Build a Free Facebook Group, Grow Your Business

March 21st 2025

Although some users are leaving Facebook, the reality is that it is still a useful platform for connecting with customers, prospects, and fans.

By setting up a free online community, you can provide a way for curious prospects to get more information, demonstrate your expertise and credibility, connect prospects with satisfied customers, and foster excitement about upcoming products or services.

Best Practices

One of the best examples of how a free Facebook group can work is the ALDI Aisle of Shame Community, which has 3.5 million members. Although not officially run by grocery store ALDI, the group brings together fans of ALDI products to talk about their experiences in the store and with products found in the limited-edition area in the center of the store — a.k.a. the “aisle of shame.”

These ALDI superfans in the community provide product reviews, photos of products in use, and share positive experiences they have had while shopping. Approximately 99% of the posts are extremely positive and frequently spur members to run out to try to find the products mentioned.

Imagine having an online community of 3.5 million members who get together to sing your praises and encourage others to buy from you. You can’t buy testimonials or positive press like that. And that’s the potential Facebook groups provide, all at no cost to you or to your members.

Getting Started

Setting up a new Facebook group takes only a couple of minutes. 

Once you’re logged into Facebook, look on the left-hand side of your feed to find the Groups tab. Click on that and then “+Create New Group.”

After you’ve named your community, you can add a description of the group and upload an image to be the cover image at the top.

Next, you’ll want to start inviting members to join. You can do that by making an announcement from your profile, from your business page, on Instagram, via LinkedIn, to your email list, your YouTube channel subscribers, and anywhere else you have a presence.

Encouraging Members to Stick Around

Once you start to get community members joining your group, you’ll want to do things to make them want to stay. 

The more they engage, participate, and enjoy the information being contributed, the more positively they’ll feel about you and your company. And the more they know, like, and trust you, the more they’ll buy from you.

Here are steps you can take to get your members involved and feeling like they’re a valued part of your community:

Welcome them. Depending on how many new members join daily, you can either welcome them one at a time by tagging them or do a group welcome every few days.

Host giveaways. Giving away freebies and prizes is still one of the most effective ways to get new members to join, but they can also encourage existing members to stay. You can schedule a regular monthly giveaway, an occasional event in partnership with other business owners, or a 15-minute Facebook Party like business coach Kimberly Olson runs, where she gives away several of her products as well as other gifts.

Sponsor a contest. Where giveaways are typically done through a random drawing, if you want to encourage your members to take a specific action, consider running a contest with prizes. For example, if you’re a fitness coach, you could have members demonstrate how many steps they walked in a week. If you’re a writer, maybe your members need to prove how many words they wrote on a particular day. Make it fun and worthwhile by offering an enticing prize. 

Hold in-person events. Even if your community is spread across the country or around the world, in-person events can still be effective at drawing local customers in. These events can be appreciation parties, networking sessions, trunk or fashion shows, or paid coaching events or conferences.

Ask questions. The most active groups generally have a daily or weekly question for members to respond to. These questions can be serious, such as, “What’s the best business advice you ever received?” or they can be personal, such as, “What is your pet’s name?” Not only do the responses help you get to know your members better, but they can spark conversations that build community connections.

Conduct polls. Use the Poll function within the group to ask for feedback, for ideas, or to generally gauge how people feel about a certain topic. Polls can help you schedule your next Facebook Live session, for example, choose the cover design of your next book, or select which new product you’ll add to your inventory.

Record Facebook Live videos. Use video to share information live with your group, such as for making an announcement or sharing some training you’ve put together that you think they’ll find valuable. Video is one of the most popular ways people consume information today, so take advantage of it.

Use rules to reinforce good behavior. You can establish rules when you set up your group outlining what you consider to be acceptable behavior. Facebook offers some standard rules you can post and ask everyone to agree to as a condition of admission into the group, but you may want to add your own, too. Some businesses, for example, do not allow members to promote their businesses. Others prohibit political discussions.

Immediately address spammers. Despite stating what your group’s rules are up front, you will frequently find spammers who want to promote their companies or share inappropriate content. You’ll want to remove those members ASAP when you come across them so as not to irritate your legitimate members.

Encourage testimonials. You don’t necessarily want to call them “testimonials,” but invite members to share their successes, especially if they’ve had a good result thanks to your business. Ask members to share their experience, or what they liked most about doing business with you.

To stay on top of what’s going on in the group and what topics are hot buttons for the community, check in daily if you can. You can also ask others to be group moderators so that you have other helpers keeping an eye on things, too.

The goal is to attract more people and encourage useful or interesting discussions. If you can do that, members of your community will naturally want to check in regularly. Over time, the group can help educate and inform prospects and customers and position you as the expert in your market.