Monitor Facebook Groups: Guide with Examples & Tools (2022)
Does your marketing strategy include dedicating time to monitor Facebook groups?
Social media marketing depends on knowing your target audience as well as possible. Paying attention to forums and secret groups are great ways to do so. Monitoring a Facebook Group can help your marketing plan in many ways that you’ll read below. However, it’s common knowledge that business owners and SEO specialists don’t have the time to monitor a news feed page themselves.
In other words, you need to get insights from your Facebook group posts and their active members. Therefore, you need to turn to competitive intelligence, specifically to monitoring systems.
Table of Contents
- Can You Monitor Facebook Groups?
- Why Should You Monitor Facebook Groups?
- How Can You Monitor Facebook Groups In 3 Different Ways
- 4 Examples of Facebook Group Keyword Alerts
- 5 Tools to Help You With Facebook Group Monitoring
Can You Monitor Facebook Groups?
The short answer would be negative. You cannot fully monitor a Facebook group, in the way you’d monitor a Facebook page or a Twitter keyword.
However, if you’re interested in tracking important marketing data from active group members, there are a variety of methods you can follow to get valuable insights.
To begin with, there are two types of groups: Open and closed groups. Due to data access restrictions, in order to get metrics from a Facebook group, it has to be public. The only way to monitor a private group is to be one of its group admins.
Perhaps you’re wondering if creating a group page for your brand is worth it. Or even why bother tracking public groups.
Let’s see how this technique would benefit your marketing strategy.
Why Should You Monitor Facebook Groups?
There are more than one ways in which this type of social media monitoring could be beneficial for your business.
Some of the most common use cases for FB Group Monitoring are
- Harmful activity detection
- Crisis and community management
- Real-time notifications for better customer care
- Insights of your audience’s opinion on your brand
Moreover, top posts of your Facebook group point you in the right direction when you’re trying to generate leads. For instance, social listening will let you know what keywords are trending right now. Similarly, it will help you with your target audience searching.
Meanwhile, you’ll be able to build your own brand communities and track their evolution. Furthermore, there’s always room for engagement, reach, and interaction measuring. After all, content optimization according to your audience’s preferences is vital.
Plus, the marketing field of closed groups is an underestimated niche online territory. There’s a big chance that your competitors have not been monitoring or even created such community-building platforms. It’s another opportunity to outrank them.
How Can You Monitor Facebook Groups In 3 Different Ways
We’re not talking about tracking normal Facebook posts, but looking into group activities and private group posts.
As we mentioned earlier, secret groups are harder to monitor, but there’s always a way or two.
In short, currently, there are three ways in which you can track your Facebook group:
Way #1: Using a Facebook Group Monitoring Tool
Above all, the easy way is always to turn to an online tool to do the job for you.
Do you want to comprehend how a tracking system would work with your Facebook group? The monitoring process would be the same as in any other platform, such as LinkedIn or Twitter. However, keep in mind that it would still be needed for you to be at least one of the group admins.
Most competitive analysis tools come with a pricing plan and are often considered as a marketing cost for your company. On the other hand, they are the best way to get accurate results fast. Most importantly they work for your marketing strategy, letting you focus on other parts of your business. When the process ends, you receive results in the form of reports, metrics, and graphics to help you understand better.
There’s a chance you’re not familiar with social media monitoring tools. If you want to understand the way a graphic report works in general, here’s an example from Mentionlytics.
Even if we’re used to associating social listening with public social media platforms, there are a few tools for you. The following tools are all accessible online and claim to specialize in Facebook group monitoring.
- Groouply
- SocialFixer
- Pinchr
- Grytics
- groupstracker.com
More details on each tool will follow later in the article.
Way #2: Using Keyword Notifications and Basic Settings
Social media monitoring tools are mostly centered around keywords and the users’ potential reach, engagement, or sentiment over them.
This concept can be applied to your FB group activity tracking in an easy way. Just go to your group settings and turn on notifications.
Certainly, you can test which keywords work for your cause or even manage specific reactions if you set the correct keyword alerts for your brand community. For example, choose a number of negative keywords to handle tough customers or unfortunate situations.
You can choose to enable notifications for all posts, highlights, or friends’ posts. FYI, notifications are below your group’s cover photo in most cases. If you’re managing a professional group though, you probably want to get notified for every post.
Furthermore, if you want to detect activity in the comment section, you can turn on notifications for specific posts as well.
To enable Keyword Alerts:
- Visit your Admin Tools
- Select keywords you’d want to be notified for. Don’t forget that only admins can add keywords
- Every time a post or comment features a keyword from your list, all admins and moderators will be alerted.
Additionally, you can use the platform’s fundamental settings to check every new post or member request. Use notifications so that at least one of the group’s moderators can monitor new activity and act fast.
Plus, have we mentioned how easy it is for you to create those custom alerts? Whether you’re logging in to your group via iOS or Android, Facebook’s basic settings are available to everyone.
Read more details on group notifications down below. Similarly, we have included a number of keyword alert examples to help you understand the process better.
Way #3: Using various Facebook sections that provide insightful data
Another way of looking at your marketing progress is by measuring your growth data. Similar to keyword notifications by Facebook, there’s a free option for you to check your group’s performance.
Unfortunately, since June 30, 2021, Facebook Analytics is no longer available as a free metrics option. Nevertheless, you can manage your FB Group using multiple free tools provided by the platform itself.
If you’re looking for the most professional option, I’d recommend Meta Business Suite. Its design makes it easy for you to check both Facebook and Instagram metrics in real-time. Also, you’ll be able to look at your Facebook page’s reach, your post’s engagement, and your group members’ demographics. In other words, get to know your potential customers behind their Facebook accounts.
How is that helpful? Understanding what your followers want helps you improve your performance on your social profiles.
Sometimes, however, the simple way is the best way. In other words, if your Facebook group is still small and growing, try using Facebook Group Insights. Be at the top of your game, by checking your target audience’s preferences, your channel’s growth, and your posts’ performance. You’ll be surprised by the number of details you can read about your followers. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find even a couple of low-level influencers among your audience.
Last but not least, if you’re a creator you might want to check out Facebook’s Creator Studio. In short, it’s a section inside the platform that was designed specifically for your type of community building. In addition to regular metrics, the Creator Studio gives you helpful information about monetization. So, if you’re creating content or managing these types of groups for a living, make sure to check this tool.
Don’t forget that all of the tools described above are user-friendly and provide social media accounts with step-by-step instructions. Additionally, they’re available to everyone, as long as they’re at least one of the group’s moderators.
4 Examples of Facebook Group Keyword Alerts
As promised before, we’re here to look closer at some of the keyword notifications you can set up for your group.
Firstly, make sure you have tested multiple use cases and created a ranking of your own priorities. To clarify, we’ll be talking exclusively for four different types of instances you’d likely want to track in real-time. However, this doesn’t mean that the list stops there.
Here are some keyword alerts examples:
Example #1: Abusive Language
In today’s climate, you don’t want to violate community standards. Likewise, you ought to create a safe environment for all of your group members.
In other words, your moderators need to detect and delete posts that contain politically incorrect, offensive, or even abusive language.
Try to create exact alerts for popular cuss words or even terms that your brand’s philosophy finds unacceptable.
This type of proactive work makes it easier for you, your moderators, and your group members.
Tip: Make sure to message the Facebook accounts that violated your language policy. Try to connect with them, ask them about the reason behind their post. Above all, try maintaining an honest, polite, and fruitful relationship with every potential customer.
Example #2: “Refund”
Crisis management is one of the most important reasons to start monitoring your secret group.
Every business struggles with handling tough customers. However, the best way to deal with a situation like this is to react as soon as it happens. In addition to showing you can be professional and take responsibility, you can attempt to minimize the potential damage.
Base your keyword picks on your brand’s nature. For instance, set up an alert for every post or comment that contains the word “refund”. As a result, every time a customer talks about wanting to get a “refund”, you’ll be notified. After that, you’ll be able to talk to the user to find out what’s wrong or how you can help.
Example #3: “Help”
Above all, it’s important to cultivate a real relationship with your group. That’s the reason you chose to create a group, after all. To build a community.
Say, for example, that someone has a question about one of your products or another query that you could answer. Setting up a “Help” keyword alert will allow you to be the first viewer of the post. Subsequently, you’ll be able to contact them and actually help them!
Tip: Another fun way of incorporating personal relationships into your monitoring system is to create a “Happy birthday” keyword alert. This way, your moderators will know when someone wishes a member a “Happy birthday” and proceed to wish them too.
Example #4: Your Brand Name
Our final use case examines your own brand and the perception that the users have of it.
As discussed earlier, group members are previous, current, or potential future customers of your business. So it’s important to know what they think of your brand, products, philosophy, or even personnel.
This might seem close to the second example, but it’s different. When it comes to your brand image, you only want to type your brand name in the search bar. Take the time to look at what the majority of the members are saying about you and make sure to check comments as well.
As mentioned above, these are only a few of the use cases we consider important. In other words, you need to decide on why you need social listening for your secret group and business.
5 Tools to Help You With Facebook Group Monitoring
The solution of turning to a monitoring tool was briefly mentioned before in the article.
In this section, we want to take the time to name some of the tools we feel could be useful for your business. We decided on listing 6 tools, but don’t hesitate to search for more.
So what are some of the best online tools that can help you monitor Facebook groups?
Tool #1: Groouply
Firstly, we need to start with a tool that was created to work specifically with Facebook groups.
Suitable for brands, marketers, and community managers, Groouply specializes in Facebook groups analysis, providing detailed and easy monitoring. What’s important is its ability to track posts, comments, and links in both closed and open groups. Moreover, it doesn’t need you to install any apps and stays away from using your Facebook account.
Groouply provides its customers with 2 pricing plans:
- Pro ($25/group per month)
- Enterprise (Plan open for discussion)
Tool #2: Pinchr
If you want to acquire a cheaper professional choice, we would recommend checking Pinchr.
Offering the basic and simple features of a monitoring tool, Pinchr is the perfect choice for small companies. You can manage your Facebook group through the tool’s website or its Facebook App.
When it comes to pricing, Pinchr offers a free solution that covers the monitoring of one group. Furthermore, you can monitor an unlimited amount of groups, using the Pro plan ($4,99 per month).
Tool #3: Grytics
Another tool that prioritizes community building is Grytics.
Measuring mostly members’ engagement, Grytics is the perfect solution for community managers and workplace environments. Its system offers insights and analytics in the form of user-friendly reports. Certainly, it’s a verified way of managing and improving your Facebook groups’ content.
Grytics provides its customers with 3 subscription plans:
- Standard ($99 per month)
- Advanced ($199 per month)
- Enterprise (Custom)
Tool #4: GroupsTracker
Do you wish to monitor private groups without being one of the admins?
GroupsTracker tracks keywords on both public and private groups. In fact, you can be notified of keyword mentions in secret groups, even if you’re not their administrator.
This comes in handy particularly when you search to increase your target audience. Just pick the groups you want to monitor and add your services as a keyword.
GroupsTracker’s pricing plans include a free run and the following plans:
- Business ($5/group per month) that focus on public groups
- Enterprise ($10/group per month) that monitors both public and private groups.
Tool #5: SocialFixer
Our last pick is a free web extension for Facebook.
Social Fixer is a plug-in for Chrome that helps you manage your Facebook in general, from your news feed to your groups. At first, it was designed to hide or delete content you don’t want to see. Subsequently, it became suitable for businesses as well.
Social Fixer gives you the option to create filters for keywords and track your group’s activity in a simple way.
Since we’re talking about a new process, keep in mind that you need to contact any of these tools’ executives. Facebook groups are a niche platform when it comes to monitoring, so our advice is to ask the managers. There’s a chance your needs cannot be met, so you should know from the beginning.
Now Over to You
We tried answering some of the most frequently used questions about Facebook group monitoring.
Now it’s your turn to do your research. Try checking some of the previous tools online or search for new ones. Moreover, keep in mind that most of what is discussed above changes quite often.
Furthermore, don’t forget to stay updated and look into what Facebook groups can do for your brand. Meanwhile, keep tracking your brand’s performance on other social profiles, using social media monitoring tools, such as Mentionlytics.
Originally posted on Mentionlytics: https://www.mentionlytics.com/blog/monitor-facebook-groups
