Setting up your Facebook Parties for success

Hey, welcome back! Okay, so now that you know why you should party on Facebook and how to create them, let’s get down to the nitty gritty about how you can make them super successful, because of course we all want that, right? Heck yeah!

We believe that parties in Facebook groups truly allows business owners the ability to offer exceptional customer service to their audience. Groups promote relationship building by highlighting the most popular conversation to the top of the feed, which allows group members and party guests to really be a part of the most current conversation. That’s where you want to be as both a group member and a group admin so you don’t miss a beat.

Parties in Facebook groups also allows consultants the opportunity to be better connected with their party hostess and guests because group posts are given higher priority in Facebook’s newsfeed, which means that your posts are more likely to receive more views, resulting in more engagement and higher party sales.

You can create a Facebook Party in a Group in a few simple steps! 

Create a new group – on the computer, click the down arrow in the upper right corner and scroll to Create Group. On the Facebook app, go to your lower right corner (3 lines) to open your menu and scroll to Groups, then hit the + sign in the upper right corner.

In order to create your group, you will need to add at least one other member, we suggest a spouse or friend, not your party Host (yet!). You can remove them once the group is created, but you need one other member to start the group.

Group Name – It is important that the group name contains the name of the Host and the party date & time if you are doing a live party at a certain time.

Choose Privacy Settings – Public, Closed, Secret:
Public – is completely visible to everyone and people can join without approval. All posts are visible to any Facebook user and it does not offer the privacy that comes with more restricted groups.
Closed – Posts are only visible to group members. You can find the closed group on a Facecbook search but new members must request to join and have to be approved for membership. You can share a link to join a closed group and customers can click on the link and request to be added.
Secret – These are basically stealth groups! You cannot find them in a Facebook search and you cannot share a link to the group with potential members. The only way to join a secret group is to be invited by a group member through Facebook, which means you have to already be friends with them on FB to invite them to the group.

We suggest setting your group visibility to Closed so that your members feel that the group is more exclusive and they will be comforted by the security that their posts will only be seen by the group members.

Get that Facebook Group set up to PAR-TAY!

You will want to get everything all set up and ready to go BEFORE you add your party Host! Once you add her, she will want to start inviting guests immediately, so you need to make sure you are ready to receive guests. Just like a home party, you need to give yourself some time to “set up”.

Here’s what you do to make your party ready for their arrival:

Add Cover Photo – This should be something eye-catching and of course branded to your unique style. The cover photo area is prime real estate for your party, whether they login from a computer, tablet or phone, they will see the cover photo. Use it wisely!

2. Add Group Description – This is where you can put the details of the party like the party date, when it starts & ends, ordering links, anything you want the party attendees to know.

3. Adding Files – If you want to upload any files to your group like printables, recipes, printable order forms, printable product care cards, product guarantees, return instructions or flyers, etc. you can easily do so in a group and they will remain there for easy access.

4. Use the delete button – Don’t be afraid to use the delete button if you mess up when setting things up to keep the wall clean.

Connect your VIP Group to your party!

Linking your VIP Group to your Facebook party is a fantastic way to increase visibility and have your party guests join without even being approached! We love to see linked groups within a group as it’s a non-salesy type of suggestion where the party guest/group member can go and check it out on their own accord. Then at the end of your party, you can finish up with a post-post to remind them that they can join the linked group if they haven’t already for more sales and special offers, etc.

You can link your VIP group or niche group from the wall of your party group, there is a section at the top of the group called Recommended Groups, just click on “Link Existing Group” and choose your VIP Customer Group and hit LINK.

Customize your Group settings:

Now that your Group wall is all set up, we suggest that you change some of the Group settings to really customize your party experience. One of the best benefits of holding parties in a Facebook Group is the control you have over the settings of the group, because you are the GROUP MASTER! If you choose to adjust some of the group settings, make sure you do it BEFORE you add your party Host. To get to your Group Settings, click on the “…More” button at the top of your group and pull down to “Edit Group Settings”. Check out these great settings:

Link to your Facebook Business Page – This is a must so that your guests can like and follow your business page. Just click on Link Your Page and a window will pop up with all the pages you manage. Choose the page you want to link and you are all set!

Create Custom Web Address – Rather than a long string of numbers, the group party web address could be https://www.facebook.com/groups/GroupName which is fantastic for search-ability and also to really personalize the Host’s party! She (or he) will feel super special and love to share their custom link to invite guests!

Membership approval – Choose who can approve members such as just the admins or any member. We suggest keeping it to admins as you don’t want guests to add friends without their permission – this way you can private message the pending approval to double check that she would like to attend.

Posting Permissions for members – you can choose that only admins (you & your Host) can post directly to the group wall, all other posts to the wall will be pending approval by one of you or leave it open for any members to post, that is totally up to your discretion!

Membership Requests: Ask Questions – This is an amazing feature to set up to ensure that your Host isn’t adding people without their consent. Ask them questions when they join like – How do you know (Host)? And – Are you excited to join the party? Or maybe – What are you interested in learning more about?

Make your Host an admin… or not!

Now that the group is all set up and ready to party, you can share the party link with your party Host. Once she clicks and “joins” the party, you can make her into an admin for the party too, if your choose to by clicking on Members (left sidebar), finding her name and clicking the 3 dots to the right, and choosing Make Admin.

Food for Thought: Seriously weigh the pros and cons of making your Hostess an Admin for the Party/Group, does she NEED to be the Admin? Does she even know what that means to be the Admin of the Group? We think in most cases, there is no reason to add your Hostess as an Admin on the party, she doesn’t likely know what she is doing as the Admin anyway, right? You are the expert! (Quick note – if she isn’t the Admin, she can’t directly add people which is spammy anyway!)

Pinned posts and announcements:

Once there are some guests who have joined the group, you are ON! Be sure to post some kind of introduction, say super nice things about their friend (the party Host) and share information. Many groups will have something called the Announcement feature from Facebook where you can pin up to 10 posts to the top of the Group wall that you want to feature. This is awesome for custom albums and multi-photo posts to show products as well as a post for how to place an order and any information that you feel is pertinent to the party. If you don’t have the Announcements feature (it is still rolling out), you still have the ability to pin a post to the top of the group. Hover over the upper right corner of your post you wish to pin and choose Pin Post or Announcement from the drop menu.

Create a unique script!

Creating your own unique-to-you party script helps you to show off your personality and really connect with your guests. Here’s a free printable to help you personalize your party and make it super authentic so you stand out and get those bookings by WOWing your guests! Download our FREE Facebook Party Planner Printable to get you started!

The best parties are relaxed and genuine, where the host is able to chat with their guests and answer questions on the fly. If you’ve ever run a Facebook party, then you know that behind the scenes can look and feel anything BUT relaxed! Copying and pasting text and images at specific times, engaging in real time and balancing notifications while watching the clock trying to nail the perfect delivery sequence can make a party stressful.

CinchTip:
CinchShare makes it easy to create and post to multiple Facebook parties in seconds! With CinchShare you have the ability to pre-schedule all of your posts for your party AND you can Batch Post and reschedule your party posts to a new party in less than one minute and use them again and again! We also have a feature that allows you to quickly find and replace the name of hostess, party links or any other words on the new party. Check out this video to see both features in action and have an awesome time setting up your Facebook Parties for success!