What's up? I'm Rachel Spewak and this is Rock Your Tribe Radio where community, fun, social media and business collide. I firmly believe that parties are the answer to all of life's problems. Seriously. Building a community, bringing people together for a common purpose and serving them, that's your mission as a business owner. Let's make it happen. It's time to rock your tribe.
(00:28): Welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. Listen, we have to get on the same page about something. I'm going to say it, and you have to let me know how this hits you. So send me a message on Facebook about it. Okay. Are you ready here? It is. If you run a Facebook group for your business, you have competition. I'm looking at you with one eyebrow up right now, watching your reaction. I'm saying this because it's something I hear all the time is I don't have competition because I'm the only me. And I'm calling on that. Especially when it comes to Facebook groups, I'm going to tell you why, and I'm going to tell you how to win. But first, I'm going to tell you how I really feel about competition because it's my podcast and I make the rules. I am admittedly extremely competitive, but I'm a good sport.
(01:22): It's not all about winning. Winning is great. But what I love is getting in the game, the business game, the social media game, the personal development game. I'm the kind of person who signs up for all the extra challenges at my gym, because I like the extra push more about that later, the more I play, the better I get. That's what I'm after. And sometimes I win. If I win it's because I've been participating in finding ways to improve. On the other hand, according to Michael Scott, according to Wayne Gretzky, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. In other words, you don't even get a chance to win. If you don't get in the game at all a few weeks ago, I want a huge prize. I want a year's membership and does a Slava Debra's professional membership club. The bad-ass brand squad, that membership is worth $1,800.
(02:19): That's what it costs to join for 12 months, but it's worth a lot more because Dez AKA, the branding queen as seen in Forbes magazine, packed the membership with all of her courses and masterclasses about branding, social media business, and the membership includes live demos and access to her premium community of business owners. In my first month as a member, I had the best cash month ever. And my current business, like I said, that membership is worth way more than its price tag. How did I win that prize? I won an affiliate competition. I was an affiliate and ambassador for does his recent five day challenge. The five day challenge was about membership sites and the upsell was her membership site group course among us affiliates. I registered the most participants for the challenge with over 80 sign-ups. That's how I won. And the grand prize was the annual membership in the bad-ass brand squad.
(03:16): By the way, if you're interested in joining the bad-ass brand squad BBS, my affiliate link is rock your tribe.com forward slash BBS. How was I able to sweep the competition like that? I leveraged my Facebook group. Of course, I wrote a few posts in there. I also invited Dez to do a live interview with me in my group. I sent some emails out on my mailing list that I built through my group. I talked about my personal results from working with Dez because I took her membership site course a year ago. And the most compelling argument I made was this. If you rock a free Facebook group, which is what I help people with, then you can spin off a membership site, which is what does helps people with. Therefore, if you work with me, I can get you ready to work with Dez. Or if you work with Dez, you might want to consider working with me.
(04:09): This is how I was able to sweep her affiliate competition while continuing to promote my own business. At the same time, this is a winning strategy. You can compete and collaborate at the same time on the outside. It looks like I win a lot. Maybe you're thinking, Oh, she's one of those people who always wins. Nope, that's not it at all. It's like I said, I'm participating and getting in the game as much as possible. And sometimes I lose six months ago, I came in last place and an indoor triathlon. I knew I was going to come in last or close to last when I signed up and I signed up anyway. Why? Because I wanted to try and the possibility of losing a competition doesn't bother me. The triathlon consisted of a 2000 meter row on a rowing machine, 300 body weight exercises and a 5k on a treadmill.
(05:06): I have an artificial hip. And at the time I had just graduated from being a power Walker on the treadmill to a jogger. So my big goal was to finish. That's what I was playing for during the triathlon. I was the last off the rower, the last to finish the body weight exercises, some of which I had to modify because of my hip replacement. And I was the last to finish the 5k. I completed the whole thing in about an hour and two minutes. I think the person who came in first finished and half my time, but I did it. I finished. That's what I was playing for. And here's where the magic happened. I was the last one on the treadmill. Everyone else had already finished the grueling event. There were stretching, sitting, hydrating and recovering, but then they all hopped back on the treads and jogged through the finish line with me to them.
(05:57): It wasn't all about winning either as much as we were individual competitors, we were a team too. There it is. Again, you can compete and collaborate at the same time, by the way, for any orange theory, fitness members out there. Yes. I'm talking about the dry try and I'm about to do it again. I'm hungry to compete against my previous time. I don't expect to come in first place. It's the game that I love. Here's a story. When I was 11 years old, I got sick. I came down with a staph infection in my right hip. I lived, but my hip was severely damaged. Suddenly there were lots of things I couldn't do anymore. Like run, jump rollerskate. That's devastating news for a kid. At the time, I had no idea that I would live with chronic pain and mobility issues for the next 23 years of my life. In 2015, when I was 34, I finally had total hip replacement surgery. And then there was quite a bit of recovery time after that. But now in 2021, six years later, because I'm all good because I've been given a second chance. I am all about participating in everything because I missed out on so much.
(07:13): You've heard the same advice about Facebook groups everywhere. Ask questions, add value. But what does that mean? Let me show you what a profitable, engaged, and fun Facebook group looks like. And I'll pop the hood for you so you can see exactly how I do it. Join my Facebook group. Rock your tribe, community. Building for entrepreneurs at rock, your tribe.com forward slash Facebook. I have already,
(07:40): We lost everything more than once actually. And I'm still here. So the idea of losing a competition doesn't bother me. That's a gift of perspective that comes with surviving. Plus you got to start somewhere. Even if you suck. When I first started deejaying, I had no idea what I was doing. When I first started my Facebook group, I had no idea what I was doing in my early days of being a DJ. I train wrecked songs. I cleared dance floors. I DJ'ed to empty rooms. My Facebook group was a flop at first, a total ghost town. It was kind of like deejaying to no one, but I made a career out of both things because I refuse to give up. So get in the game. If you want to rock your Facebook group for your business, do you want to know how to get in the game?
(08:28): Do you want to know how to win? Here's what you need to know. There are more than 10 million Facebook groups out there by that figure alone. It should be obvious that there is fierce competition for attention. That's what you're playing for. No one owes you. Their attention and people are suffering from Facebook group fatigue. Social media burnout in general is a thing. So why should someone join your group and come day after day to engage with it. If you walk away from this episode, having learned one thing about Facebook groups, this is it. This is the reality check. This is my call to action for you. You need to be clear about who your group is for and the unique and persuasive reason why they should join without knowing this, or at least taking your best guess and working on it. Your group is going to be crickets.
(09:19): If you need help with this, let me know. This is my specialty and we can sort this out in a one hour strategy session, sign up at rock, your tribe.com. Let's look at this from another angle. The Facebook algorithm prioritizes notice from groups. I'll prove it. Look at your Facebook notifications right now. Are you looking? Are they mostly from groups at bet? They are. If you want Facebook to notify your members about activity in your group, you need to intentionally create engagement in your group. If you want to create engagement in your group, you need to know who your tribe is and how to get them. You need to know what motivates them. The simplest way to get them talking is to ask one line questions. And I'm not talking about fluffy questions and follow chains here. Yeah. Yes. You can ask what they had for breakfast or what their Instagram handles are and get some engagement.
(10:12): But that's not the kind of conversation that's going to build real relationships in your community, unless your group is about nutrition or Instagram. But you know what I mean? So no now you know that you're competing for attention among the 10 million plus Facebook groups there are out there. And that the way to win attention is to know who your tribe is and why they should join your group. And you need to create engagement in your group that taps into your members, motivations, maybe you're thinking, but Rachel, my niche is narrow. My ideal tribe member doesn't care about most of the other millions of Facebook groups. Therefore my group should stand up. Okay? Sure. Maybe you're like my client, whose group is for cloud developers who are interested in launching their own consultancies. That's narrow. His group will never be that big and that's okay, but he's still competing against everything else that's going on in the lives of his ideal tribe.
(11:08): Members ask yourself this about your ideal tribe members. Do they have a family, a job, or a business, hobbies, obligations, people they're taking care of pets, other groups they've joined. Why should they spare any time to see what's going on in your Facebook group? When they have all of this going on, even with a narrow niche, you still have to play the attention game. Let's talk about engagement again. Two related mistakes. I see business owners making with our Facebook groups are number one, picking an ideal client who is inherently busy and number two, creating tons of value posts in their group. Value posts, posts that explain things, basically lectures. If someone is characterized as busy, do they, by definition have the time interest or energy to even spend time in a Facebook group. If they do hang out in your group, can we reasonably expect them to read lecture posts?
(12:05): Do you like being lectured? I don't. So with that in mind, here's a winning strategy. Stop lecturing and start creating conversations. It's less work for you and that's what people are interested in anyway. And now I'd like for us to get brutally honest with ourselves in this fierce competition for attention from your ideal tribe members, are you and your group. Interesting. A lot of grown-up life is boring. Like doing your taxes. As a parent, I find myself doing a very large amount of paperwork. It's not fun. I'm not entertained by this, but I have to do it. I have to register my kids for school. I have to take them to their doctor and dentist appointments. I don't have to spend time in a Facebook group if I don't want to. That's something I choose to do. Do you want your ideal tribe member to choose, to spend their precious time in your group?
(12:56): Well, don't be boring, not being boring means three things. Number one, creating a personal brand that highlights your personality and your story. Number two, standing up for what you believe in. And number three, not looking like all the other groups in your niche. My group is my brand world. Rock. Your tribe is very much me. When you enter my world, it's a visual party. I share parts of my personal story. Not all of it, but enough that you know who I am and why I'm here doing what I do. I'm a social justice. Mama bear to hateful motivations are not allowed in my group. And everyone knows this. This brings us back to our number one, winning strategy, compete and collaborate at the same time, fight the good fight for attention because your message needs to be heard. And your community members need you and be a team player at the same time, by standing up for your community, let's wrap this up.
(13:52): If you run a Facebook group for your business, you have competition. There are more than 10 million groups out there, and we are in a fight for attention. You win attention by knowing who your group is for and why they should join. You win attention by engaging them about the things they care about. Even if your niche is narrow, your tribe members have other things demanding their attention. Aside from other groups, the Facebook algorithm is on your side. It prioritizes notifications from groups, but you have to create engagement and you can't be boring. So stop creating tons of value posts that no one reads spark conversations instead, and be yourself, share your story and your values. That's what people will connect with. It's not about competing in order to take other people down. It's not even about winning or losing. It's about getting in the game except that you have to play or else your group is going to be a ghost town. Find your tribe. That's your team compete together and have fun next up on the podcast.
(14:52): I'm sharing seven ways to monetize your Facebook group. Thanks so much for being here and as always you rock.
(15:07): This is ThePodcastFactory.com.
