Something exciting has happened on Facebook for business owners – Pages can now join Groups as members!
Previously, Pages could be linked to a Group, but only a Page owned by the Group owner could be linked, so basically, I could make a group all about social media marketing and link my business Page for Chicadita to it. It would be shown in the ‘about’ section of the group.
But managing a Group on Facebook is a lot of work and many small business owners really just wanted to join the Group as a participant, not run the whole show. Now, you can! There are some limitations, though. The biggest limitation to joining a Facebook Group as a business Page is that the Group administrator(s) must allow Pages to join in the settings.
This will most likely be found in public Groups, so as a business owner wanting to join a Group, that’s what you’ll want to look for to avoid this hurdle as much as possible.
How to Join Someone Else’s Group As Your Facebook Page:
Step 1 – Find a group that is accepting Pages
Use the global search bar in Facebook to search for a group topic that would be a good place for your business page to join in on the discussion. If you don’t understand the global search bar, sign up for my Facebook for Beginners online workshop here.
When checking for the Group’s permissions for Pages, look to see if it is a Public Group on the upper-left side. Currently, because this feature is SO new, when I hover my mouse over the ‘Join Group’ button, I also get a pop-up that lets me know this group is open to Pages.
Step 2 – Join as your Page
Click on the ‘Join Group’ button and you’ll get a pop-up asking how you want to join the Group. From here, select your business Page and continue.
Step 3 – Wait for Approval
After you submit your join request, you may find that some Groups have questions for you to answer about why you want to join – be sure you answer them! If the group requires approval, you’ll have to wait and see if you are let in.
Currently, if you are already in a group, you can look to see if this ‘Join Group’ button is appearing. If it doesn’t appear, you probably cannot join the group as your Page. Other social media people have suggested leaving the group and trying again, but in my experience, I will see the ‘Join Group’ button if I am already in the Group personally and want to add a Page. This is a very new feature, so expect some hiccups and changes as Facebook refines the feature. Have fun!