SHOW NOTES:
Get your notebook ready, I’ve got you a checklist with everything you need to start your group, mama! After chatting with mamas in the Successful Networking Moms community, a lot of you were interested in starting a Facebook community but didn’t know where to get started or how to set up an online community the right way.
Good news– perfection is NOT necessary when it comes to online marketing. There are some steps you can take, though, to get started strong and start growing your audience right away.
Mompreneurs, work from home moms, side hustlers, and network marketers, get ready to stop thinking about starting a group and actually DO IT!
Additional episode mentioned: 061// Picking a Profitable Niche– Listen Here
Join the Successful Networking Moms Facebook community, click here.
For a 1:1 breakthrough session, click here.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey, mama. I’m so excited to be hanging out with you today on the podcast. This episode is actually gonna end up being a two parter. So you’re gonna get two back to back days of episodes dropping, because it was one topic I wanted to talk about, but we’re gonna do two episodes for it. And here’s why I decided to do it in two parts. And that’s because when I pulled you guys in the successful networking moms, Facebook community, and asked you this question, y’all were kind of split here. Okay. I asked where you were with your business and with your group specifically. So here were the choices, right? Choice number one, I have a Facebook group and it’s making money and going great. Okay. No one picked that choice. I get it. There’s work to be done here. You guys, and I got you. I’m gonna help you get to that point.
Speaker 1: (00:50)
Okay. So no one picked that answer. So I knew that I needed to talk about this subject. The second choice was I have Facebook group, but it needs more like more members, more engagement, more sales, just more and about 70% of you picked that option. So again, I got you. I knew that that was something that I wanted to talk to you about because I know I can help you with that. And then third choice was, I don’t have a Facebook group yet, but I wanna learn how to start and monetize one. Tell me all the things, right. That was the third choice. About 30% of you guys were in that boat of wanting to start a Facebook group, but just didn’t know how didn’t know how to get it off the ground and get it up and running. That’s great. I got you too.
Speaker 1: (01:36)
In fact, I got you. That’s what we’re talking about in this first episode. So I’m doing two because there’s really two camps here, right? We’ve got those of you who have a group and need more from your group. And that’s what we’re gonna be diving into in the second part is more okay. How to take a solid foundation and get more from it. And that’s tomorrow’s episode, which is everything you need to know about getting more out of your marketing, using a Facebook group. So come back and check that out tomorrow. But today let’s go and camp over here with those of y’all that do not have your group yet. Okay. And let’s get you going and get you started. And I don’t know about you, but for me, the best way to get started on something is with a checklist, love a good checklist to get me going. So that way, you know, like here’s what I need to do this check. Did that now do this. Okay. Check did that. So here it is. That’s what we’re talking about today. The mompreneur checklist part one, starting your group
Speaker 2: (02:38)
Go, Hey mama, feel like you’ve tried it all to grow your business online. Every social media script, trick or heck doing exactly what your upline tells you, but you still feel like you’re missing something. We’ll Google no more. It’s time to stop hustling every day and starting from zero every month. Hi, I’m Shelly. I’m a marketing coach and proud entrepreneur that after a 10 year career in corporate advertising and sales decided to use my skills and talents to build an online business. I don’t have any get rich, quick promises for you here because those don’t work anyway. But I do bring you weekly insight and training to help you put real marketing back into network marketing. If you’re ready to reach more people with your message and lead from a place of service, then I can show you how to run a profitable online business, automated to save you time and do it all around your life. As a mom, you’re in the right place for welcome to the successful networking moms community let’s get started. Okay. Let’s dig
Speaker 1: (03:35)
In to the mompreneur checklist. Part one. This is how to start your online community. Start getting leads and start your business on a solid foundation. Maybe you are new to your company, or you are just starting your work from home business. Maybe you have been doing it kind of as a side hustle, and now you’re gonna be getting really serious and going all in on it. Or maybe you are just now starting your group. Like you’ve tried a lot of other different marketing techniques. You’ve done everything your upline’s told you, it’s not working. And you’re like, I’ve got to figure out a way to make this work online. And so you wanna start your group wherever you are. We’re gonna get a solid foundation in place. And I’m gonna give you the checklist to do that today. And I feel like this is a great time to start a Facebook group or to start your business strong.
Speaker 1: (04:29)
It’s a brand new month. Who’s excited about a new month because I am over here. I am excited about the month of may. Yesterday was my little brother’s birthday, which I say little brother he’s taller than me and only 20 months younger, but still happy birthday, uncle Bubba. That’s what we call him. And what else is going on in may? Oh, okay. So may is also nurse appreciation week falls in this month and teacher appreciation week. Both of which I say like let’s celebrate
Speaker 1: (05:24)
And thank you for all that you do in your profession. I hope you get shown a lot of appreciation during your special weeks when people really stop and notice and say, thank you to our nurses and our teachers. And speaking of teachers, like I still remember my favorite teachers. I don’t know if you remember yours, but the reason they’re both, my favorite is kind of funny and it’s kind of the same reason actually. And that is that they really encouraged my love of, and my talent for writing at a young age. So like in second grade, my teacher, Ms. West, she was letting showing us, um, you know, writing Easter stories and we all got eggs and my story just went on and on and on. Like, I, I really liked telling stories even in the second grade and I loved writing. And so everyone else had an egg that they put their story on, but she gave me like more eggs and more eggs.
Speaker 1: (06:21)
And my story just kept going and going. And she just kept giving me more eggs to ride on instead of cutting me off. And so I can very distinctly remember her being like, Shelly’s gonna be a writer. She is a good little writer and she really encouraged that. And grand today. I do do a lot of writing. I create a lot of content.
Speaker 1: (07:07)
And so she actually would let me sit at her teacher’s computer and showed me how to use publisher. You guys remember a publisher and lay out a newsletter. And so during center time, while everyone else was playing with the centers in the class, I was over there compiling a, um, newsletter of stories and jokes and different things and making a class newsletter in fourth grade. So again, obviously I have always loved creating content. And so now that’s what I get to do in my business a lot of the time. But yeah, those were my favorite teachers and suggest kudos to teachers who are out there inspiring and encouraging little minds.
Speaker 1: (07:50)
So yeah, May’s just a good month to get started. So if you’ve been procrastinating your on starting your Facebook group, or you’re just now thinking about doing that and you’re ready to dive in, I’ve got a checklist for you today and we’re gonna go over the things that you need to start your group. Okay. Let’s start from the tip top. Ready? The very tip top is the name of your Facebook community. Now I don’t want you stressing. I don’t want you spending a ton of ton of time and energy on figuring out what in the world to name your group. Okay. Always remember when it comes to any kind of content copywriting, naming, titling, anything you do that clear beats clever. You probably heard me say that a time or two. I say it a lot clear beats clever. So don’t try to rack your brain with like the catchiest, most clever title for your Facebook group, because the goal of the name of your group.
Speaker 1: (08:47)
Well, there’s actually two goals. The first is that people are able to find you. So if they’re searching relevant keywords or topics on Facebook, your group comes up and the second goal is to let people know that it’s for them. Okay? So don’t stress over figuring out like the perfect creative catchy name for your group. You can always change it. You can’t change it every single day. Facebook doesn’t let you, you can only change it every so often, but you can change it. You’re not married to the name. I think the successful networking moms, Facebook group name has changed a couple of times over the course of it being around. Right? But keep in mind, you want to name your group something that is gonna let people know it’s for them. Like what in the world am I gonna get out of the group? And you want it to have keywords that they’re going to be searching.
Speaker 1: (09:36)
So again, back to clear beats, clever, if you think of this really catchy name, maybe it’s like a pun or a plan on words or something. Um, the problem with that is that people on Facebook, they’re not searching for catchy, stuff like that, right? Like they’re literally just typing in keywords of what they wanna find. And so you wanna make sure that you’re incorporating those keywords so that people can find you. So when it comes to that, just remember, that’s one thing you need is you’re gonna need the name of your community. Then you’re gonna need a description for your community. All this can be set up before you ever even invite the first person before you ever even have a member when it’s just you setting everything up. Right? So you’re gonna want the description. Now the description is also searchable. So when you think back to all those keywords that people are searching in, don’t worry about jamming.
Speaker 1: (10:29)
’em all into your name of your Facebook community, because then that’s just gonna look wordy, right? Put them in your description. And I want you to lay out your description in the following formula. Okay, you ready? Here’s your formula. Want you to write this down? If you have a note or a sticky pad or something that you can write it on, but start with who it’s for. If you are blank, blank, blank. If you struggle with blank, blank, and blank, if you want to blank, blank, blank, and blank. If you love blank, blank and blank, whoever your group is for start with that, then this group’s for you. So I want you to lay it out who the group is for what they will get further the group, because people aren’t just out on Facebook trying to join a bunch of groups, right? Like they’re searching for something they wanna connect.
Speaker 1: (11:20)
They are joining a community for a reason. So make that reason really super obvious for them in this group, you will find this, this and this, just lay it out. Are you gonna be doing trainings? Are you gonna have information on certain things? Are you, um, gonna be doing Q and A’s? Is it just where they’re gonna find relationships with other people who are like them and interested in the same things? Like, is it for networking? Is it like, what, what do they get by being in your group? So you wanna lay that out. And then the last part of the formula is always include a call to action. Whether that’s join me here or, you know, and you like put a link to your website or something, whether it’s, um, click here for a free resource or even if it’s just, if you want X, Y, and Z, then send me a message, but ask them to do something.
Speaker 1: (12:10)
So even when they’re just looking at the description before they’ve ever even joined, they know that there’s a next step. This is one thing that I do see a lot of moms that have Facebook groups. They’re not really utilizing the description to its full potential. Okay. So you’re gonna need a description. And let me pause here and say this, okay, this is a checklist for what you need to start with your group. You’re gonna need the name of the group. You’re gonna need a description. All of those are gonna be pulling in people that are your target audience. If you haven’t no idea who your target audience is, you don’t even know who you would want in your group. You’re really not even to the point to start your group yet. I want you to go back and do a little bit of pre-work about really figuring out your niche because your group is not gonna be for anybody and everybody, and has a very specific purpose.
Speaker 1: (13:03)
And that is to attract and, um, really bring in people that are in your target audience. And so it can’t be for anybody and everybody. So if you’re not there yet, and you’re like, Shelly, I can’t figure out what to name my group because I don’t really know who it’s for, or I can’t figure out what to put in my description because the only thing I can think of is like, this is a group to learn about my products. Gotta dig a little bit deeper and we’ve got some pre-work to do, but I’ve got you. I’ve done a couple of episodes, a few pretty recently on defining your niche, how to figure out who your target audience is, how to figure out who your group should be for. So I want you to actually pause, go back and listen to those. And then you’ll be ready to start this checklist.
Speaker 1: (13:49)
Start with episode 61. It’s all about how to nail down your niche and how to pick a profitable niche for network marketing, direct sales home based businesses specifically. Okay. So back to the checklist, the next thing that you’re gonna need to set up are the rules for your group. Now you can have your own set of rules. It’s your community, your people, your audience, like you get to say, what does, and doesn’t go in your community, right? Our group rules are probably on the more lax side of other Facebook groups right now. And I’ll tell you why is because I really wanted it to be a group that a lot of people contributed to like, not just me being the leader, because I am the leader and the facilitator, and I’m the expert in our community, but I didn’t wanna be the only one talking in the community.
Speaker 1: (14:43)
I wanted other people contributing. And I wanted you to be able to share your business. I wanted you to be able to promote offers. I wanted you to do all of that networking relationships that the rules in our group are super simple, super easy PC. Like don’t be mean, be kind, um, don’t use bad language, you know, no profanity and whatnot. Um, and don’t spam us, like share your business, share your links. That’s totally cool. But like, don’t just be spaming stuff. Okay. And so posts like that don’t get approved if they’re just like complete spam or I feel like, um, you know, the link takes you somewhere. It shouldn’t. But other than that, like our, our group rules are really lax. Some groups have stricter rules and that’s totally cool because based on how you want your group to feel the culture that you’re creating, the purpose of why you even have your group, like all of that is gonna go into the rules that you make.
Speaker 1: (15:42)
Some groups, you know, you can only post promotion on certain days, some groups like aren’t promotion based groups, they’re not networking groups. You know, they’re all about, you know, if you have like a, a healthy living group or whatever, um, you may not need a rule that says, please don’t share your link and promote because that’s not what people are there to do. Right. And our group people are there to grow their business. So, um, that’s why promotions are there. And that’s why some groups that are other networking groups for business growth have the rule about not promoting. You may not need that. It depends on what your group is all about. Is it about healthy living? Is it about, um, exercise? Is it about, um, I mean your group could be about anything, right? Like take your target audience. What are they interested in?
Speaker 1: (16:29)
And that’s what your group’s about. And again, when you go back and listen to that episode on picking your profitable niche, you’ll know exactly what your group’s about. Okay. Like, is it about growing a business? Is it tips for social media marketing? Is it, you know, like what is your group? But you do wanna have some rules and boundaries in place. Just keep that in mind, but know that it’s your group. You can run your group however you want to. But that’s one of the things that you’ll need to set up are the rules. And the next thing that you’ll need to set up and guys, this is another really underutilized feature. And that is your entry questions. So you want three good entry questions into your group. The first one, I would suggest doing a question, basically figuring out who they are, where are they kind of qualifying them if you will, about whether or not they’re in your target audience to make sure your group’s a good fit.
Speaker 1: (17:24)
Of course, the second question can be about a pain point, a struggle, what they wanna learn so that you know, that you are able to create content that you’re your group members are gonna find really valuable. You’ll get a lot of tips and a lot of ideas for what to talk about and what to create and what you know, to offer people like how to make sales based on people telling you what they want out of your group. Right? So that’s your second question is, you know, what questions do you have? I think our second group is, or question in our group is worded somewhat. Like, so what’s your biggest question regarding growing your network marketing business online. Right? And that’s where I get episode ideas from that’s where I get content from. That’s what gave me the idea of the group growth blueprint, which is the course about how to grow your group and monetize it as a mom is because that’s what everybody was asking.
Speaker 1: (18:17)
Like, how do I get more engagement? How do I get people to interact with my post? How do I reach people outside of my audience? Like those were all direct quotes and questions from people coming into my group. And so, I mean, it was great that I had those questions set up because it, it told me what you guys needed and what you wanted and what you were looking for. And then your third question, I like to suggest that you make it something that they can opt in for like some way to grow your email list, because this is how you’re going to convert your group members into like a list of leads, people that are interested in what you’re doing, right. Cuz they’re hanging out in your group. So, you know, they’re obviously there for a reason and they’re gonna be more likely to be the type of people that you can sell to.
Speaker 1: (19:04)
Right. And so, and you wanna be selling to them as an act of service. Like they’re here raising their hands, saying I wanna be in this group because I’m interested in X, Y, Z. And here’s what I wanna learn about. And here’s the questions I have or here’s the problem that I’m looking for answers to and solutions and you have the solution, right? So our third question is if you want the free guide that I’ve created, that’s all about group growth and community marketing and how to do that as a work from home. Mom, if you want access to it, like cool, I’ll totally send it to you. Just put your email address in there. So the third question should be something where you can get their email address. If they’re interested, if people don’t put their email address, I still accept them into the group.
Speaker 1: (19:49)
It’s not like I’m sitting here going, Nope, you didn’t put your email address. You don’t get to hang out with us, like no way. Okay. That third question is purely there from a place of service. Like if you’re checking out this group, because you have a work from home business, if you would like this free guide that I put together, let me have your email address. I’ll send it to you. Right? So those are the three entry questions that you’ll wanna have the first one, qualifying them. The second one, figuring out what they need help with, what they’re interested in, what they wanna get outta the group. And then the third way to follow up with them. Or if you have something that you can send to them or just a way to stay in contact. So now you’ve got, okay, let’s go back checklist, right?
Speaker 1: (20:32)
Let’s go from the top. You’ve got your name of your community. It’s catchy, it’s searchable. Right. People know, okay, this is the group for me. You’ve got your description so that they can make sure, and then they can join. You’ve got your questions already set up so that as they’re coming in, you are finding out about them. It’s gonna help you serve them better. Once they’re in the group, you’ve got your rules, your group, your rules, right. So you’ve got that set up. And so that is the basis that you need for your group. And then this next thing that I’m gonna tell you is gonna be constantly developing. This is not like I, I did it once. Check done. Never have to do it again. Okay. But you do wanna go ahead and get it set up. I would post some sort of a welcome post, a welcome video, something so that people know like what to do next, because you’ve got them in your group.
Speaker 1: (21:25)
And sometimes that’s where the relationship will end because they don’t know what to do next. Like, okay. So do I make a post? Do I introduce myself? Am I allowed to do that? Am I supposed to be sending a message? Like, you know, do I watch lives in here? Like what are we doing? Right. So give ’em the next steps. And you can just pin that post or what I suggest doing pin it, of course. And, um, putting it at the top of your group, but also going ahead and putting it into it used to be called units. And now it’s called, what are they called now? Guides.
Speaker 1: (22:16)
That have like all the different things where I organize my material and I put my live videos, guides, duh, Shelly. So, uh, yeah, you’re welcome post or your welcome video, whatever you have that gives people their next steps and kind of lets them know like, this is how it goes around here. Like do this next, um, put that as a pin post at the top. But then also as a guide, I can’t believe I just like completely spaced out on that. It happens. Mom brings real. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.
Speaker 1: (23:09)
So that’s why I wanted this to be a two part episode, because start giving that some thought, get that set up and then you’ll be ready for the next one. I don’t wanna overload you with like all the things, all the information like, okay, now you’ve started your group. Here’s how you grow it. Here’s how you get engagement. Here’s how you monetize it. It’s just a lot of information for one podcast episode.
Speaker 1: (24:00)
We have hands on support and step by step training in the group, growth blueprint. If you haven’t checked it out and you’re like, what are you talking about? Group growth, blueprint.com. You can get all the details there, but that is how once you’ve started this group. Or if you’re thinking about starting it, the group growth blueprint is a great place to I in because I’m literally gonna lay it out for you. Step by step by step. And you get access to me one on one and to a dedicated team member, that’s there to help you implement all this. So if you’ve listened to the checklist and you’re like, this is great, but I can tell right now I’m gonna need someone to help me implement it. Then you need to grab the group growth blueprint. And, uh, we can do that together. You don’t have to do it by yourself, but either way I am cheering you on and you can also get support. Like I said, in our Facebook community, just search on Facebook for successful networking moms. You’ll find us over there and we cannot wait to cheer you on and starting, and then monetizing this group. So take a checklist, get started, check each one off as you go and we’ll see you on the next episode tomorrow,
Speaker 3: (25:10)
You’ve been listening to the successful networking moms podcast. If you are ready to take action, start reaching your sales, recruitment, and income goals. Now then join us in the successful networking moms Facebook group. This free community offers support from me plus the accountability of a thousand other networking moms, scaling their businesses, search on Facebook for successful networking moms or check the show notes for the link to join.