Groups are a great place for people to gather and interact around a shared interest and they can be an excellent place to be.
I recently published a podcast episode on how good Groups are, and also interview Cherie Clonan from The Digital Picnic about communities online.
Until recently only a personal profile could create or join a Group, earlier this year Facebook enabled Business, Organisation and Public Figure Pages to great Groups and now, according to an article from Social Media Today, Facebook Pages can join Groups!
SMT cites Mari Smith as the first person to notice the option in Group settings where the option for Admin to allow Pages to join the Group in active by default.
SMT quotes a Facebook spokesperson;
“We’ve heard from people that engaging with public figures, non-profits, publishers, and businesses in a more intimate setting can be meaningful. We previously launched the ability for Pages to start Facebook Groups so that they can engage with their communities. We are now testing the ability for Pages to join existing Facebook Groups as well.”
The mention of ‘meaningful’ is particularly interesting as earlier this year Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook that they wanted users to have more quality time on the platform and the algorithm was changing to promote more meaningful interactions between family and friends.
We’re big believers that people can have meaningful interactions can and do happen between people and businesses and this change from Facebook acknowledges that.
(Alex and I have a podcast episode about that too.)
This feature is a big opportunity for the Pages that are making an effort with their content, who are striving for positivity with their audience, the pages that are working to connect their products and services in a meaningful, relevant way.
It’s important to handle this carefully and responsibly, Groups are a safe place for members to gather and talk openly about a topic and I imagine many will not want business, organisations involved BUT many also will. Group Admins have to opt-out, so I’m sure many Groups will be hurriedly unselecting this option but I think that there are many benefits for this and look forward to exploring the possibilities.
What are your thoughts on the change – Are you looking forward to joining groups as your Page, or are you dreading seeing Pages inside your favourite Groups?
