- [Instructor] You've worked hard
to build your community online.
Now, the next step is to start promoting it,
and letting people know who you are.
This will help grow your community,
as well as begin to promote the brand itself.
Often, we fall into the trap of build it and they will come.
But the truth is, you'll have to make some effort
to start promoting and creating buzz around your community.
Don't be afraid to let the world know your community exists.
We're going to cover some promotion best practices,
that sending invites out to your network,
working with a short video, creating a hashtag,
sending out an email newsletter,
and joining other similar communities.
Let's go over sending invites.
Consider sending a thoughtful email or direct message
to prospective members with a link to join
and an overview of what your community is all about.
There's an option within Facebook to send out invites
directly from your page or your group, let's look at that.
Here we are in the Two Trees Olive Oil
Facebook Group Mediterranean Style.
They've created a Facebook Group specifically
about all things Mediterranean.
From food, recipes, architecture,
furniture, decor, et cetera.
What I want to call your attention
to is that big blue Invite button.
Every group will have one.
If I choose that, a dialog box is going to show up.
This is where you can leverage your network on Facebook
and invite them to this group.
You can search for them by name or by email,
and Facebook is automatically going to send out a message
or notification to them.
Here's another way to invite friends or your network,
and that's by selecting the three dots.
From here, I'm going to choose Share.
This option allows you to share now,
so you'll have an update posted to your newsfeed.
You can share to your newsfeed the second option
with a pencil, it just means you can edit the message.
You can send this group in Messenger,
you can share it to another group or to a page,
or you can share directly to a friend's timeline.
You can also copy the link,
and maybe you'll include this in an email.
If I was going to send it out,
I could say something like this.
So I could say we love everything Mediterranean,
especially olive oil.
Join our Facebook Group where we and our amazing members
share their Mediterranean inspiration.
Now note that this invite is coming from Brett,
he is the owner of Two Trees Olive Oil.
He can choose to share it just to friends,
but he can also change the privacy
and make it public as well.
When he posts that,
it'll automatically show up in his news feed on Facebook,
and hopefully encourage people to join his community.
Next is to use video to share your message.
Create a short video,
it doesn't have to be longer than two minutes,
where you talk about your community,
your inspiration for creating it,
and introducing yourself to the members.
People love transparency and video performs really well.
Don't overthink this video.
Make it one take, two takes, don't redo it the entire day
and keep it short.
Next is create a hashtag.
Create a hashtag for your community
and use it for all your social content.
This searchable community hashtag
will help people find and identify your content.
Keep it short and sweet and consistent with your brand,
and a pro tip is always search for your hashtag
before you start using it, because someone else
might be using it in a way that you don't contend.
An example for Two Trees could be hashtag TwoTrees,
or if that's taken, hashtag TwoTreesEVOO,
extra-virgin olive oil.
Send out an email newsletter.
Just because your group might be on Facebook
doesn't mean you can't leverage the power of email.
Email newsletters are a phenomenal way
to keep your community engaged.
You could highlight new members,
promote events, and just send out general updates.
Maybe someone is taking a social media detox,
but they still want to be a part of your group.
Sending them an email makes them feel
like they haven't been forgotten
and will boost that engagement.
It also make sure content shareable,
people are able to forward your email onto members
and say, hey, this is a community I joined,
you may like what they have to say.
Join and participate in similar communities.
Make it a habit to visit blogs, forums,
and other groups where your target audience is.
Don't be shy and introduce yourself,
join in in conversations.
Once you're established in the community,
you can then start sharing your own content
and potentially gain members that way.
But don't do it just for that reason,
do it because you get to contribute
and learn more about your community members.
Have you begun to promote your community?
No matter what stage your community is at,
whether you just built it,
or you've been swimming along for two years,
these promotion best practices
will work no matter what stage you're in.
Don't be shy,
let people know about your amazing online community.