Episode 11: Stop Worrying About #NoPromo Rules in Facebook Groups

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Tiffany Barry (00:00):
Welcome to the passion to profit show, where we talk about how to scale your passionate business into a profitable empire. I’m Tiffany Barry, a marketing expert and relationship marketing enthusiast. Join me for 20 minutes or less every week to talk about business, scaling up CEO, mindset, freedom and flexibility for entrepreneurs level up to six and seven figures let’s get started.

Tiffany Barry (00:27):
Can I share something I’m really sick of? Okay. I am really sick of I’m gonna get on my soapbox. I’m really sick of seeing people complain about Facebook groups and Facebook groups, owners, not allowing promo posts and the that’s, why people can’t get clients. This common conversation that I see happening online is is it’s everywhere. And it’s, you know, entrepreneurs sit there and say that they can’t find clients in Facebook groups because most groups do not allow promotional posts. Q the N inevitable group owners commenting that their groups do allow this only to join their group and find it’s a ghost town, because guess what? Promo hosts suck. I said it, they suck. And for the vast majority of people hoping to use Facebook groups as a lead generation and networking tool, posting promotional content is a complete waste of time and it is not a sustainable way to get clients. So stop complaining if that’s you. And if you are sitting here wondering what I’m talking about yes, I’m gonna tell more about what it, what it is I’m talking about. But I’m also gonna talk a little bit in this episode about what you should actually be doing in Facebook groups to get more clients.

Tiffany Barry (01:54):
So I like to think of promotional posts like bad commercials. They’re kind of those posts that you see in Facebook groups that they’re straight up saying, please hire me. I charge this amount. Or, you know, they might be trying to go like the back door route. And you can tell that they’re fishing for clients based on the language that they’re using or the way they’re talking about it. Essentially they chase people away. They make the group experience feel like a nonstop commercial break rather than a community. And for the majority of people who are looking for clients and Facebook groups, promotional posts are actually gonna drive people away from you rather than bring them in to your client pipeline. So instead of posting these promo posts that are just basically, you know, solicitations they’re commercials, you can also think of them as kind of like, you know, those people who walk around neighborhoods and knock on the doors and ask if you wanna buy something from them.

Tiffany Barry (03:00):
Like that it’s you know, they, they, there is a success rate, but is it worth the time and energy that it takes? I would say no. And it doesn’t really leave you feeling great at the end, right? So instead you wanna focus on providing value, being part of the community inside that group provide valuable content, answer questions, generally just be helpful. And when people see that you’re not just there to promote yourself, they’ll be more likely to check out your work, right, from a slightly more passive perspective. This is where optimizing your Facebook profile comes into play. So I’ll talk a little bit more about what I mean by that and how you can do that later. But, but for now I wanna focus a little bit on why promo posts don’t work by and large promotional posts just don’t work in any meaningful way.

Tiffany Barry (04:01):
And, and typically the engagement that I see on promo posts, those, those posts, where they’re just kind of promoting themselves kind of fall into one of two categories. They’re either clients who are just gonna haggle you on your price or your delivers deliverables at every stage. They’re, they’re never gonna reel value your time or expertise or, or there are other people who are just engaging for the sake of engaging. They’re not really interested in securing your services. They’re really just there to be visible to the people who they are hoping will click on their profile or something like that. Right. They’re just being visible. They’re not really trying to partner with you in any way. So when you’re trying to get clients, your networking activities think of them as, as kind of reputation builders, right? They show that you’re a trusted expert, promo posts, don’t show that you’re an expert.

Tiffany Barry (04:58):
They kind of show that you’re desperate for or clients. Right. now of course there are a few larger Facebook groups. If you were in the B2B space, you know, of a few that do allow promo posts for their like inner circle. And, and those can be valuable as a lead generation tactic for like, you know, getting people into your email list and getting people to download a lead magnet. That’s a whole separate strategy from what I’m talking about here, right? What I’m talking about here is actually direct networking with peers, you know, referral partners, potential clients, more one to one relationship building rather than like a one to many load up your email list kind of approach. Right? So when you’re trying to get clients, I want you to think of your networking activities as a reputation builder. Like I said, right? Because you’re not just selling your services or your products, you are also marketing yourself and you wanna be known as a go-to person in your field.

Tiffany Barry (06:02):
You, you know, I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten a message on Facebook or Instagram, because I left a comment on somebody’s post and a completely unrelated person who was not part of the discussion at all, sent me a message asking for my business. Now I didn’t solicit them or reach out in any way. In fact, this has happened several times with people who I don’t even recognize the name, they just mentioned. They saw my post, or they saw my comments and they came to me and asked if I could help that kind of thing doesn’t happen when you’re putting out spammy promo posts that essentially say, Hey, buy for me now. Here’s why I’m awesome. That just doesn’t resonate with people because those posts are all about you. And what resonates with potential clients are things that matter to them, things that are about them.

Tiffany Barry (06:59):
So promo posts don’t work and your energy is better spent using Facebook groups more effectively from the ground up. So if those don’t work, what should you be doing? How do you actually get clients from Facebook groups? I start at the beginning with joining groups that are actually relevant to your niche. You know, you can lurk for a little while, get to know the members. One thing that I see people asking a lot is, you know, they’re like I can’t do promo posts. And then I just don’t see any opportunities where I can talk about at my business. And that’s the thing. You’re not going to be talking about your business and I’ll share my secret in just a second. You are going to be participating in discussions as an expert and offer helpful advice. If you see if you’re say, for example, you’re like a, a newborn coach or something like that, right?

Tiffany Barry (08:01):
You’re a, you’re a child sleep coach, infant sleep coach, whatever niche you wanna kind of define in there, right? So you join mom groups on Facebook, right? And your goal is to network with new moms who might want to hire you because they’re struggling to get their babies on a good sleep schedule that works for them, their baby, their family, their parenting style, all of that, right? You are not go, you, you go get your comments, flagged, spanned removed, and you’ll get booted out of a group. If a mom says that she’s struggling with a sleep routine and you comment and Hey, I’m a sleep coach. I would love to work with you. You know, here’s my website. You’re gonna get, you know, some, some groups have a no tolerance policy. You’ll get booted right out others, you might get a warning or your comment will be flagged.

Tiffany Barry (08:56):
I routinely hide comments when when I’m posting and networking in Facebook groups that I either don’t agree with, or that are directly competing with my service. I feel zero Fox about it. I have no guilt because I’m there for a reason I’m not there to you know, socialize. I’m there to be an expert, provide value, et cetera, et cetera. I don’t have time to go report and remove and delete. If you hide a comment, the person who commented doesn’t know it’s hidden to them, it looks normal. So I just hide comments that I don’t agree with. If I’m doing a marketing post and somebody sits there and starts spouting off about, you know, hustle this and, and things that go against my values, I’m gonna hide the comment like, so, so you’re going to get your stuff flagged or hidden, or you’re gonna get yourself booted out of the group completely, if you are spaming and promo E in these Facebook groups.

Tiffany Barry (09:59):
Okay. So here’s what I recommend doing instead. So one participate in the discussions and offer helpful advice as an expert. You are an expert. Okay. Now my secret to justifying that you’re an expert to proving that this piece of advice that you’re giving them, you know, without any strings is to do something that one proves you’re trustworthy, but also serves it like, like a searchable way for people to find you in in your comments later. So I add things like I’m a more marketing coach and I recommend X, Y, Z, or I’ve been in marketing for over 10 years and have supported hundreds of entrepreneurs. So I do X, Y, Z thing this way, because it gets better results in my experience. So if you are a parenting coach and a mom post that, you know, her baby, just screw, screaming all night long.

Tiffany Barry (10:58):
And she just, you know, she’s so fried and frazzled, you could say, you know, I, I’m a sleep coach that works with a lot of parents. And a lot of my clients find a lot of success trying out X, Y, Z. And then you could just leave it there. Or you could, you could ask a question say that advice, say, you’re, you’re a sleep coach. And then ask a question, like, what have you tried so far? Or have you tried this you know, are you a fan of this sleep method, some kind of question that encourages a conversation, right? And then from there you can, can, you know, steer it to a place of, okay, well, if they, if all these little tips aren’t working, maybe it’s time to hire an expert. I’d love to chat with you about that. And that way you’re not gonna get flagged.

Tiffany Barry (11:50):
You’re not being spammy, you’re building a relationship. You’re, you’re getting you know, building trust and you can network in these Facebook groups in a really like, feel good way, right? It’s all about being genuine and providing value without attract attaching strings to it. You don’t wanna just go, willynilly dropping your links to your website or your lead magnets. People can totally see through that kind of thing. Like, no matter how you phrase it, if your end goal is to jump straight into a sale without building the relationship, first, you’re gonna instantly be put in the category of never work with this person. So it, it’s good to keep in mind that everything you do publicly online in front of your clients, colors their view of what it will be like to work with you. So ask yourself, is this comment, a representation of what it’s like to work with me?

Tiffany Barry (12:52):
Do I give and provide value without strings? Do I make people constantly purchase upsell to get the thing that I’ve promised them? Or do I, do I be really transparent and authentic and trustworthy from the get go right now from a tactical standpoint, you also wanna make sure that you’re set up for success before jumping into these groups network in the right way. Right? So I always recommend optimizing your Facebook profile to connect your business page to your personal profile, add your website link, even connect your social media pages and keep in mind that Facebook groups have a group member profile. That’s kind of like a gate between the group and your personal profile. So if somebody clicks onto your name, they’re gonna go to your group profile first, and that’s gonna show posts that you’ve created recently in the group comments that you’ve left.

Tiffany Barry (13:52):
And so you wanna make sure that as you’re in engaging in the group, you’re kind of engaging in a way that’s all relevant to the business that you do, the comments you leave. You know, like I said, add in things like I do. I drop in, I’m a marketing coach, and this is why you should listen to me. You know, if you’re a parenting coach say that you know, so, so it just all kind of backs up what you do and helps somebody then take that next step and click on your personal profile because they’ve already, they’re like, okay, this person is an expert. I wanna work with them. I wanna learn more about them. And in doing this also makes it easy for them to find you online and continue that relationship off of Facebook, whether that’s onto another social channel, getting onto your newsletter from your website, booking a call with you, whatever that looks like that, that optimizing that your, your group profile, which is just compiled based on your activity in the group, and then optimizing your Facebook profile, which is all of your, kind of about information that helps, helps strengthen that relationship.

Tiffany Barry (15:01):
Now, as you are working in these groups, something that people talk about often, and I recommend it to is giving value. All right, which talk a lot about engaging in groups and, and providing value and giving value, being an absolute must. Right. But here’s the thing. And I say that all the time in so many different ways, but it’s true. Here’s the thing giving value is more than just posting tips or answering questions in Facebook groups. So often I see, you know, people, well-meaning, people sharing marketing advice, or, or even these like big, you know, high dollar gurus teaching that the way to give value you is to either share tips and tricks or create these super long teaching posts, which I personally loathe. I think they are pointless and they waste people’s time and people see right through them. We know it’s just a way to try to sell somebody on some thing.

Tiffany Barry (16:13):
And yet totally, you know, debate me on this. But at the end of the day I’m scrolling past because you’re talking about you and yourself, and I don’t know you, and I’m not invested in you yet. So I don’t care what you have to say yet. Those teaching posts could be really great for people who are, are in groups and they know who you are. And so they’re gonna stop and read, but they’re excluding a large portion of the members of that group. So I personally think they’re a waste of time and I think they’re even more a waste of time when somebody literally posts the same thing in every single group, because if you’re like me and you’re a serial group join, you will just see. So, and so posted this post in this group, this group, this group, and it’s just a copy of it, right?

Tiffany Barry (16:59):
Because Facebook is smart. And, and so I find them to be monotonous and, and ineffective. I don’t see them getting a lot of engagement. I personally don’t like them, but from a data, I think there are waste anyway. But anyway, long teaching posts, sharing tips, that’s often the go-to way that it’s being taught out there to give value. But giving value is so much more than that. And, and like I said, those posts don’t even really get great engagement either. So I recommend changing your perception, change your perspective on what it means to share value. Like what does it even mean to share value in groups? Because I would argue that it means investing in relationships. It means sharing your experience in a way that empathizes with people and helps them feel like they aren’t alone. It’s asking questions, whether in a, a solo post that you create, or whether it’s in comments, it’s asking questions that get people thinking and reflecting on their own, it’s being vulnerable and authentic.

Tiffany Barry (18:16):
It’s offering to help without asking for anything in return. And it’s giving people the benefit of the doubt. When you give value in these ways, promotional posts, aren’t even something you’ll feel like you even need because the relationships and leads and referrals will naturally flow from your interactions in the group because you’ve built trust and a relationship with those group members. So when you ask to get into a DM, when you ask to, you know, do business with somebody you’ve, you’ve already established that it’s not about you, it’s about them because ultimately giving value is really all about approaching every relationship as a potential peer collaboration, referral, or client, but you’re giving them all equal standing. So stop worrying about the act that you can’t drop promo posts in Facebook groups, you’re using to find clients because it really doesn’t matter. Anyway, That’s it for this episode of passion to profit, if you found it helpful, insightful, or just entertaining subscribe, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. And if you’re ready to scale your business from passion to six figure profits, don’t forget to watch the free masterclass at tiffanyebarry.Com/Masterclass.