I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, focused on launching a writing and advisory business around personal finance for Gen Xers. I’m blogging here daily to track my progress. In Monday Marketing, I research, plan, and evaluate my marketing and promotion activities.
I volunteered to help out the Women’s Caucus for Art Colorado Chapter with Facebook post moderation. They have a Facebook group with more than 800 members. Members are add posts to the group about events, their art, and other things relevant to women artists working in Colorado.
Today I’m going to update my understanding of using Facebook for a business (in this case, a nonprofit art group). I’m not sure using Facebook will ever be something I do for my business but it’s useful to understand all major marketing and promotion channels.
Here’s a summary of a ChatGPT answer about FB pages vs groups. Generally speaking, an FB page should be used as the group’s official voice while the group can serve as a community hub. The page reaches the general public, media, and partners while the group is for group members, program participants, and supporters who want more connections. Group posts may have better organic reach in members’ feeds than Page posts. You can cross-promote posts between the two. You can use a page for general updates and a group for volunteer coordination, event planning, and support. Pages allow ads, fundraising tools, and analytics. Groups offer polls, events, guides, and member-generated content.
What is Facebook good for anyway? ChatGPT told me it’s good for adults 35 to 65+ and is particularly strong with Gen X and Baby Boomers, so could be good for my planned business. It’s dominant in less urban areas, compared to Instagram or TikTok. Facebook groups are useful for connecting with local community participants—makes sense for WCACO to use it in this way. Businesses that do well on Facebook include local service-based businesses (plumbers, realtors, salons, dentists, pet groomers), consumer brands targeting adults over 35 (home goods, wellness, personal finance, hobbies), nonprofits and community organizations, and educational or informational brands (including financial advisors, encore career services targeting midlife adults). Facebook has an events capability that can provide visibility and RSVPs for workshops, local meetups, retreats or seminars.
FB is not ideal for teens and 20-somethings, who are more active on TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram; brands targetting trendsetters or early adopters; and visually high-impact brands which will do better on Instagram or Pinterest.
I am surprised to realize that Facebook actually might be a promotion channel that I would use someday!