New Facebook group function for building strong communities

Meta has introduced new features for Facebook groups to improve communication between members, strengthen the community, and provide administrators with more ways to customize their appearance.

In addition, the company shared its vision for the future of the community on Facebook, concentrating the functions of groups and homepages in one place.

Below is an overview of all the content announced at the recent Facebook Community Summit.

More options for Facebook group administrators

Administrators can use these new features to make their groups more unique:

• custom made: Now you can customize the color, post background, font and emoji reaction used in the group.
• Feature set: One-click to open a collection of preset post formats, badges, management tools, etc. for their group.
• Preferred format: Choose the format you want members to use when posting in your group.
• Greetings: Create a unique message that all new members will see when they join the group.

Build stronger connections for members

Members of Facebook groups can use the following new features to establish stronger connections:

• Subgroup: Meta is testing the ability of Facebook group administrators to create subgroups around specific topics.
• Community chat: Communicate with other group members in real time via Facebook or Messenger.
• Recurring event: Regular events are held for members to meet online or in person.
• Community award: Grant virtual rewards to other members to recognize valuable contributions.

Screenshot from about.fb.com/news, November 2021.

A new way to manage the community

The new tool will make it easier for administrators to manage their groups:

• Fixed announcement: The administrator can fix the announcements at the top of the group and choose the order in which they are displayed.
• Personalized suggestions: Admin Assist will now provide suggestions on adding standards and more information on the reasons for rejecting content.
• Internal chat: Administrators can now create group chats specifically for themselves and other moderators.

Screenshot from about.fb.com/news, November 2021.

Monetization and fundraising activities

A new set of tools will help group administrators maintain their community through fundraising and monetization:

• Fund raising: Administrators can create community fundraising activities for group projects to pay for running the group.
• Sales of goods: Sell ​​the products you create by opening a store within your team.
• Paying members: Create paid subgroups, and members can pay to subscribe.

Screenshot from about.fb.com/news, November 2021.

Collection groups and pages

Facebook is launching a new experience that combines the elements of the homepage and groups in one place.

This will allow group managers to use official voices when interacting with the community.

Currently, the administrator posts to the Facebook group indicating that it was posted by the individual user behind the account.

When this new experience is launched, the posts made by the administrator will be displayed as official announcements made by the group. Just like how a post from the Facebook homepage shows that it was published by the homepage.

If the administrators of the Facebook page do not want to create a separate group, they can choose to build their community in a space. After implementing this change, homepage administrators can use the review tools accessible to group administrators.

This new experience will be tested next year before it will be available to everyone.

source: Meta news room

Featured image: AlesiaKan/Shutterstock