December 14, 2017
Are you a member of a Facebook Group? Maybe a fan group, a group for parents, or apartment hunting? You’d be hard-pressed finding a Facebook user who isn’t these days.
Groups have been around for years on the platform, but what’s different now is that Facebook is actively encouraging publishers to use groups to connect and engage with their audience. The company even recently employed a manger to drive the initiative, Jennifer Dulski.
But, Facebook is not always the most well-loved platform by news. That’s why I’ve been conducting an experiment to test whether news organisations can build engagement with their audience on Groups.
Guess what? You can!
Since August I’ve been working with the WNYC Leonard Lopate Show to pitch, research, develop, strategize and execute a community engagement project which centered around creating a book club Facebook Groups.
I’ve also spoken to the moderators of 10 Facebook Groups run by news organizations and done 16 need finding interviews with journalists who work in community engagement, groups outside of news, journalists creating engagement on platforms outside of news and academics.
Want to know more?
To celebrate the new year, I’ll be posting ‘Congregate: Facebook Groups 101 - a guide to help news organizations start and manage a Facebook Group to build engagement with audiences’.
I’ll keep you posted.