Private Facebook Group 250K members

[kingkongsfinger]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right area, however I have the above group on Facebook which discusses hi-fi repairs and electronics, membership is more than 250K and increasing daily.

Its growing so fast and Im not sure if its got any legs to monetise it or maybe introduce adverts to create revenue?

Has anyone got experience in this field please that can give me some tips?

TIA

[nebpor]

Facebook monetise the group, not you

You’d have to have a personal following and then create a private subscription group, but that’s not going to happen unless you have something of value … it sounds more like you are just the person who built the community

[StevieBee]

Yeah - as Nebpor says, it's not really the ideal means to monetise anything meaningful. These sorts of groups aren't set up for that type of endeavour which IMO is actually one of the few remaining virtues of Social Media in that they can be a space for like minded people to learn and share stuff without being bombarded with marketing messages.

I have seen a few groups that run what are clearly 'paid-for' product reviews but personally, I think this can devalue the essence of them.

While I'm here though.... could you recommend anywhere in Essex that could fix a Rega CD player?

[Frimley111R]

A group I am part of one on FB, evinstallers.

It grew hugely and the guy set up a dedicated website to monetise it. Not sure how he's doing but worth a look here www.ukevinstallers.co.uk

[StevieBee]

Actually..... thinking about, didn't Pistonheads start out as a group of TVR owners chatting about what's broken this week?

[Jamescrs]

StevieBee said:

Actually..... thinking about, didn't Pistonheads start out as a group of TVR owners chatting about what's broken this week?

Indeed.

Pistonheads has done very well to maintain it's user base (and I'm glad it has) because I recall around 10 years ago I was a member of a couple of decent sized Ford owners group forums where the owners did manage to monetise the forums but then Facebook blew up, people started setting their own Facebook groups up away from the Forums and people left in droves to use Facebook instead.

I just looked to see if the forums were still running but it looks very quiet and the parts which were monetised (technical forums) are now free, one has gone completely.

[Frimley111R]

Jamescrs said:

StevieBee said:

Actually..... thinking about, didn't Pistonheads start out as a group of TVR owners chatting about what's broken this week?

Indeed.

Pistonheads has done very well to maintain it's user base (and I'm glad it has) because I recall around 10 years ago I was a member of a couple of decent sized Ford owners group forums where the owners did manage to monetise the forums but then Facebook blew up, people started setting their own Facebook groups up away from the Forums and people left in droves to use Facebook instead.

I just looked to see if the forums were still running but it looks very quiet and the parts which were monetised (technical forums) are now free, one has gone completely.

That has happened to just about every car forum website to a lesser or greater extent.

PH was started so long ago that it had built up a huge following and, with such diverse topics areas, a single FB page could never match it.

[nebpor]

StevieBee said:

Actually..... thinking about, didn't Pistonheads start out as a group of TVR owners chatting about what's broken this week?

Yes, but the difference is that they hosted it on their own platform, thus can control advertising and everything else.

Facebook Groups are on Facebook platform, so you have to abide by their rules and use the features they offer

[Simpo Two]

nebpor said:

StevieBee said:

Actually..... thinking about, didn't Pistonheads start out as a group of TVR owners chatting about what's broken this week?

Yes, but the difference is that they hosted it on their own platform, thus can control advertising and everything else.

Before that (late 90s) it was a Yahoo group, and IIRC the first version of PH was called PetrolHeads.

[mattyprice4004]

Usually groups are monetised by sponsors - either by 'free samples' of goods, or paid agreements.
I imagine one of the many speaker / HiFi companies would have an allowance for this kind of thing given the audience.

[rfisher]

Simpo Two said:

nebpor said:

StevieBee said:

Actually..... thinking about, didn't Pistonheads start out as a group of TVR owners chatting about what's broken this week?

Yes, but the difference is that they hosted it on their own platform, thus can control advertising and everything else.

Before that (late 90s) it was a Yahoo group, and IIRC the first version of PH was called PetrolHeads.

Indeed.

Good times playing with Netscape 1.0 on a SLIP dialup connection.

Some of us still have all our own teeth .