop and manage a Facebook Group throughout the semester. When developing ideas for my Facebook group, I started writing down a list of ideas that I thought would be a fun and positive place for people to join. After reviewing each idea, the one that stuck out to me the most was creating a food allergy and food restrictions group. I went with this idea since I have some very restricting food allergies and I didn’t know many people who also had similar food allergies, so I thought that this would be a great way for me to connect with others in a similar situation to me. Hence, my Facebook Group, Allergies Without Restrictions, was created.
My Strategy: plans vs. reality, lessons learned, and what changed
When developing my strategy in the beginning of the semester, I did some research on food allergy/restriction Facebook Groups. I wanted to make sure that my group idea of including all allergies/restrictions was unique. When reflecting on that research, I noticed that all of the groups were very focused on one food allergy/restriction or several food allergies/restrictions. I also noticed that these existing groups were also combined with something else as well, such as allergies and dogs or allergies and asthma. After doing this research, I knew that my Facebook Group idea was one-of-a-kind.
When reviewing my strategy from the beginning of the semester, I noticed several things. First, I noticed that I was very focused on the purpose of my group, which was to get those with allergies/restrictions to have the opportunity to engage with others. I wanted all of my content to be as engaging as possible, so I developed a variety of content ideas to be able to post within the group. When referencing my original strategy document, the different post ideas that I came up with were sharing recipes (original, friends, and cookbooks/internet), new grocery item finds, restaurants that accommodate food allergies, and overall positive content for members.
However, throughout the semester, I realized several things with my content choices. First, I realized how difficult it was to get my audience engaged with the content I was posting. Next, I realized that I had too many posting topics which not only overwhelmed myself, but also my members. I think that by providing so many different kinds of content it overwhelmed my members in trying to figure out how to respond and participate in the group. What I would have done differently is made the posting topics for the group more focused on recipes, food items in grocery stores, and positive content. By only having these three different posting topics, I think that I would have seen more engagement from my audience as well as more people sharing their own content. For example, one of the first posts that I did was about oat milk and that post was my most engaged post for the majority of the semester. Another post that I did was really high in engagement was for when I shared recipes when I went live. Although the algorithm favors lives, I did notice that the other posts surrounding them did really high in engagement too.
Speaking of engagement, I asked my classmates about content I should create to get my group more engaged. I received some great ideas and decided to give them a try since they seemed to be working for their groups. For example, I took my professor’s advice of doing a live video of me cooking and answering questions. I did two of these lives and they were each a big success with my group. While not many people attended them when they were actually happening, they were watching them once posted. Another example I received that did really well was from Matt Duffy, the creator of Born Zillennial Facebook Group. He suggested to do polls with the reactions rather than just an average poll. I developed a post with his suggestion on asking if Starbucks or Dunkin’ was their preferred coffee chain. Finally, Reba Hernandez, the creator of Get Up Sis! Facebook Group, created a post for her group to know that it was not just her group. I referenced her example that she did and I developed a post for my group so they knew that the group was not just my group, but our group. Without the help of my class of providing me these suggestions, I don’t think I would have noticed as much engagement throughout my group.
Another thing I noticed about my original strategy that changed throughout the semester was being very analytical and number driven. I always like to use analytics to help develop my future posts. In the beginning, I didn’t have analytics to work off of since my group was so small. I was so focused on gaining new members and trying to see the numbers side of things that I wasn’t really focused on seeing how my audience was engaging with the content. And even once I gained the analytics feature in Facebook Groups, I still was focused on the numbers rather than the responses themselves. In the future, I will still be focused on looking at the numbers, but I am definitely going to be paying more attention to the reactions in the posts as well.
The next thing I noticed was stating in my strategy document how I was going to have a very consistent posting schedule. I also stated that this helped measure the purpose of my group since it would let my audience know when I was posting. However, that strict posting schedule did not happen, which ultimately, was a good thing. While I was not adhering to a strict posting schedule, I was consistent in posting at least once weekly, and was able to post within the flow of the group. I think that not adhering to a strict posting schedule was better for my group since it gave members the opportunity to post too. When looking at my analytics for engagement and posts, I noticed that the graphs looked pretty similar, meaning that when I was posting, the group members were being more active within the group. This also relates to the graph below, which also demonstrates the number of posts I did throughout the semester as well as the number of comments and reactions I received. Changing my posting schedule seemed to be less overwhelming for my members, gave them the opportunity to share their content, and generated excitement for the next post in the group.
Finally, the last thing that I noticed was name of my group. I originally had the group called Eating Without Restrictions. However, I decided to change it after the suggestion I received from my father. He suggested to change it since the original name didn’t fit with the group’s intent. By changing the name to Allergies Without Restrictions, I noticed I was gaining more members. By doing this simple change, I realized how much a name can make or break a group.
Skills applied from lectures to this group:
In this class, I have learned and valued so many different lessons throughout the semester. Some of the biggest lessons that I learned from were style of writing, networking, being a good community manager, and the power of video.
Style of Writing:
When learning about tone of voice, I found it to be extremely helpful on how to find my group’s tone. Being in numerous different social media positions, I have learned how to adapt my style of writing to their brand. Also, I have been able to create my own tone of voice for my personal brand. However, this week taught me how to create a tone of voice for my group through writing content. One of the biggest takeaways from this week was making my writing authentic towards my group. By being authentic in my writing, I knew that I was going to be able to create a relationship with my members. Throughout the semester, I did notice that I was getting more comfortable with being authentic in my writing and adding my personality to my writing as the weeks went on.
Networking:
This week, we were challenged to reach out to try to grow our groups through other social media platforms and try to contact with an influencer. I connected with my team of interns that I work with through our group chat. I was fortunate enough to be able to get in contact with an influencer that one of my fellow interns knew. She provided me her Instagram handle and I direct messaged her. We were able to promote each other through our platforms to show support for one another. This week taught me about how important networking within the industry can be. Here is the link to my article that I wrote that goes more in-depth on my experience with networking.
Being a good community manager:
During this week, I was able to learn the differences between a social media manager and a community manager. The one difference that stuck out to me the most was relationship building with the members. This group was a great way for me to be able to connect and build a relationship with the members since we all had something in common. Also, as a community manager, I would try to continue to post content that they wanted to see by creating polls or asking questions to get their input. In my live streams, viewers were able to ask me questions and discuss different topics as they pleased. This was the week I also wrote a community manager survival guide article that discusses six skills and attributes I believe are essential to be an effective social media community manager. This week really taught me about how important it is to have a relationship with the members of your group.
The power of video: This week, I was able to realize how the power of video can make your group members feel more included in the content creation. When going live for the first time, I thought that doing a live stream was going to be a walk in the park, but it wasn’t. I thought it went horrible since I had only one person watching my video the entire twenty minutes. When receiving feedback from my classmates, they all thought that the live was fantastic and I should continue to do them. I decided to do another one, but differently from my first one. I did this live with my sister and turned it also into a Thanksgiving Giveaway. This one was more successful than the first one since I was definitely more comfortable in front of the camera and had more experience. What also helped me was the advice that was given from Mark Egan. It was great to hear from a professional on how to make a livestream more successful, such as having someone moderate the live or even having a second person on camera with you.
Successes and Challenges:
During my time with this group, I was had many successes, but also had some challenges.
Let’s first talk about the successes. One of the major successes I had was getting in contact with an influencer. Although I mentioned this earlier, I was really proud to be able to get to know someone else who was just as passionate about food allergies as myself and build a relationship with them. Another success I was proud of was being able to do a giveaway. At first, I didn’t think it was possible for me to do it with such a small group, but in the end, it worked out better than I thought. While I couldn’t give something to everyone, I was proud to be able to have the opportunity to do it. Going live was also another one of my successes. At first, I thought that it was not going to be fun, but they turned out to be more fun than I thought. Another success I had was creating engaging content for my members. In the beginning, it wasn’t easy, but throughout the semester, I got more creative and had a lot more fun creating content. Finally, the last success I had was surpassing 50 members. This was one of my goals to get to before the end of the semester and when looking at the analytics, I noticed I reached that goal by mid-October!
Along with the successes, I did face some challenges. One challenge I experienced was getting members to post in the group. However, after creating a post about how the group is also a space for them to share content, I did get a few people to post. Another challenge I faced was not having a strict, consistent posting schedule. This was difficult for me to develop since my job varies week to week and I am also someone who likes to have a schedule of things. While it was a challenge, it really helped me learn to go with the flow of the group and not be so hard on myself if I missed a day of posting. To overcome this challenge, one thing I did was make sure to not go beyond a week without posting. Another challenge I faced was getting people to join my group. In the beginning, I initially asked my family and friends to join if they wanted to, but as time continued to go, I didn’t experience much growth. However, Matt Duffy was so kind and asked our class about him sharing our groups with his own. I gave him my group link to put with his post and gained about 30–35 new followers. Slowly, I was gaining more and more people to join and eventually surpassed fifty members by mid-October! This challenge taught me to put myself out there and also take any opportunity that you may get. Finally, one last challenge I faced from time-to-time was feeling unmotivated to post. This challenge taught me that feeling this way is okay and sometimes we need to step away to not experience burnout.
Final Thoughts: Did the group meet its purpose and will it continue?
When going back to my original purpose in my strategy document, I stated that the original purpose was to create a community of people that live with food allergies and/or food restrictions to connect and engage with others with similar allergies/restrictions. After looking at what I accomplished with this group, I think that it did meet the original purpose. The goal was for me to create a community for people to have fun and be positive about food allergies. I feel that through the posts I created, my group was able to be that positive and fun environment for my members to feel a sense of community and belonging.
Another reason why I think I have accomplished my purpose was after seeing the results from asking my group members if I should keep the group going or not. I also asked them for feedback as well. While I did not get any comments on feedback, I got seven votes for yes to keep my group running. This to me shows that I did achieve my purpose of creating this as a group of community for people to have a positive place for food allergies/restrictions.
Based on this and my own thoughts, I think I will be continuing my group for the time being. I will keep it up and running, but probably not be posting as often as I have been during the semester. I am excited to see where my group will continue to go in 2021!
Want to be a part of the journey? Click the link to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/allergieswithoutrestrictions
