New features in Facebook groups (groups)
Several days ago, Facebook hosted its annual community summit, which, like all events in 2020, is fully available online: you can rewatch all major speeches and events here:
As with the events of the previous meeting summit, he announced a range of new features for the groups, and introduced some new ideas about group use, participation, etc.
That's what was announced.
Use groups
With people looking for new ways to stay in touch remotely due to COVID-19, Facebook groups have seen a significant increase in usage, with more than 1.8 billion people now using Facebook groups every month
Facebook reported that 1.4 billion people used groups every month last October, so 4 million users added another active group over the past year
As noted, many of these people have joined groups as a way to stay in touch while complying with the closures, while this figure also takes into account the many groups that Facebook has removed, for various reasons in recent months, including thousands of groups associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory that were deleted again in August.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also explained:
Whether you're organizing your groups about volunteering or a passion for individual songs, strong online communities like Facebook groups help bring people closer together, and as individuals, the groups you've created all change people's lives. And collectively, this positive impact is enormous.
Zuckerberg's statement is in line with Facebook's renewed push to emphasize the benefits Facebook provides, amid various reports that have highlighted the division and anxiety Facebook has caused over time.
A former Facebook manager recently noted that the company's overall focus on maximizing user participation has come at a great cost, with the platform amplifying controversy in order to keep people using social media sites.
There are, of course, different opinions on the subject, but Facebook can assert that its groups in particular have benefited many people — and in the 1.8 billion active group users, it has become clear that they have become a key way to maintain communication between people during covid-19 closures.
Facebook also notes that more than 70 million people are now working as administrators for facebook group worldwide in helping oversee.
The new benefits of Facebook groups are:
First, Facebook announced a new set of management tools for Facebook groups, which will provide more ways for group moderators to control group discussions and manage engagement
The biggest addition from a group management perspective is help with supervision, a new process that will enable group officials to develop automated rules to oversee publication, saving them time in having to sort out common, inappropriate publications.
For example, you can restrict promotional content in your group by automatically rejecting posts that contain certain keywords, link, or publications from people who have not been members of the group for a specified period of time. In short, this feature enables you to adjust controls on published content and who can publish in your collection
As you can see here, the new assistance tools can cover a range of actions, which will save group officials time and effort, enabling them to focus better on building society and increasing group participation.
It won't cover all the problems, but the prohibition tools in particular can be very useful – no doubt anyone who runs a group is aware of that.
The Facebook Group Administrators Assistance Service will be rolled out "in the coming months" and will initially be available only on computers.
Group topics
In addition, Facebook also adds new topics that can be linked within groups, defined by hashtags.
Now, officials and members will be able to add a topic to any of their publications simply by using a label before a keyword or phrase, so administrators can then install topics at the top of their collections so people can easily see them
Facebook is actually turning to hashtags more and more as an option to sort content – just this week, Facebook alerted group officials to the new group 'tag challenge' option, as a new way to increase participation
In addition to these tools, Facebook has also launched a new community management certification training course to help group officials maximize their skills, while also adding new insights to the publication and group activity analytics to help provide more context on how to build on group participation.
Brand Collabs Group Presentations via Manager
Last month, Facebook announced the addition of new brand partnership posts integrated directly into the group experience, providing a new way for group supervisors to generate revenue from their efforts, and brands to reach high-interaction audiences based on group discussion.
His Brand Collabs Manager now takes Facebook this step forward by adding group promotions to the tool
New! Facebook hashtag challenge feature for groups
Facebook introduces new feature to hashtag challenges for groups
You can create a new challenge and encourage other members to join it by nominating them
How do you make the challenge in groups?
The new challenge feature is now available in all groups on mobile devices only-
To create a challenge, people add a rating tag that ends with the word "challenge" when you create a new share in the group. For example
#socialgeekoutchallenge
The creator of the Challenge publication can select up to 50 other members of the group by notifying them in the publication
Nominated members will receive notice that they have been nominated in a challenge and can choose whether or not to participate –
Android and soon on IOS there is a "I recommend" notification when you create these publications on –
Brand Collabs Manager as you can see here now, when brands are looking for potential partnership opportunities for their promotions within
Relevant public groups will also be displayed, providing new connectivity opportunities for supported content
Getting to know the group list will provide more insights into group participation, demographics and former brand partners
Initially, public groups will only be included in Brand Collabs Manager, but Facebook says it is also looking into the possibility of supported content in private groups as well.
All member branded content partnerships will be disclosed in accordance with Facebook's branded content policies
Chats and beginners in conversation and interviews
Facebook also adds some new ways to connect within groups, conversation start-up demands, and question-and-answer tools to host interview sessions
Chats are the biggest addition here on Facebook groups – as Facebook explained:
It will allow [الدردشات] for a smaller real-time discussion among group members. So if you're in a photo collection, for example, and you have a specific question about the best place to shoot flowers in your town, you can simply start a conversation with a few group members for a direct conversation.
So, in fact, it's just a group of reporters in group setting, but it can provide another way to make it easier to communicate with you and your audience.
Extensive discovery of public groups (Facebook groups with public appearances):
Facebook also looks to promote the discovery of public groups, as a way to increase group participation
As Facebook explained:
You may see relevant discussions in the Latest News when someone posts a link, or re-posts a Facebook post. This will allow you to go deeper and see what other groups say about the same content. When you visit the Groups tab, you can see posts from public groups related to your interests, as well as popular posts across public groups, recommended to you
Basically, Facebook is looking to showcase more public group activity, in order to enhance group participation
Facebook also says that people may soon see conversations from public groups outside the Facebook app, "like when you're looking at the web.
With 1.8 billion active members of the group, and more than half of Facebook users subscribed to more than five groups each, it makes sense for Facebook to amplify this engagement, seeking to attract users to more relevant conversations by highlighting relevant discussions – which will also provide more opportunities for group moderators to increase their access to the public
New Facebook Group Types
Finally, Facebook says it is also exploring new group options that will be in line with the user's evolving behaviors about presentation and sharing
This seems to be more closely related to the visual presentation of stories, which can provide completely new opportunities to maximize group participation
There's a lot to deal with here, and there are principles to consider for current and potential Facebook group managers. For brands, there could be new opportunities to maximize community participation. With a lot of people communicating within Facebook groups, and improved discovery of common topics and discussions, it may be better to invest time creating and facilitating brand or related conversations, while new automatic rules can make it easier to keep your groups on track.