Neal talks about the launch of his new Social Media Center of Excellence Facebook Group and what he has learned building a new community in social media - and how you can leverage Neal's experience.

Key Highlights

[02:14] My Own Facebook Group

[02:41] What to Expect When You Join My Facebook Group

[04:24] How  Started My Group

[05:42] Deciding On Who You Opt-In Your Group

[06:13] How to Get More Followers and Engagement?

[06:45] "Cross-Pollination"

[07:19] Your Group Should Serve Utilitarian Purpose

[08:59] Utilitarian Part of a Facebook Group

[11:10] The Advantage of Engagement on Facebook

[11:58] The Other Side of the Equation: Engagement

[13:02] The Challenge on Engagement

[13:21] The First Thing I Do Whenever We Have a New Group Member

[14:09] Create Rules!

[14:54] Have A Combination

Notable Quotes

• Now, obviously, numbers are not everything. It's more about quality versus quantity. I want the right people into the group.
• So who would you opt in? Right I'm totally against opting people and I think it goes against a lot of well basic principles of etiquette and of of online social networking, and social media principles.
• But also, once you opt them in once they go to the group, you need to have a clear visual clear rules, posting rules, a clear about section, and you need to tell them, hey, you know, if you're offended, please opt out, you have already expressed interest in that's why you're here.
• And how do you get more engagement, it's the same themes over and over and over. And there's no one golden rule, because every community is going to be filled with different people with a different objective. It's the whole social media is half science, half art. This is sort of the science, but you all need to be the artist, because we're dealing with people here, and everybody is different, right?
• But really, your group, or your community should serve utilitarian purpose. And I think a lot of brands businesses don't really have that utilitarian purpose, because they're looking at purely as a marketing objective.
• But you need to have a utilitarian view that it just becomes natural to push people there, right.
• So it really is a great place, like I said, engage where people are. And the beautiful thing about this engagement is that EdgeRank actually works in your favor, if groups are getting more of a drink than pages are you can imagine.
• The objective of a group is to get actual discussion from people, and not just comments on what you write her answers to your questions, but you want them to submit their own questions.
• And I want people to know that we're going to be very focused and I want them to value it. I want them to I want my group to attain mindshare for what it is versus competing groups wherever they may be in social media. 

Learn More:

• Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon
• Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon
• Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/
• Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo
• Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/
• Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer
• All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com