How a private or public Facebook group works

Facebook has had a large following among users of all ages thanks to the ability to contact new and old friends, share posts and moments of their life at any time of the day. But one of the most popular features on Facebook is undoubtedly the possibility of creating public or private groups, so as to be able to bring together the contacts of friends (and not) under a single passion, hobby or knowledge (and why not make a satirical or funny page to have a laugh with!).If we are new to Facebook and we don’t know how to create groups, we will discover in this guide how to create one, taking into account every aspect of creating and managing the group. If we have a website or a blog, it is better to create a page to offer your content to interested users, rather than creating a group.

READ ALSO: Create a Facebook page (Fan-Page) to promote a business or a blog

How to create groups on Facebook

The first step to create groups on Facebook is to use your account as a “base” for the group, which will be administered by us and by others who we would like to appoint administrators together with us. If we don’t have a Facebook account, we can activate it quickly by opening the official website and clicking on Create new account O Create new account. If, on the other hand, we already have an account, insert username and password on the same page we saw earlier and then click on Log in or his Login.

As soon as we are inside our account, click on the + icon at the top right and press on the item Group; a new window will open where you can choose the main information of the group we are creating.

From here we choose a name for the group, we start adding people to it directly from our friends list and, very importantly, we choose the privacy for the group (item Choose privacy). For privacy we can choose:

• Public group: everyone can see the group, its members and their posts without any limit; anyone who finds the group can access it without problems
• Private group: everyone can find the group but only members can see the posts published and the composition of the group; if we are new and want to enter they will have to wait for the authorization of one of the administrators or moderators to be able to enter

If we choose private group, a new field will open in which to choose whether to make it visible or to create a hidden group. We carefully choose the type of group we want to create and finally click on Create. Now the group will be created and will be accessible according to your privacy settings.

Customize group

Immediately after the creation of the group it is advisable to personalize it by inserting a cover image, pressing the button Edit.

The other settings to customize the group and make it grow are available in the menu on the left side: we can in fact add other members, manage the group and change the settings as it is structured, for example by adding an image, the type of group, the group goals, accepted tags, places you represent, adding admins and moderator approval of posts, election of new admins or moderators, and so on.
To create the first post immediately, just press the button Create a post; to immediately invite new friends, instead, press the button Invites.

What to do on Facebook groups

But in concrete what can we do with a group on Facebook? Let’s discover the usefulness of this blue social function, which if well exploited can become even more useful than a Web page or a dedicated site.

• Write advanced posts: compared to simple personal posts it is possible to post much more complex messages on groups containing a video, a story, an image, a mood or various tags or hashtags, organize a video party, ask for advice, tag an event, support a non-profit, register or tag places or friends, create documents or photo albums, create a post with job offers, sell any items and upload files. Uploaded content will be visible to group members based on the applied privacy settings
• Chat with group members: Group members can chat with each other simultaneously, not just one-on-one. For the first time, you can chat with people who are not friends on Facebook but only part of the same group. It will be essential in that case to appoint moderators who can keep anyone who wants to exaggerate, troll or offend on the chat at bay so as to maintain order.
• Shared documents: within the Facebook group we can create text documents written with a Word-like editor, shared with all members (who can make changes and improvements). We will then be able to create a small “personal Wikipedia” which all members of the group can access.
• Share Files: In Facebook groups, you can share files with group members, with the limit of 100 MB per file. To find the option and send files in Facebook groups you have to press on Other in the post writing box.
• Create an event and invite all friends: have we organized an event and would like to notify all Facebook friends? We can create a temporary “secret” group with all Facebook friends so everyone will receive an invitation to join the group and will receive notification of the organized event, including date and time.
  In fact, I believe this is the only way to do thesending messages to all users on our Friends list.
• Using groups to buy and sell on Facebook it is also another possibility, as explained in the linked article a little while ago; if we operate with a precise method and we moderate the terms of use well we can open a small local market where people meet to exchange objects or to sell anything.

Conclusions

Facebook groups are probably the most exploited feature of social media, since they allow us to bring together under the same flag many people who share a passion or who love to follow a common thought, so that we can compare ourselves to the great and create large virtual communities. Obviously, in order to carry on a group it is necessary to have a good base of friends ready to participate and share the group on other social channels or on other groups or pages, so as to have a solid base from which to start.

To be successful on Facebook and relaunch your own site or brand, we invite you to read our guides on how Using hashtags on #Facebook and what the hashtag on words means.