It’s nearly the end of the second month of 2022, and I’m super stoked to share with you all the new Facebook group features that have been doing the rounds lately. 🤩
In this edition of our Facebook group features sneak peek, please expect:
✅Three fantastic features that help make Facebook group moderation easy
✅Two new abilities that will impact Facebook group engagement
✅Two unique ways you can invite people to join your Facebook group
✅One exciting feature for animation and gaming Facebook groups
✅One new update in Admin Tools on the Facebook app
If you’d like to see what features were rolled out in the last quarter of 2021, you can refer to this blog 👇🏻
List of all new features on Facebook groups – October & November 2021
🙌🏻 Ease Group Moderation
1. See unavailable members in your group
When you check the members’ list in your Facebook group, you now get to see a list of unavailable members.
They are the members you blocked, ones who blocked you, have deactivated their accounts, or are pending account verification.
Meaning they’re a part of your group, but not your group discussions.
Here’s the list of actions you can take against the unavailable members – suspend in the group, limit activity, block from the group, preapprove or remove them.
An ideal choice would be to remove them from your group. After all, a group is all about the members and conversations. And when you know the people who don’t contribute, why let them stick around!
If they come around again with maybe a new profile or something, you can always let them in.
2. Preapprove people to join by adding their emails
Yes, you read that right!
Just like you can preapprove certain members in your Facebook group to post, you can now preapprove people to join your community by uploading their email addresses.
Lianne Carla, the admin of a super-engaged Facebook group, says, “It’s like having a VIP list for a party. People who are on the list go through the doors right away, and others need to be let in.”
Here’s how you can preapprove people to join:
- Go to your group settings
- Under Manage Membership, you’ll see ‘who is preapproved to join’
- Click on the pencil icon beside it and a dialog box will appear.
Select ‘upload a file’ and you can upload a CSV file that has the list of email addresses of people you want to preapprove.
To be sure of the format of the list, you can download the template from here.
- On the other hand, if you have multiple Facebook groups, you can preapprove members from your other groups. For this, click on ‘choose groups’ and select your other recommended groups.
3. Get an ‘overview’ of essential things in your group
If you’re habitual of accessing and managing your Facebook group through a laptop (just like me), you’d see an ‘Overview’ button right below the group home button.
When you click on it, you’ll see:
- Things to review in the community, i.e. pending posts, member requests, member-reported content and more
- Engagement insights
- Top posts
- Weekly active members
This feature is a boon as it makes work easier for admins to get everything they need in just one place.
🥳Features that impact Facebook group engagement
1. Welcome new members via mobile
You now get the option to create a welcome post through mobile, no matter if your group is private or public.
Also, the way new members get tagged in a welcome post has changed. As opposed to earlier when members’ names appeared one after the other in the form of a list, now Facebook has made it more compact and visually appealing, as you can see below.
However, a few admins feel the engagement on welcome posts has gone for a toss because of this new update.
We’ll keep you posted, though, as we get some more clarity!
2. Create sub-groups in your group
The much-awaited ability to create sub-groups within a Facebook group is finally out!
Facebook announced this in their Communities Summit 2021 along with some other unique features, and we were eagerly waiting for this one.
Sub-groups are dedicated spaces within your group that cater to a specific topic. This helps keep things organized, and conversations do not stray away from the dedicated topic.
Additionally, members are also saved the time to browse through countless posts to get the desired information.
For instance, if you have a parenting community and your group members talk about kids nutrition, moms lifestyle, makeup tips, weight loss post-pregnancy, and more, you can create sub-groups on each of these topics.
Kathy Gannon, who’s waiting for this feature to roll out in her Facebook group, shares some great tips-
“Set up sub-groups as very specific areas of interest for members. This way, they will still interact with your primary group.
You can set them to secret and invite-only, or even private, hidden and not allow it to be searched. Share its link with only your current group.
As for the sub-groups rules, I would set them the same as my main community in order to be consistent.”
📊Encourage people to join your Facebook group
1. Invite friends to join your group with a QR Code
Bid goodbye to the old-fashioned way of sharing your group link with others, encouraging them to join your group.
Because now we have – QR codes that you can easily copy or download and share.
Hit on the three dots right beside the search icon below your Facebook group cover photo, click on share, and select ‘Share via QR code’.
You’ll get your group’s QR code.
When people scan this code with their mobile camera, they’ll see the about section of your Facebook group and can ask to join.
You can add this QR code to all important places like event banners, e-posters etc.
P.S. This feature is available for both public and private Facebook groups.
2. Invite people to join your group via email
Hit on the invite button you see below your Facebook group cover photo, and you’ll get the option to ‘Invite via email’.
Click on it, add a relevant email address and invite the person. Finally, hit ‘send invitation’.
Here’s what the email invite would look like.
One of the best use cases of this feature – Use this feature and invite those people who have not yet accepted your join request on Facebook. It’s a subtle way of following up with them as it will serve as a gentle reminder.
⚡Fantasy games fun
1. Fantasy games
Facebook has rolled out a fantasy games feature for both iOS and Android app users in the US and Canada.
According to Facebook, “Facebook Fantasy Games are free, simple prediction games that help fans enjoy sports, TV shows and pop culture content together. These games bring the social fun of traditional fantasy sports to simpler formats that are easy to play for people new to prediction games, while still engaging enough for more seasoned players.”
Source: Facebook
Pick & Play Sports was the first fantasy game Facebook launched in partnership with Whistle Sports.
Facebook also announced its plans to release games (based on TV shows) like The Bachelorette and Survivor, sports leagues like Major League Baseball, and one made with BuzzFeed.
Please note that only Facebook group admins can create fantasy games, and anyone in the group can play and see the fantasy games played in the group.
🙌🏻New update in Admin Tools
1. Check top group posts and summary under Insights
When you access your Facebook group through the mobile app, and head to the Admin tools section, you will see a list of the top posts of your group. These are the posts that got maximum engagement in your group in the last 28 days.
As you swipe left, you will see insights summary, i.e. the total number of active members, posts, comments, and reactions over the last 28 days along with % increase and decrease.
If you wish to see detailed engagement, growth, and membership insights, hit the ‘see all insights’ button.
That’s all about the new Facebook group features 2022 for January and February.
Don’t worry if you don’t see any of these features in your Facebook group.
It’s a waiting game for everyone, and it’s totally on Facebook to roll them out in groups. Sooner or later, all new features will be available in your Facebook group too.
So, go ahead tell me in the comments below which new feature you liked the most!
You can also share your thoughts in our Facebook group, where thousands of Facebook group admins discuss this and more about growing, engaging, and monetizing their Facebook groups.🙂
Creating value in the lives of others with my content, little by little.✨
Working at Convosight, I do more than just wrangle commas. I’m passionate about innovating new ways to create super valuable and actionable content about Communities and Community Marketing at large, and sharing it with the right audience.
I also happen to manage a global community of power admins on Facebook, and that’s where most of my learnings come from.
Do check out my latest blogs and feel free to share them! 💛