How to Create, Engage and Grow Your VIP Group on Facebook
If you are thinking about creating a VIP group, or you have one and interaction is well… crickets, you’ve come to the right place!
I absolutely love my VIP group and I think it’s a must-have in any direct sales biz! Check out this blog post where you’ll learn:
- Why you NEED a VIP group
- How to Create a VIP group
- Tips & Tricks to keep your group engaged
- Ideas on how to grow your VIP group membership
Why a VIP Group?
A VIP group keeps you in front of your customers–people are busy! And your VIP group gives you a place to connect with your customers and build relationships.
Plus, it gives you a place to post your awesome specials and giveaways!
How to create a VIP Group?
Easy peasy! Head over to your personal Facebook account, select CREATE, then create a Closed Group. A closed group allows others to request to join, but you get to approve them. Only members of the group can see your posts so it’s a great place to post deals and giveaways if your company does not allow you to do that publicly.
Also, make sure you don’t just add everyone (and their mama!) into your group! The key to a strong VIP group is that you treat them as your VIPs! Personally invite friends, family and customers to join your group! You only want members in your group that want to be there. Having an engaged group will boost the visibility of your posts on Facebook! Quality over quantity!
Value=Engagement
Now that you know the why behind VIP groups, let’s dive into what you need to post to rock your VIP group! The key to an awesome VIP group is engagement.
You’ll get engagement by delivering value. And you deliver value by providing information and entertainment. Makes sense, right?
Share pictures of you and your family, stories from your life, what products you love–and go further. You want to think about the members of your group… what do they care about? That’s what you want to share. And, have fun doing it!
Take note when your post gets a lot of engagement. Do more of *that*.
While your company likely offers beautifully branded photos, what will get the most engagement are photos that include YOU in it! Don’t be shy! Create customized images that include yourself! Make sure you have good lighting and do some light editing, if needed. Your customers want to see you!
Grow Your Membership.
Giveaways are a great way to grow your group, and keeps your current members coming back for more! Because really, who doesn’t love a good giveaway?! (And, by giveaway – this doesn’t need to break the bank… even a small gift from the Target dollar spot or an item you have a few extras of works perfect!)
And, be sure to keep inviting people to join long after the group is established! Nobody wants to be left out of the fun. Invite guests to request to join your group when you’re doing an event or a party. You can also easily invite someone to your group if you’ve collected their email by adding their email address to the “add member” section of your group. Facebook will automatically send them an email inviting them to join. Every once in a while, you can even post about your group on your personal page–perhaps when you’re doing a giveaway, planning to go LIVE or have a new release you’re showing off.
Consistency is the Key!
To keep a VIP group rocking, the absolute key to success is CONSISTENCY!
Create a regular schedule–3 days a week, 5 days a week, you decide! Choose your schedule for posting and stick with it.
I recommend building out an editorial calendar where you decide what and when you’ll post. This way, you can batch your time for creating content for a period of time–say the week or the month. Then spend a little time one afternoon and get it all scheduled. Easy Peasy! Then have some fun commenting daily to really keep the dialogue going in your group.
Speaking of content, if you’re wondering what to share–a great way to generate content is to set up daily themes. One idea is Fan Friday where you ask your group to share photos with their fave product. Or maybe have a weekly product spotlight where you share information about a best seller.
One of my favorite ways to create content is to have fun with a 5-day series. Perhaps you create a series around new product releases or helpful tips related to your product!
Before you go, share a post that got a lot of attention and interaction in your VIP Group in the comments! Sharing is caring!
As an added bonus, get my freebie download of 50+ Ideas for your VIP Group!
Share With Your Team!
In my VIP group, I share a mixture of business/product postings and personal positive and uplifting postings as well as asking open ended questions or doing polls. One of my most recent posts that got a lot of interaction was asking what their favorite inspirational quote was and how it has impacted their life.
Would a VIP group be for a certain event say if I want to do Christmas in July promos all month or for a certain number of days or would it be better to do a pop up party for that?
Hi Gina! What a great idea! Either of those would be great. If you wanted to advertise and “tease” your VIP group about the event and then have a separate Pop-Up Party, I think that would be great!
I have a FB page and a FB Group, I just started selling Farmasi and I am trying to grow my group, i reside in MN and all of my family resides in TX. I need help as to how to grow my group
Hi Mary! That’s exciting! Sounds like you have a solid network – even across states – to connect with! 🙂 I would personally message anyone you’re looking to invite to your group inviting them to follow your journey with Farmasi! Then, I’d plan some type of kick off event (educational, shopping, etc.) in your group for them to attend! It could be a LIVE or a series of posts. Your goal is to invite them to join you in the group, tune in and then you can continue to cultivate those relationships and share more about your biz. That nurturing phase can take time so be patient. 🙂 Hope that helps!
I have an FB page and an FB group. I do most of my posting on my page and very little in my group. I get ZERO interaction with either. Should I close the FB group and create just a VIP group with hand picked people that will, hopefully, interact more?
Do you have a ton of people in your FB Group, Billie? It may be worth “starting over” if you have just too many people that are not interacting. Or, you could reach out individually to each one asking if they’d like to stay in your group. This will open up a conversation with them and also increase your visibility if you’ve been in touch via a PM with them. If you don’t hear back, you can kick them out of the group to keep the group smaller. Try that and let us know how it goes!
Ok
so glad this is helpful for you!
Billie, someone explained to me that a business page is like a building where the product is held. This is where I post my products, host offers etc. Inside the building (VIP group) is where all the talking and interaction takes place. This hit me like a rock and made it very clear to me. Keep your business page, start a VIP group off of your business page. A lot of engagement takes place here, I love it. I use cinchshare to schedule my posts out in advance. Usually recipes, games, funny posts. Anything that will get interaction going.
When you first create the group, should you put a few post before inviting?
Hey Amy! Yes, if you are brand new and just creating your group, I would do 2 things: 1) personally message friends / family to invite them to follow your journey in your group and, 2) make a broad post asking who would like an invite to your group on your personal feed. Let your followers comment and then send them a message with the link to join the group. That will create more of a buzz and help with the visibility of your post, too!
My posts that get the biggest interaction (besides Giveaways) are fun quick games – or a Would You Rather type question!
Yes! Engagement/response questions are key!
I have a VIP group where I post daily but no engagement from my members whatsoever! Posts are viewed from my members and o one
Comments even though the post says to do so in order to win prizes. Very discouraging…
Hey Jeanne! Man that can be so discouraging. Don’t give up on posting, keep staying consistent by posting daily. Do you have a large VIP group? One thing that is good to do periodically is filter through the people. You can message each member individually, thank them for being in your group and ask if they want to stay in the group. Doing that can help clean out your group!
Vip
Hi Jenna! do you do it on live or so you use an app for the game?
I’ve done it a variety of ways. Lives get better ratings as far as visibility but I also just love sticking a graphic in a post and have them comment!