 Well, hi, hello and a warm welcome to this video where I'm going to be talking about how to start your own Facebook group as an artist. Of course running a Facebook group is not going to be for all of you at all And I totally understand that but for some of you this could be the perfect business and marketing strategy. If you teach art or you coach art or you do art therapy or you do art services You run art services or you want to share regular studio updates Then potentially having a Facebook group could be the perfect thing for you So in this week's video I'm going to just walk you through the simple steps that you need things to consider for putting together your Facebook group Don't forget to stay right to the end because I'm going to share a couple of secrets It's going to save you a whole load of time and if you're new to my channel Then I'm really happy to have you here super welcome If you love the content all about building your art business Then don't forget to subscribe to my channel and hit the bell to get notified every single time I post a new video Okay, so as we dive into this topic of Facebook groups for artists We have a few things to think about before we make that decision and go ahead and set up the Facebook group First thing to consider is who is your audience? All right You need to have a clear understanding of your audience and obviously the audience ideally needs to be already hanging out on Facebook If you're not sure about Facebook, this is the first video you're watching don't forget to check out this one Which is Facebook top tips for artists that will give you a bigger picture Overview of Facebook and how you can use it as an artist also gives you a few clues as to What you want to be thinking about in terms of your ideal audience The second thing you want to think about is why would they join your group? What's going to be in it for them because there's no point you're thinking all I know I'd like to do this I'll set up a group. You've got to be thinking about your audience your potential customer first Otherwise you'll set up a group and no one's going to want to join and that's not what you want The third thing you want to think about is what sort of content could you actually put into your group? So if you're really struggling to think about content, then maybe Facebook is not the Facebook groups I'm not going to be for you. I need to let you know this is going to be a little bit of work But if it could be a core marketing strategy for you and a way to grow your list and grow your audience Then obviously it's a really good thing to consider and by the end of this video I hope you'll be clear whether having a Facebook group is going to be right for you And then number four, how are you going to manage it? So if you're already really tight for time and you're thinking I really haven't got hours in the day to be doing Extra marketing things having a Facebook group is not going to be for you So you need to think about it. How are you going to do it? Could you spare up a little bit of time a day or have you got somebody that could actually once you've set it up Could manage it and run it for you Don't forget you can have admins and moderators and people in that group who can spend the time helping you out during the day So you could set it up and do the big picture planning and arrange the content And you could have other people doing the sort of day-to-day labor inside the group So think about how you're going to do that. All right, so after those things to consider We've given some rough answers. You don't need to commit right now by the way I'm going to run you through how to set up the group and at the end of the video You can make the decision is having a Facebook group really for me or not All right, so on Facebook, it's fairly easy to find the create There's creating various different places You can create all the different sorts of things that we're going to go ahead and press the create button create a group and Then right there it's going to want a name and the name is really important So you want to make sure that you name that your group something. That's what we call keyword friendly so I often use the example of Courses that are watercolour superginners So perhaps you are that artist and you teach courses and you teach a lot of watercolour Make sure your group has got the word watercolour in it. So that's it. So that would be a keyword So my Facebook group for you guys is business for Artists all right, so we've got two keywords in their business. Who is it for artists? So I want you to really think don't just open up the group and give it some long Complicated title when somebody is looking for you to groups to join you want to make sure that your group title stands out And they're thinking all that's exactly what I need So number one create the group and give it a really good title Number two, but like the page there is of course a header image So use something like canva to create a nicely branded clear header image that lets people know again What is the group and that they're in the right place? So you know when we add things to our favorites and then we're like, okay I'm going back in that group needs to re remind them and refocus them. This is the group This is what it's about and this is why you're here So you put all of that into your header image number three you've got to give the group some description now Initially that about can be quite short and simple But it's got to be clear because that about section shows up when people are searching for groups So it needs to be very clear in the first sentence what your group is about and who it's for And then after that you can just again pad it out What sort of content you're going to be sharing in the group? You can also include a link as to where they can find out more about you or what you're doing to keep it short and Sweet but keep it very focused on what the group is about and what the group members are going to receive All right number four you can do to set up three questions So within the settings of the group and it all looks very similar So if you're used to using Facebook, you will easily recognize the navigation You've got all your different settings and all your different tabs down the left-hand side And you've got the little menu bar across the top underneath your image and you've got the feed You've got all the usual things that you have on a page or in an event or just on Facebook generally So down the left-hand side, you will see a variety of Tabs to set things up one of which is going to be questions member questions So click on that and here you can set up three questions This is your opportunity to find it a little bit more about your members So I like to make sure also that these are real people So I'll ask questions and choose the writing box rather than a tick So you might say how long have you been an artist great? Okay, you get an idea now whether they're a beginner or whether they're further down the line You might then in your second question like to invite them to where they can join your mailing list or get a free resource on your website Or find out more about you on your artist page somewhere So you can do something like that on the second question and on the third question You could just say, you know, so if you're if for example, we're doing the watercolour for beginners And I'm a watercolour artist I run workshops. What's your biggest challenge? With watercolor painting and they might say brushes knowing where to start It gives you some Information to help you with what you're going to create with your content further down the line Number five step number five. You need to invite some initial friends Now this is why in my previous videos about Facebook and links below It's really important to build up your friend base because you can invite friends into the group now Kavya here You want to make sure that if you go down that list to invite friends and it's easily done on your phone By the way Go to your group and invite and you've got the tabs to invite friends. Make sure they're people who want to be in that group Okay, don't just go down your friend list like that because they won't thank you for it So make sure you look and you think oh, yeah, that person that person fits my sort of profile I think they might like to go in this group. They don't have to accept it. They might look and go Oh, yeah, okay. That's great. Actually just what I need or not really not don't want to do that And they'll decline so you want to start inviting people because you want to get your group going, all right So number six, you want to put an engaging first post. So that's going to be an introduction post You know, where are you from? What do you what do you work in it? Post a picture of the latest thing you've done or whatever is relevant to you But make it make it simple pin it to the top of your group so that every time people come in They see that welcome post and they'll leave their welcome information and then of course from there It's going to be about that posting strategy It's going to be about putting content in on a regular basis getting the group going and of course doing things to grow the group further Down the line as well. Now at this point, you're thinking to yourself. Oh, this is perfect It's exactly what I need or you're thinking. No, I understand it all But it's actually not really what I need to be doing right now and need to let you know final thoughts All right, it is going to take your time to manage a well-managed Facebook group does take some time Now here's what I'd like to share with you that tip that can just help you with that So one of the things that we find challenging usually is content creation All right So what I'd like you to do to make your group a bit easier to manage is to come up with some post ideas and Schedule them all ahead of time so that you're not thinking. Oh my goodness me I need to post something in the group or I need to kind of get this thing going You can put your post together and then you can use you use the schedule button and you can just schedule them And this saves you huge amounts of time so you could plan out your month ahead and you could think okay I want this conversation going I'm going to share this little tip or resource I'm going to schedule a life for my members. I'm going to ask this question I'm going to post a an inspirational quote or whatever the different things are You create those posts and you click schedule and you schedule them out for the month And that is just a huge time saver and from then on it's about management And like I said earlier you could of course enlist help get people to help you inside the group So once you're setting it up, it's a little bit of time to set up But once you're done you should be able to manage it the thing you don't want to be doing is setting it up I'm walking away. We've all been there and I you know trust me. It's not easy to get it back up again So make sure if you're in you're all the way in I wish you lots of success You got questions about Facebook groups post them in the comment below as I'd love to hear from you Thank you so much for watching this video, and I'll see you on the next one. Take care. Bye. Bye