How to Make Money Running a Facebook Group
Written by Casey Botticello
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Read our full affiliate disclosure here.
If you’re on Facebook, you’re probably a member of at least one Facebook group. In fact, you probably belong to many groups and have no clue how many you’re actually signed up to. Some groups offer specific value to members, while others are just for kicks – fun collectives of friends and family.
Some groups are crazy active, with new posts and updates by the minute, while others have been dormant for years. But if you’ve ever started or currently manage a Facebook group, you’re sitting on a gold mine – a lucrative one and we’re here to show you how to make money running a Facebook group.
Facebook groups have evolved into thriving, active communities, offering high engagement, unprecedented access to different people, and – more importantly – markets. Whether consisting of a couple dozen or hundreds of members, Facebook groups represent market niches, each containing their own clusters of different people – market niches that have the potential to make you money.
In this article, we explore Facebook groups and how they can be transformed into valuable sources of revenue. We take a look at six tips and ways how to monetize a Facebook group.
What is a Facebook Group?
Groups can be created for private purposes like connecting between friends or for businesses or organizations looking to promote their offerings. People can be invited to join a group or request to do so by asking the group admin for permission to come on board. Once a part of the group, members can post, interact and comment on the feed, sharing content and connecting directly with one another – depending on the granted admin permissions. Admins manage and control group activities, serving as both moderator and administrator.
Starting a Facebook group is free. The features are free, and using the group is free – by default. Facebook groups are also very flexible and come with various helpful feature sets, group type options and advantages. That’s why knowing how to make money running a Facebook group is so important.
A few of the more helpful Facebook Group Feature Sets:
- Group Insights – gives you vital information on group engagement levels, membership contributors and growth over time.
- Scheduled Posts – lets you post content automatically to the group without worrying about having to do so manually and at all hours.
- Badges – allow you to recognize your top group contributors by awarding badges to them, driving engagement and feelings of inclusion.
- Announcements – give you the power to pin posts to the top of the group page. Perfect when looking to monetize your group by promoting items and important messages.
- Group-to-Group linking – still in its testing phase, this feature will soon allow a group to recommend other similar groups, massively growing the reach and scope of your group’s engagement.
There are also seven types of Facebook group options available to users. While there used to be many more, Facebook decided recently to limit these to seven varieties, with all others listed under ‘General’.
- General – groups for anything, really. From informal social groups to groups for hobbies, fan groups and entertainment groups. You name it, the general group type has it all.
- Buy and sell – groups are probably your biggest monetizing options among the group types.
- Work – groups are perfect for colleagues within organizations or specific industry professionals.
- Parenting – groups are geared toward parents connecting around tips and advice relating to their parenting journeys.
- Social learning – groups work like classrooms where people can exchange ideas and educational resources.
- Gaming – groups are rising quickly in popularity and are great for the gamer community to exchange tactics, news and ideas.
- Jobs – groups go beyond people looking for work. They also represent places where recruiters and freelancers can connect and engage.
Armed with the ability to choose the type of group you’re looking to build and grow as well as those game-changing feature sets, figuring out how to monetize a Facebook group is easier than ever. But tools and features alone won’t be enough – especially if you want to understand how to make money running a Facebook group you already have.
Ways to Monetize Your Facebook Group
So you’ve got your Facebook group growing, and engagement is up. People are connecting, and you’ve finally spotted the potential to figure out how to monetize a Facebook group. What next?
While most people might expect to turn their Facebook group into a digital store offering something people can see or experience, there is more to monetizing a Facebook group than providing a product or service.
We’ve picked some of the most effective ways to turn your Facebook group into a revenue-generating resource that keeps on giving.
1. Start Advertising
First up, advertising is one of your best bets when figuring out how to monetize a Facebook group. Advertising revenue is constant, can earn you hundreds of dollars every month and is pretty easy to execute. You’re in charge of which ads are displayed to your group and, depending on your group demographics, can open doors to affiliate marketing options. If you’re administrating a particularly busy or lucrative group, you may also consider sponsorship opportunities.
Remember to ensure that you don’t end up advertising things that may irritate, offend or alienate your group members – you don’t want to start driving them away.
2. Charge a Group Membership Fee
If you’ve invested significant time and effort into growing your group to the point that it clearly offers value to its existing members, now is the time to start charging membership fees for it. One way to get the ball rolling is to invite influencers, thought leaders and experts to join your group for free, encouraging your new and existing members to pay a subscription or membership fee to continue with or join the group.
Be sure to keep on offering value by sharing useful information and insight with your members and keep those monthly fees reasonable. Live Facebook events and webinars are effective ways to justify subscription and membership fees too.
3. Affiliate Marketing
We’ve already mentioned the option to figure out how to make money running a Facebook group through advertising, and affiliate marketing is another lucrative option. Affiliate marketing earns you a commission every time a member clicks on an affiliate link and goes on to buy something (rather than the pay-per-click revenue that advertising gives you).
The key here is to promote your partners’ products and services naturally and organically. Consider picking only those affiliate options that appeal directly to the majority of your group and avoid spamming them with useless links that’ll only serve to irritate and drive them away.
4. Offer Coaching and Workshops
If you’ve been successful in administrating your Facebook group, you’re no doubt pretty good at what you do. More than that, you’re quite possibly already a subject expert on the focus topics upon which your Facebook Group revolves. Besides your Facebook and digital marketing powers, if you know that you’ve got valuable tips, advice and knowledge to share, why not go ahead and monetize it?
Your group members already trust you, so take them into your confidence by offering them coaching and workshop programs about topics and subjects you’re an expert at. Down the line, you’ll be able to host regular sessions, incentivizing your group members to promote your offerings and bring other people into the fold. Q&As are great enablers here and allow you to really connect with your audience during coaching sessions and workshops.
5. Sell Products
This is a tried-and-tested technique for understanding how to monetize a Facebook group. If your group type is set up as a “Buy and Sell” group, you’re already halfway there. These groups allow members to list things they want to sell, browse the items listed by other members and mark items already sold as, well ‘sold’. These posts will display information like prices and listing dates and may appear on Facebook’s Marketplace.
If you don’t want to transform your existing Facebook group into a Buy and Sell-only group, simply create a new Buy and Sell group and invite your current group members to join up to start trading. Facilitating these transactions on your Facebook group is a sure-fire way to turn a tidy profit.
6. Consider Launching Brand Partnerships
Facebook’s Brand Collabs Manager (BCM) is the perfect tool for creators and brands to find one another. If your group is big enough, consists of a brand’s specific target market, and you’re the right fit for each other, a brand collaboration is an effective method to know how to monetize a Facebook group.
Partnering with the right brands can increase your exposure and engagement, while brands benefit from your allowing them to access your niche group – a benefit they’re prepared to pay quite well for.
Conclusion
Facebook groups are lucrative monetizing opportunities. Whether you’re managing a 25 000-member community or are still growing from the few dozen you already have, the sky is the limit and understanding how to make money running a Facebook group has never been easier.
Before you kick off your journey, ask yourself about your goals. What are they? How much are you looking to make? And do you have the resources to achieve them?
Once you’ve found the answers to those questions, get to work leveraging the tools at your disposal. Ensure you have a good understanding of the Facebook group feature sets at your disposal and pick a group type that will help you to reach your revenue objectives.
Pay careful attention to your groups and try to give your audience exactly what they want while continuing to offer them rich value and reasons to remain members – this is one of the most effective ways to ensure that you answer that all -important objective: How to monetize a Facebook group.
So, whether you’re looking to start advertising on your group, partner with a brand or facilitate the buying and selling of products, knowing just how to monetize your Facebook group means guaranteeing an income you never knew existed.
