Create If Writing

The Ultimate List of Free Courses

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Enjoy this big list of free online courses! Many of these are blogging courses or courses related to marketing or small, entrepreneurial businesses online. I’ll do my best to update this list, but often the course creators change things up. (updated 11-2017)

There are few things I love more than the combination of free and courses. FREE! COURSES! YES! Free online courses are popping up all over the interweb lately, which is good for you and good for me.

Digital courses have been around forever in terms of Course Live or Udemy, but I love the indie courses that run straight from one person to YOU.  I hadn’t seen a list of all of them in one place, so I thought I would create the Ultimate List of Free Courses for YOU! (And for me.)

Many of these free courses are sales funnels. That means they will have some promotion for a paid product within the course itself. If you’re a smart cookie, you’ll know how to say yes when you should say yes and say no when you should say no. (Learn when you should stop buying courses!)

I have tried to keep in quality courses with great value, but I have NOT taken every single one of these, so I cannot fully vouch for all of them. If you do take one and it’s full of smarmy or BS, please shoot me an email. (kirsten@kirstenoliphant.com)

I’m going to start with a plug for my own free course, The Free Email Course. If you want to learn how to set up and see results from your email list in one week, this course is for you!

If you want to learn more about courses, not just TAKE them, check out a few more posts and podcast episodes I’ve got for you:

And now…let’s get our inner (and outer) nerd on with a great list of free online courses!

This great list of free blogging courses will help you with your blog, social media, branding, and small business!

The Ultimate List of Free Online Courses

BLOGGING

Build a Profitable Blog from Mariah Coz of Femtrepreneur

Squarespace Course from Megan Minns

Beginner Blogging from Leaving Work Behind

How to Transfer Your Blog to WordPress from Espresso

Legalize Your Blog from Jade & Oak

The Part Time Blogger from Jade & Oak

EMAIL

The Free Email Course from me!

How to Build an Email List That Sells More Books from Chris Syme

SOCIAL MEDIA 

The Secret Sauce for Boosting Your Twitter Presence from Madalyn Sklar

Learn How to Get More Twitter Followers from Kelsye Nelson

5 Day Pinterest Power Course from Summer Tannhauser

Quick Tips for Selling Books on Facebook from Chris Syme

How to Find Your Target Audience on Social Media from Chris Syme

Pinterest Video Course from Oh So Pinteresting!

Facebook SOS from Kitz & Co

How to Use Snapchat from Tech Boomers

How to Grow Your Instagram Followers from The Quinskis

Instagram Authority  from Alex Tooby

Creator Academy from YouTube

WRITING

Grammar & Online Etiquette from Andilit

How to Use Amazon AMS Ads from Kindlepreneur (** I love love love this one if you are interested in running ads for your books on Amazon!)

 Plan Your Novel in 5 Days from Rachelle Rea Cobb

BUSINESS

5 Days to Your Next Biz Idea from Caressa Lanae

Launch Your Profitable Course Idea from Teachable

10 Days to Streamline Your Biz from Summer Tannhauser

How to Deal with Nightmare Clients

TECH/SKILLS

Free SEO Keywords Course

Get Started as a Speaker from Grant Baldwin

Free Digital Photography Course

Take Better Pictures from Image Maven

GRAPHICS/BRANDING

Free Design for Creatives from Pines Up North (look for the button below the first paragraph)

How to Create a Signature Style for Your Blog & Brand from the Branded Solopreneur

How to Create a Logo You Love from the Branded Solopreneur

PODCASTING

Free Podcast Course from John Lee Dumas

Podcasting 101 from ShePodcasts

LIFE

30 Days to Calm from A Life in Progress

Calm Your Chaos (Parenting an Anxious Child) from Lemon Lime Adventures

Ignite Your Faith from Equipping Godly Women

The 9-Day Collegiate Cleanse from Misfit Alexa

Divorce Your Story (Post-Divorce Recovery) from Lisa Schmidt

Letting Joy Guide You from Your Fairy Angel

This list of free online courses gets me so excited! And a little overwhelmed! Feeling the same way? Just pin it for later! Then come back and enjoy some free course goodness.

Have you taken any of these free courses? Do you have a free course I should include? Leave a comment and let me know! 

In Defense of 140 Characters – Why I Hate That Twitter Is Expanding Tweets

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I originally wrote this post in January 2016, but updated it in September of 2017 now that Twitter is expanding the length of tweets. I’d love to know what YOU think in the comments!

After rumors and conversations about this for years, Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter is expanding the length of tweets to 280 characters— double the length of tweets.

Already in the past year Twitter made more use of its space by not counting images and links and tags in tweet counts. But apparently these changes were not enough.

I hate this idea. (Said the grumpy old lady voice in my head, who also yells, “Get off my lawn!”) I don’t like change in general, but I have several actual reasons why I hate that Twitter is expanding the length of Tweets.

WHY I HATE THAT TWITTER IS EXPANDING THE LENGTH OF TWEETS

Short Tweets Define Twitter

Twitter used to be a innovator. It was the birthplace of hashtags and a space for creativity and so much more. For years now Twitter seems to have lost the role of the disruptor and innovator. It seems to follow rather than break new ground. There is less disruption and more falling in line. Small changes like favoriting stars to liking hearts and taking away share counts. Promoted tweets. An algorithm in the newsfeed.

All these, now combined with the expanded Tweet, signal the loss of the organic essence of Twitter’s identity.

I can already see how a longer tweet can help with sharing content. I’m sure I’ll use more than 140 characters…because I can.

But if we cannot count on Twitter to keep its Twitterishness, what makes it different from Facebook? Instagram? What makes Twitter TWITTER?? 

Perhaps holding onto 140 characters would help Twitter remain disruptive.
Tweet This

 

Short Tweets Teach Great Writing

Though Twitter is one of my tiniest traffic sources, it has been my number one place for connections. It has also become a great place to provide value by way of sharing helpful links.

But more than that, Twitter has been a fantastic editor. It is the strictest and best kind who culls away all the unnecessary bits and those excessive darlings I love. Twitter helps make me a better writer.

Hemingway would have loved the 140 character limit of Twitter.
Tweet This

What seemed to me a burden at first became a challenge. Varying sentence length in a longer piece like this is important. But the 140 character restraint makes me communicate with brevity and power. It makes me consider each word’s importance and how I can communicate grand ideas into a tiny space. I have to consider the difference between “the” and “a.” Did I NEED a “the”? Or could an “a” do? These are the kinds of questions you don’t have answer when you have unlimited words.

I realized how much I could say in a small space. I realized how often I was wasteful with words. Twitter helped me learn to make every word in a sentence count.

Yes, 280 characters is still short. But it’s DOUBLE the length. That’s significant.

On the flip side, Jenn Herman points out that this expansion may actually help us write better, since so many people were using slang or abbreviations to fit things into 140 characters.

Short Tweets Spark Creativity 

Writing in a short space not only forced us to be better editors, but it sparked creativity. Because Twitter is such a great editor, it forces users to not only come up with snappy, powerful tweets, but also has given rise to some truly creative forms of expression.

This post from Mashable shares 8 creative ways people used Twitter, from ultra-short or serialized Twitter stories to choose-you-own-adventure games. I also love these examples of creative brands on Twitter. My all-time favorite, though, is watching Alonzo Lerone share the best tweets from Wendy’s. (You’re welcome.)

Can we still be creative on Twitter? YES. Can we use 280 characters to accomplish the same things? YES.

But I really wonder how doubling length will ADD to creativity. Circling back to my thoughts about Twitter and innovation, how will more characters add anything more than length? This may not HURT creativity (though, again, I love the way brevity forced us to be intentional), but it certainly won’t add to creative uses. We just have a longer runway.

Short Tweets Benefit Engagement

Because tweets are so short, often this means more back and forth in conversations. You can’t say everything in one tweet. So you tweet. Someone else tweets. You tweet. You tweet again. And again. The conversation is way more of a back and forth.

And consider Twitter chats: if you’ve ever been to one, you know that it’s hard to keep up with 140 character tweets in this concentrated conversation! As Madalyn Sklar, host of the Twitter Smarter podcast and Twitter chat points out, expanded tweets are going to make Twitter chats way more challenging. 

Engagement will certainly change. Could it make things better? Maybe. But it will certainly have a massive impact on conversations.

Twitter is expanding the length of Tweets. But is this really an innovation?

Twitter's 140 character limit forces us to write with brevity and power.

In this digital age we all need to adapt. However. There is a difference between being willing to adapt and simply following what other people are doing. Or making changes that fundamentally don’t positively impact the platform.

Brevity has defined Twitter in many ways. Doubling the length of tweets doesn’t seem to be a change that will help Twitter to be a better TWITTER.

We’ll write more.

We won’t necessarily write BETTER.

We’ll write more with 280 characters. We won’t necessarily write BETTER.
Tweet This

Do you see pros and cons for Twitter expanding the length of tweets?

I’d love to hear YOUR thoughts! Let me end with my favorite tweet about this subject…

 

 

MORE TO READ ON TWITTER:

How to Get More Followers on Social Media

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Want to know how to get more followers on social media? I’ve got you covered. This posts is the third in a series on Why Your Audience Isn’t Growing. You should also read Why Your Social Media Isn’t Growing to see mistakes you might be making!

One of the biggest questions that people have about social media is how to get followers. No matter how many you currently have, we all seem to want to get MORE followers. And more. We can never have enough!!

I especially know what it feels like to be just starting out where you have under 1000 followers. I remember my first year on Twitter with something like 300 followers, feeling like I would never grow.

Getting followers feels like an impossible task. You need more followers so that you have some kind of social proof, so that more people will follow you, but no one will follow you without more followers. And I have found it to be true that once you pass a certain benchmark of at least a thousand people, it gets easier to grow.

Getting followers is kind of like a chicken and egg problem.

So let’s talk about how you get more followers on social media, especially when you are just starting out OR when you are stuck.

Note: This post contains affiliate links! That means at no extra cost to you, I will receive a commission if you purchase something through some of the links I share. 

Listen to How to Get More Followers on Social Media


You can listen right here or on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. Or keep reading below!

Want to know how to get more followers on social media? Try these simple tips and tools.

HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Before we even get into the specifics of how, I want to talk about the WHY. Specifically YOUR why. If you are not super clear on your why, you are going to struggle to grow your social media presence, your blog, and your audience.

Your WHY is your purpose. My background is in writing, so I like to think of it as your theme. A theme isn’t the beginning-middle-end of a story, but the ideas that run throughout, tying the story together.

For an example, my WHY is that I want to help writers and bloggers build an online platform without being smarmy. I love helping people connect with their perfect audience online, using all the tools and strategies that smart marketers use, but without the icky salesy tactics.

Knowing my WHY means that if I have a post idea that doesn’t fit into that overarching purpose, I don’t write it. Or I write it in a guest post somewhere else. Or on my other blog.

If you aren’t clear on your why or the audience you serve, you are going to really struggle!

Take some time to write out a clear statement of purpose. This should include who you serve, how you serve them, and what is unique to you.

HOW TO GET FOLLOWERS THROUGH CONTENT

Once you have your why in place, you can both create and curate content that fits under the umbrella of your why. In the second post of this series I talked about curating content, which is essentially the way that you share other people’s content on social media. I want to go even deeper on this idea of sharing relevant content.

Consider your perfect audience (see my series on how to find your perfect audience) when you are coming up with content ideas to create. In the same way, think about your target audience when you are choosing Tweets to Retweet or pins to share on Pinterest.

Ask yourself: Does this serve my perfect audience? 

When you share awesome content (your own and others), a really cool thing happens. People start to see you as an authority.

You become their go-to for news, trends, and resources. You save them the time so they don’t have to research all the latest trends or news. Sharing quality content will help you get more followers that are truly interested in you. That’s why it’s really important to share relevant content.

PRO TIP: On Facebook in particular, you need to not only consider the topic, but the kind of content. If you keep sharing viral videos because they get great reach, but you don’t CREATE video, this may hurt you in the long run. When you share your blog posts as links, your page is used to doing well with video, so the reach may diminish for link posts. An active page doesn’t help you if it’s active for video, but you are trying to drive traffic to a blog.

Examples of People Sharing Consistent Quality Content

Here are a few of my favorite creator/curators in different niches:

The Sell More Books Show – Each week Bryan Cohen and Jim Kukral share five big newsworthy items and three tips related to book writing and marketing, especially in the indie space. I want to know what’s going on, so I follow their podcast, follow them on Twitter, and like their Facebook page so hopefully I won’t miss anything.

Jenn’s Trends – Jenn Herman has a blog focused on social media, specifically Instagram. Even though I’ve temporarily told Instagram, “it’s not me, it’s you,” I can count on her to share big news I need to know about social media. I joined her Facebook group to keep up with what she’s sharing about social media.

Social Media Examiner – While this seems like a no-brainer because this is a hugely established site, I love Michael Stelzner’s curiosity and passion for social media. (You can hear this particularly through his podcast, where he seems genuinely excited and interested in the guests.)

HOW TO GET FOLLOWERS THROUGH CONTENT-SHARING TOOLS

Sharing consistent quality content is HARD. Especially when you are also creating content too. I really rock at creating content. I love it. Give me content creation all. day. long.

And while I shared in my post on why your blog isn’t growing that it’s not just about promotion, YOU HAVE TO PROMOTE your awesome content. If you are trying to curate good content from other people as well (which you should do), then you have even more posts to share and schedule. Promotion is a lot of work, so you’ll want some tools to help with that.

Note: Don’t forget that you can’t JUST promote. You have to engage with people as well! Read the previous post in this series for ideas. 

So what tools can help you get followers on social media through content sharing?

My favorite tools to share quality content-

Quuu – (Facebook & Twitter) This app will generate and autopost relevant content to your Twitter or Facebook feeds for you. Like most apps, you can use some features with the free version and then upgrade.

I honestly don’t LOVE pushing out content that I haven’t seen first. But they have a great vetting process for the posts that they take, so you will get great content!

Quuu Promote – This is a paid part of Quuu where you can submit posts to go in the Quuu feed. I’ve seen really great results from putting my posts in here. This means that when other people sign up for Quuu and autopost links, YOUR links go in the pool to be shared on a particular topic.

This has resulted in a good amount of traffic and also shown me what content is working well. Check out these two posts, both about email marketing. (For reference, another promoted post I did had 17 clicks from only 80 shares, as compared to the 300-something shares for only 8 clicks.) They don’t accept posts automatically, but look through each.

how-to-use-quuu-promote
Check out the difference in clicks with these two Quuu Promote posts!

Promo Republic – I love this social sharing tool because it comes with templates and stock photos that you can edit (think: Canva), but you don’t have to LEAVE the platform to share them. Instead, you create them right there, write your text for a post, then choose to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram (reminder, not autoschedule, since Insta doesn’t allow that).

They share trends that may help you come up with post ideas and you can create a queue of content that will post at optimal times. Get this on AppSumo for a limited time with my referral code (that gives me credit at no extra cost to you) HERE. 

Tailwind – I love this app for Pinterest! (It also does Instagram, but I don’t use it for that.) It has one of the easiest scheduling dashboards I’ve used. You can click a button to shuffle them all, choose the best time slots you want per day, how many shares per day, and even join tribes of other Pinterest users to promote each other’s content. If you use my affiliate link, you’ll get a free month to try it out!

Hootsuite – I have been using Hootsuite maybe longer than any other social tool! It’s very similar to Buffer, which a lot of people like, but because I have never seen a reason to switch! Choose which one works for you. You can manage up to three accounts with Hootsuite’s free plan, including Facebook (page, group, or profile), LinkedIn, and Twitter.

I create Twitter lists within Hootsuite and then can easily go in and schedule content on a weekly basis. (Though I’ve been HORRIBLE about this lately.) It clears the clutter when you just want to pop in and see what’s going on over on Twitter. This makes it easier to get in, engage and schedule, then get out without getting lost.

Iconosquare – Iconosquare is NOT a social scheduling platform and is strictly for Instagram. But it’s a really helpful tool to manage your followers and to see what content people engage with so that you can create more of the same. You can even track details like which hashtags performed well for you. As with most tools, you can get more when you pay.

Social Jukebox – This is a great tool to create a content library (or “jukebox”) of evergreen content that get shared again and again over time.

RecurPost – Similar to Social Jukebox, this tool will let you schedule posts to share again and again. If you don’t want to pay for Edgar or SmarterQueue, you can use these two together to get the max number of posts without paying.

PRO TIP: Remember to share your own posts with as much gusto and passion as you share other people’s posts. This tip comes by way of Paula Rollo of Beauty Through Imperfection and her Facebook Group, Actionable Blogging Tips.

This is why I don’t always love autoshare. I tested Crowdfire’s autoshare feature and chose blogging, social media, and writing as tags. NOT POLITICS. You never know what might end up being shared!!

HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS THROUGH FOLLOW FOR FOLLOW

I know that in the past year, the idea of getting followers by following people brings out the eye rolls. Especially on Instagram, people talk about getting 300 new followers in a day, then losing 294 two days later. (True story.) That’s a LOT of people doing it wrong.  

The BEST way to follow people to get followers on Instagram and Twitter is to follow people you are actually interested in, interact with them in a way that isn’t smarmy (ex: DON’T follow, then tweet at them telling them you followed and asking them to follow back), and then in a few weeks or month, unfollow the people who aren’t following you back UNLESS they are stellar content creators and you want to keep following. 

Give this practice a little more of a personal touch and a little more time to see it actually work for you.

A Note on Facebook

I have not mentioned much about growing a Facebook page here. There are a few reasons for this. First, this can be one of the harder platforms to grow. Because of the way the Facebook algorithm works, people often won’t see your content. Even huge pages have very little reach on posts. I’ll talk more about this in a separate post, because it’s a HUGE topic.

HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS…SPARINGLY

Facebook groups – Many blogger Facebook groups have threads on a weekly or daily basis where you can link to your social profiles and then follow everyone and have them follow you. You really want TARGETED followers, so these don’t always work well. But depending on your goals or while you’re trying to get past that social proof number, this may really help.

Giveaways – You can definitely grow quickly and with big results using giveaways. But you are more than likely going to end up with people who don’t care about you or your content. Particularly if you are giving away money or a gift card to a store. Try to be more targeted to your audience and give a great prize, but one that is specific to writers or moms or your audience.

Ads – You can run Facebook ads to get likes for your page, but this is something I would do sparingly. Facebook seems to drop your reach right after you pay for things to make you think you NEED to pay for things. So, realize this is an option in the ads manager, but don’t rely on this.

Remember the Context When You Are Trying to Get Followers!

If you are trying to get more followers on social media, don’t forget your overall purpose. Think of the kinds of followers you really want and the long-term goals.

Consider all these tips in conjunction with the reasons your social media isn’t growing, particularly thinking about the idea that you need to be SOCIAL.

What are YOUR tips for getting more followers on social media? Share in the comments!

 

Why Your Social Media Isn’t Growing

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Today’s post is all about why your social media isn’t growing. As in, why you can’t seem to grow your social media followers. It’s the second in a series called Why Your Audience Isn’t Growing. You can click to read the first post, Why Your Blog Isn’t Growing.

Social media can be one of the most valuable tools in your arsenal…but it can also be the most frustrating. It takes a lot of time, can feel like a part-time job, and sometimes doesn’t seem to bring in results.

If you are one of the many people stuck wondering why your social media isn’t growing, I’ve got some explanations and some tips for what you might do differently.

Listen to Episode 108 – Why Your Social Media Isn’t Growing


Keep scrolling to read the post! You can also subscribe and listen on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, I Heart Radio, your favorite podcast app, or find the audio on YouTube.

WHY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ISN’T GROWING

Here are three reasons why your social media isn’t growing.

You Aren’t Sharing Relevant Content

Back when I first started using Twitter and Facebook, I’d been blogging for a few years. But I NEVER shared my own blog posts.

Why? Because NO ONE DID. These social media platforms evolved to be a good place for promotion, but they didn’t start that way. Now many people use them ONLY for link-sharing. (More on that in the next point.)

Part of growing your blog IS utilizing the power of you social platforms. (But your blog still won’t grow without fixing the three mistakes we talked about in the first part of the series!) We should be sharing links on our Twitter profile, our Facebook page, on Instagram, and wherever you hang out online.

But if that’s ALL you are doing, you aren’t going to grow your followers on social media. Which means in turn that you won’t have as much traffic to your blog. You do NOT want someone to come to your profile and find that every post or even every other post is your own.

The Fix

If you really want to grow your social media platforms, you need to be a curator of content, not just a creator. Being a good curator means that you are picking and choosing things to share as a kind of collection or gallery. People often talk about the 80/20 rule: 80% of what you share should be from other people and 20% from your own content.

Ask yourself what kind of content would COMPLEMENT your own.

  • What links would add to the conversation you’re starting with what you write?
  • What other people are creating quality content in your space?
  • What words of encouragement or news do your people need?

Consider how you can curate a collection of links and posts that will reach your target audience. Share your own, but share links from other sources MORE.

You Aren’t Being Social

Social media isn’t always the best name for Facebook or Twitter or Google Plus or Instagram anymore. It’s often more like Self Media. You promote yourself. And, if you aren’t actually being social, you’re only talking to yourself.

If you aren’t having actual conversations with people on social media, you aren’t being social. This happens a lot when people automate their social shares. They use tools to send out links automatically so they never have to actually go ON Twitter or LinkedIn.

It also happens when people try the follow-unfollow method of growth. This looks like following a bunch of people and then unfollowing them the next day or week. (Um, that’s just smarmy, PERIOD.Stop.) 

Clearly, if you are automating everything, you CANNOT be social. Without showing up and talking to other people, you will not grow your social following.

The Fix

Automation is great (see this post on the difference between scheduling and automation), but you need to have conversations. You must be social.

This means that in addition to scheduling and automating content, you must actually show up on those platforms and engage. Here are a few ideas for how this can look:

  • Reply personally to people who share, like, or comment on your posts.
  • When you follow someone, check out their profile and comment to them about something in their profile that stood out to you. (If nothing stands out to you in their profile, why are you following them??)
  • Instead of just dropping links on your Facebook page, go live and answer questions or engage with your fans.
  • Join Twitter chats where you can talk to as many as a few hundred people in an hour.
  • Try an Instagram hop where people on a particular day join in on a hashtag like #itssimplytuesday from Emily P. Freeman or #fridayintroductions from Jess Connolly and Hayley Morgan.

This is not rocket science. It isn’t hard to do. But it also takes a bit more time and investment. Life would be wonderful if we could just step back and automate everything…but then we wouldn’t really make connections or increase engagement.

You Aren’t Laser Focused

One of the reasons your social media isn’t growing is that you are trying too many things at once. You are on five platforms, trying to manage all of them at the same time.

Each platform has its own quirks, social media sizes, audience, and best practices for how often to post. (See my post on Seriously Simple Social for more and a free guide!) Unless you’ve been doing this for years or have an assistant helping you out, it can be near impossible to manage all of the platforms well.

I also see people often having one post from a social platform automatically post to all the others. So if I’m following someone on Instagram, I might see their post there first. Then I see it on their Facebook page. Then I see it on Twitter. Then I see it on their Facebook profile.

Each platform has its own nuances. You aren’t going to get a ton of Instagram OR Facebook followers when you automate your Instagram images to post on Facebook. You’ll look silly when you have 11 hashtags on Facebook or you tag people and it doesn’t work because the original tag was on Twitter, not Facebook.

Don’t cross the streams! It is more work, but even changing a few things about your post (image size, hashtags or NO hashtags, description length, etc) can help it do well on EACH platform.

The Fix

Start with a focus. You may want to make sure you secure your name on several of the big platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for sure) before someone else gets it, but you don’t have to be fully active on all of them.

Pick 1-2 platforms you really like where your ideal people also hang out. Consider an overarching strategy for the kind of content you’ll post and how often. Set an alarm or set aside time daily or weekly to engage with people on that platform. Master the kinds of images and posts that do well there. (Again, get my Seriously Simple Social Guide for that!)

When you are really rocking 1-2 platforms and are in your groove, consider adding another. But don’t try to be in all the places at one time. You will have a hard time posting quality content on many platforms and

You Are Participating in Too Many Share Groups

Wait– shouldn’t we be using Facebook groups to grow? Yes. Ish. Facebook groups are great for connecting with other bloggers and getting our content out there! But share groups may be holding back authentic growth.

The kinds of groups I mean are those where content creators can post their links in daily or weekly threads. Then they are required to follow or like or share or comment on the other links in the thread.

While this SEEMS like a good idea, it’s really not. It might boost your numbers a bit. It might give you some social proof when one post has 20 comments. (Note: whenever I see a post now with more than a handful of comments–ESPECIALLY if it’s a newer post–I always assume these are from one of these share threads.) The problem with these groups is that you aren’t actually finding your target audience.

Instead of connecting with that busy mom or that just-starting-out author, you are connecting with another blogger. Who, outside of the group requirements, is NOT likely to become a superfan. If you are trying to work with brands, they have grown wise to this (especially about Instagram pods) and they are NOT happy.

It’s one thing to have a small group where you support each other and share content. (Like the content curation I just wrote about.) Follow-for-follow threads are another thing altogether. Required follow and share groups do not result in authentic engagement from your target audience. Period.

The Fix

Be wise in the kinds of groups you join and what kind of threads you participate in. Ask yourself what you are REALLY gaining from your participation.

  • Is the group made up of your target audience?
  • Will other people in the group help get your content IN FRONT OF your target audience?
  • Is the content you are required to share relevant and good for curation?

These groups are popular because they give a FEELING of success. Doesn’t it feel nice when you have a bunch of comments on a post? Don’t you love seeing other people share your content? If the groups you are in result in real engagement from your idea people, that’s GREAT. If they don’t, or if they require that you share content you otherwise wouldn’t, it’s time to rethink.

Can't seem to grow? These four reasons share why your social media isn't growing and what you can do about it.

Though many of these fixes are a bit more time intensive and require more of YOU, that’s the cost of real social media growth. A lot of the tactics people teach out there are just that: tactics. They are not a strategy. And they are not about engaged, authentic growth.

If you’re looking for the main reason why your social media isn’t growing, it’s likely because you aren’t investing enough of yourself. You are automating in order to create a Self Media that’s all about your links and not about real engagement or serving your audience.

What are YOUR struggles with social media? Have you seen some of these reasons in your own social media?

 

What’s Changing in Facebook Groups

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If you’ve been wanting to start a Facebook group, this is a good place to start! I’ll update with what’s changing in Facebook groups as it rolls out!

If you’ve been around for a while, you KNOW how important Facebook groups are to me! I wrote a post for Jane Friedman about using Facebook pages vs Facebook groups and have been steadily growing my Create If Writing Facebook group since I started the podcast in 2015. But things are always changing on the internet and some HUGE Facebook groups updates are taking place in 2017 that we need to discuss.

Like my reach dropping in my own group as it did on my Facebook page. GASP!

We’ll talk about the Facebook group updates, some educated guesses for what we can expect, best practices for using Facebook groups, and why some HUGE Facebook groups just closed their doors.

(And if you want to learn more about the recent changes in Facebook pages, you can do that HERE.)

There are major updates coming to Facebook pages. What you need to know about starting and running a Facebook group.

WHAT’S CHANGING IN FACEBOOK GROUPS

Facebook recently announced that is has a new focus: GROUPS. This will mean group insights, linking pages to groups, having suggested groups at the top of each group, asking questions of potential members as a vetting process, and being able to schedule posts. (See the tools listed HERE.)

While these SOUND like great things for group admins, this new focus may NOT be a great thing for group owners overall.

Unless you like the changes that happened to Facebook Pages after 2014.

What the History of Facebook Pages Can Teach Us about Facebook Groups

If you have had your Facebook page before 2014, you know why that date matters. In 2014 Facebook began rolling out changes that greatly impacted the organic (aka: unpaid) reach of Facebook pages.

Pages suddenly went from having a decent number of their followers see their posts to almost NO followers see their posts. I found this post on the Social Media Examiner from back in 2014 talking about reach— this was just the beginning of this issue for page owners. No one HAD to talk about reach before this, because it wasn’t a problem.

Before 2014, if people liked your page —> people saw your post. That was it. 

The change happened after Facebook started rolling out new tools and insights for page managers. Organic reach dropped as Facebook began to adopt more of a pay-to-play model. (As in, if you want to really boost your page reach, you need to start paying to boost posts.)

If we can learn anything from Facebook’s history, it’s that when Facebook focuses on an area and rolls out new tools, it means that changes are coming. Specifically to organic reach. (Check out this fascinating 2014 Slideshare of Facebook’s history, particularly slides 68-70.)

The Facebook Ads Explosion

Facebook may be about user experience, but Facebook is also about FACEBOOK. Particularly how Facebook can make money. Over a year ago, Facebook said that it was running out of space to show ads.

With more people than ever using ads, this means that Facebook needs more spaces to show ads.

Facebook has added messenger ads for pages (contributing to the rise in bots), but also has been testing Facebook in-messenger ads on the home screen.

For a long time I’ve also heard murmurings of Facebook moving to ads inside of groups as well. I think the new focus on groups means that we are not far off from this.

Facebook Groups Updates and Ads

Because Facebook is still rolling things out, it’s hard to know for sure what the paid piece will look like. But here are a few educated guesses based on what I’ve heard from other group owners as well as what I’ve seen.

  • Boosting Facebook posts

As Facebook rolls out features, sometimes they are there one minute, gone the next. When I have linked my page to my group (see this tutorial to do so), I have sometimes seen the option to boost my post IN THE GROUP. This has mostly been on mobile and isn’t always available.

I’m not a huge fan of boosting posts in general, so I haven’t clicked to see how this will play out. But the fact that I’ve seen the option indicates that this will become akin to boosting a post on a page.

  • Targeting within Groups

One of the larger entrepreneurial groups I’m in had a discussion a few months ago about targeting ads to groups. Right now as you create Facebook ads, you can target custom or lookalike audiences, people who like certain pages, or other demographics. I would guess that soon this would add Facebook GROUPS.

The debate inside the group was about whether your ads would show up IN the group or if you would just be seen in the newsfeed of people from a particular group. Some claimed to have seen ads inside of larger Facebook groups. If the Facebook newsfeed is running out of room, it makes sense for ads to show up inside of groups. Jenn from Jenn’s Trends agrees!

SO WHY ARE BIG FACEBOOK GROUPS CLOSING?

Several HUGE Facebook groups have shut down in the past month, just as Facebook announced these new changes. Coincidence? I actually do think so. But it’s definitely worth mentioning!

Melyssa Griffin archived her Facebook group, Online Biz BFFs, which hit over 70k members before cleaning out 1-2k people and archiving the group. This means that posts are still visible, but you can’t comment or post. She cited a difference in vision from the time she started the group.

Screw the 9 to 5 closed their 40k member Facebook group in summer 2017. This after actively building the group as their main focus and building a huge part of their brand ON the idea of building a Facebook group. Founders Josh & Jill opened a new group that has about 5k members currently. To join the new group, potential members must answer questions about what they’ll bring to the group and making clear that spammy posts aren’t allowed.

Kimra Luna closed her over 40k member Facebook group, Freedom Hackers, citing the Facebook algorithm as a cause. In her post she claims that no one can see HER posts and that when she creates a new event, her group members don’t get notified. (Read her full public post HERE.)

I think there are some takeaways from these successful groups that I’ll weave into my tips for Facebook groups below. But in short, I don’t think that these groups shut down because of impending Facebook-group-acalpyse.

HOW TO CREATE AND RUN A VALUABLE FACEBOOK GROUP

I have a few big practical tips for you as well as some takeaways from the large groups that closed down.

  • Be present.

While Facebook is rolling out a scheduling feature, scheduling may not be the best option. Groups are about engagement and connection. Nothing creates a disconnect quite like a scheduled & automated post asking for “conversation.” If the group owner can’t take the time to be present to START a conversation, it’s not really a conversation.

Facebook also has become more strict about outside schedulers and at least one group owner I know was banned by Facebook from using a scheduler in her group. I see plenty of group owners still scheduling with third parties (so FB seems to be dropping the hammer on this arbitrarily), but it alerts the group members to the fact that you aren’t THERE.

From the group member side, one of the issues with some of those larger groups was the lack of engagement from the group owners. Many people join to connect with the face behind the brand, but as the groups grew, the owners appeared less and less. That relates to the next tip…

  • Don’t just strive for numbers

The more people in a group, the more to manage. I remember feeling nervous and excited when my group went over 1000 members. It’s a great milestone…but at the same time, that means a lot of people I don’t KNOW.

The sense of community can change or get lost altogether. My group still has a great connection. People know each other. They talk. They support each other. It’s pretty awesome. (You can join here!)

The larger groups get, the more management they take, which increases the likelihood that things get out of control. Out of control? you say. Yep. Which brings us to point number three…

  • Moderate your group

Group owners don’t just need to be present. They need to set the TONE. Part of that means moderation. This part isn’t always fun.

Many Facebook groups just exist for promotion. And many people have taught that you should get into Facebook groups to find your ideal customers. What this means is that in basically ANY Facebook group, you’ll have a decent percentage of people who join and then immediately and frequently post links to their latest blog post/book/thing.

Each week I delete posts and remove members. Each week I have a few posts on the fence where I have to decide if I want to kick someone out or take the time to message them, sharing why I deleted their post.

(Want to NOT be gross and smarmy in Facebook groups? Read my post here.) 

I can’t imagine how many spammy, self-promote-y posts got deleted in those large groups that have now closed down. Several of them had team members and paid positions to manage the groups. In each of those three large groups, members could see a ton of spammy posts that still made it through (even temporarily), or thinly-veiled posts just trying to build a business on top of the hard work the group owner did to build the group.

It’s a LOT of work to moderate, especially as the group grows. Without that work, though, the value of the group goes down. You can ask questions now as people join the group, which is a great way to vet people at least a tiny bit.

  • Post as your SELF, not your PAGE

With the linking of Facebook groups, I ran a little experiment. When I posted as my PAGE (something that you can do when you link your group and page), my reach tanked. When I posted from my personal PROFILE, my reach was fine. If you are going to link your page and profile, this is probably the first way that Facebook is going tin adjust the organic reach.

You can see here that the top 5 posts for the month included NO posts from my page, Kirsten Oliphant, but only my personal profile, Kirsten Kiki Oliphant, and a group member. (Way to go, Roland!!) That’s pretty significant, especially considering I post daily at least once or twice. I spent almost a month posting as my page.

Once connected, you can toggle between posting as yourself and your page with a little dropdown arrow in the top right of the posting box. Now that groups have insights, you can do your own tests to see how your reach is affected!

 

So, should you start a Facebook group if you haven’t already?

YES. Or…maybe.

I do think that reach will go down as a pay-to-play system moves into place as it did for pages. This is the reality of building on someone else’s free platform. (So build that email list! I’ve written a great book for getting started if you need help.) We don’t know exactly what this looks like or will look like. But for NOW, Facebook groups can really be great if you want to build a community.

My email list is my main jam, but it’s kind of like a wheel: I’m at the center, having one-to-one interactions that move out from me at the center.

Facebook groups are a little more like those messy spiderwebs. I’ve done the work to build it, but rather than having all the separate spokes, the web of people weaves together and connects. It allows for COMMUNITY. Which is pretty special.

Need more resources on building up your FB group? Here are a few helpful posts!

Want help with your Facebook page? Here are a few helpful posts!

Questions? Thoughts? Comment below! I’d love to know your experience with Facebook groups!

 

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