Why We Closed the Being Boss Facebook Group

Kathleen Shannon 0:02
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Emily Thompson 0:29
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Kathleen Shannon 1:10
All right, what are we talking about today?

Caitlin Brehm 1:13
Well, we've closed the being boss Facebook group. And at the time of this recording, we didn't quite do it yet. But we anticipate a lot of questions. So let's talk about why. But then also if we have listeners who do have Facebook groups, or want to start Facebook groups, maybe best practices from what we've learned,

Kathleen Shannon 1:34
I feel like this could be a full hour long episode, we've spent so much time behind the scenes, one growing and cultivating our Facebook group and then to deciding how to best use the Facebook group and then three deciding to shut it down like this group has taken so much of our time and energy, dare I say away from what matters, but that's why we're shutting it down. So just to start from the beginning, we started a Facebook group for being boss because we wanted to create a place to continue the conversation with our listeners. And this was in whenever we launched the podcast in 2015. So that's the first thing to acknowledge is that a lot of things have changed in just a few years. And we are all about changing our minds and doing what best serves us and our community. So in 2015, the best option at the time was to create a Facebook group to continue the conversation is started really small. I remember whenever I grew to 1000 people, we were like, Oh my gosh, there's 1000 people in this thing, then it grew to 5000 10,000 15,000. As of closing it, we have over 25,000 members. And that's part of the problem.

Emily Thompson 2:45
Right? I mean, holding space for all of that has been pretty taxing on not only us individually, though, we've tried very much to pull ourselves out of the Facebook group as much as possible, but also on our team as a whole at running that Facebook group literally costs us money and not the kind of money that we see a return on but the kind of money we see going down the drain, where we have people we do have people really fantastic people who've been moderating it for free as a way to give back to us and our community. But whenever it comes to issues that need to be addressed by the team, I mean, we're literally paying people to figure out why someone's post got submitted as spam. Or if someone didn't pay for someone else's services, should those people be kicked out or whatever it may be, it's caused a lot of there's been politics to it in a way that have drained our resources, both financially and emotionally, in ways that we were not wanting to show up in those ways. So there have been lots of reasons why we've decided to close this Facebook group. But the biggest one being that the people who are connecting with us who that takes us back to that original reason of why it was that we were creating the Facebook group was to connect with the people who were listening to the podcast, and the 25,000 people in that Facebook group. There are so many people who don't even know what being bosses that there is a Facebook or they just see it as a marketing tool. And though we're glad

Kathleen Shannon 4:20
Can we talk about real quick how that happened. Yes, because it might be a best practices or something to think about if you are wanting to start a Facebook group is that if your group gains in popularity of Facebook will promote it. So people will start seeing in their sidebar groups you might be interested in. And I think that being bossed showed up at one point. And so yes, we have 25,000 people. But that metric doesn't matter if not everyone is engaged in the way that our community the way that our core community likes to engage, which is like really meaningful, positive, constructive connections.

Emily Thompson 4:54
Absolutely. So since then, we have found other ways that we can have those people connecting with you Either and with us and Facebook has not been the best place or has not turned into the best place for that to happen. So whether that's been the being boss club house or the being boss vacations, these are the people that we started the group for almost three years ago. And these are the people who are no longer using the Facebook group because it's gotten so big. But these are the people who are showing up in the other ways that we're building into our brand, to foster the community and connections that we are here to foster. And in that way, the beam boss Facebook group has sort of fallen behind, it's sort of become like, you don't mean to call it the ugly stepchild. But in a way, I feel like that's kind of what it is, or it's like, it's like that gangly puppy that followed you home that you really don't want to feed and just want to take it to the pound or whatever it may be, where we created this thing is turned into a little bit of a monster. And though there are people who find tons of value in it, I'm sure that you can find tons of value in other places as well.

Kathleen Shannon 5:55
Oh, also, I just wanted to mention that we personally don't like using Facebook. So I'm not on there. Even Personally, I'm not posting photos of my kid on Facebook, like maybe every once in a while, Facebook used to be kind of more of that personal platform where you would connect with your friends and family. But for me, it's become a place where people are just regurgitating their political opinions and people are getting like really hateful. And I don't know, it just doesn't feel very meaningful across the board as a platform. And so not being there personally, also makes me want to disengage professionally as well.

Emily Thompson 6:31
Same, absolutely same.

Caitlin Brehm 6:33
Okay, so we have a lot of listeners, though, who do want to have Facebook groups or who do have Facebook groups that are working for them. And while it's not working necessarily for us, we're not totally bashing it that nobody should use it at all. So what are some tips that we could offer from our experience that might help other bosses make the most of their groups if they want to keep them?

Emily Thompson 6:57
Sure. I mean, we're still even having conversations now about starting another Facebook group. Even with all of that said, we've still had chats about, well, what would it look like if we were to start a new Facebook group, and I think for us, now, it's less about opening it up to the entirety of a community and that community being the entirety of Facebook, more or less, and instead really having a place where our close knit tribe and that that that smaller, more engaged community can meet up and make connections, and all of those things in a way that the current Facebook doesn't allow that to happen. However, with all of that said, there are lots of other platforms out there. And so Facebook is no longer the default. There are other places where this works as well. And I've had this exact same conversations with people who run Facebook groups, for example, with their online courses, that find, find the platform as a really great way to add that additional community support community component to the offerings that they are already selling to their people. And it works really great in some places. And it doesn't work really great in other places. And I think the key here is to look at the platform, look at the the things that offers you in terms of functionality and connection, and those sorts of things and see if it fits what you need. Facebook does fit a lot of needs. I think it's a great platform for a lot of things. But Facebook no longer fits our needs as closing the Facebook group, the being boss Facebook group does not mean that everyone should leave their Facebook groups and close them all down by any means. But maybe it it can be a prompt for you to look at your Facebook groups or Facebook as a potential platform for your groups to see if it really is the right fit or just the fit you fall into because everyone else is using it.

Kathleen Shannon 8:45
I have some really specific tactical recommendations that I would make around or if I were to start a new Facebook group today, here's what I would do. One, I would make an invite only to my newsletter list. So you listeners, if you are interested in being boss Facebook group, make sure to get on our newsletter list because we're only opening up to people on our list. Now Facebook has this really cool feature now with Facebook groups where you can enter a password. So I do have a Facebook group for the braid method ecourse and it's not super engaged. So this is an example where I have a 25,000 person Facebook group that's booming that we shut down, that's being boss. And then I've got another one for a program that I sell for additional community support and it's not super duper active. And so you just also never know how these things might turn out. So don't be relying on what you're seeing other people do or like how it's working for them because it's not necessarily an indicator of the success of what you'll experience or not experience. Anyway. So I do a newsletter invitation with a password. So Facebook to this cool thing where whenever people request access to a group. I was before like cross checking emails for my program, or like kind of digging through and like looking at their page and making sure that they're not spam accounts or whatever, where they can enter a password. So that's what I would do send people a newsletter with a password to join the group. I would also really keep it small and engage. So I don't know how small to keep something like whether you put a limit on that is it 1000 people? Is it 100 people, but I am in this like, Facebook group that's kind of like a mom of like a an entrepreneur moms group. And it is the only mom group that I am in on Facebook. And it's super engaged, highly entertaining, everyone's really positive and connected. And I love it. It's like 115 people, it feels perfect. So I would say keep it small and engaged, whatever that means for you. The next thing is enforcing clear policies from the get go. Now this is something that I have super mixed feelings on. We have never been like the police in our Facebook group where people might say is this post allowed deleted? If it isn't, we are super open to people selling what they have to sell. But the general idea is to give more than you take. And that was one of our policies is to give more than you take. So people would have their posts deleted. And then Emily and I literally have hundreds of unread emails in our Facebook Messenger, asking, Why did my posts get taken down. And we're like, we don't know, like, there are hundreds of posts a day, and we're not even in there. So I don't know why your posts got taken down. But I trust our moderators. Anyway. So I would actually now say make really clear policies I've even thought about in this something we thought about for the being boss, Facebook group is doing admin only posts, we're like, only the admin can start a post. And people can comment in the threads underneath. So whatever your policies might be, and definitely Google that, research it join some Facebook groups and see what their policies are. And then the last thing I would say is make it a part of your business model. And I'm not saying that you have to make money off of it. But you need to understand how you're being compensated. And people need to understand how to hire you, if they haven't already hired you in your Facebook group. So whatever that looks like for you, whether it's the top of your sales funnel, where it's just about engagement and awareness, or if it's, you know, in the middle of your funnel, where you're literally using Facebook to place ads. And so you might as well have a group kind of thing, whatever that looks like for you, I just figure out how it works in your business model so that you're not working for free.

Emily Thompson 12:33
For sure, I think I think to sort of wrap it up is you know, the being boss group is closing because it's outgrown us and we've outgrown it. And we're sure there will be lots of people who see it as a huge loss of resource. And on one hand, we apologize for that. But on the other hand, go find something else. The internet is a very large place with lots of places to play.

Kathleen Shannon 12:56
And, you know, thanks to all of you who did help make the boss Facebook group what it was, we do not take you for granted at all. And we hope that you'll continue to connect with us over Instagram. We do love some Instagram, and you know on our newsletter list, that's where we're hanging out and in person. That's what we're about. So we're trying to just make it a little bit more tight knit.

Kathleen Shannon 13:20
This minisode was brought to you by Twenty20. Check them out at twenty20.com/beingboss. That's t w e n t y 20 as in the number.com slash being boss.

Emily Thompson 13:34
Did you like this minisode Be sure to check us out on our website at beingboss.club. There you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss