New tools and features coming to Facebook Groups in 2018.

February 9, 2018- Facebook recently announced a series of updates regarding Facebook Groups and the tools that are used to manage them.

Facebook is finally taking some time to really work on Group features, recognizing that the community aspect of these groups serve a higher good. Their first big announcement was in regards to a new Facebook Community Leadership Program which will seek to award funds for big ideas that serve unique needs.

They have announced a new, $10 Million Program aimed at increasing the effectiveness of Facebook Communities:  5, $1 million awards to be dedicated to fund ideas that cater to the community and serve unique needs as well as 100, $50,000 awards to leaders of communities that focus on specific, unique initiatives. These awards will also include things such as training, new tools for helping to manage the community, etc.

Interested in these awards? Go to https://communities.fb.com/ for more info.

The second big announcement that Facebook made about Groups was that they would be adding 4 new features for admins:

1. A new Admin Tools Hub which will feature all of the admin tools in one place and an easier way to navigate the ways the group can be administered.

2. Group Announcements which will include several posts in a grouped setting and pinned to the top of the group. You can schedule announcements ahead of time, add photos to them and they will give admins a lot more flexibility in how those announcements look.

3. New personalization features to give your Group an even more dynamic and appealing look. This will include picking out a color that will be shown throughout the group.

4. The best feature by far is the new Rules feature which will give admins a better way to communicate rules to members. They will have their own space, always visible on the group. Incoming members will also be shown the rules when they join. Rules will become a more prominent feature for the community.

Facebook now tells admins how many people a page post is being "served" to.

In an apparent move to be more transparent about Facebook's Newsfeed algorithm, it appears that the text that shows to administrators under each Facebook page post has changed.

It used to read, "x number of people saw this post" and now it reads, "This post was served to x number of people".

As a page administrator for many high profile pages (and low profile pages for that matter), I can say that this is somewhat a relief.  I can't tell you how many people would ask me why their entire population wouldn't "see" a post that we put out on the page. Many times we were asked if we could do anything to make it better, as though it was something we were doing wrong, until we explained Facebook's Newsfeed Algorithm.

Now it is more apparent that Facebook is choosing which of our content to "serve" up to the people who have liked the page and which content is doomed to sit stagnant on our timeline.

There is hope however, besides the apparent "Boost Post" option where you pay Facebook to make sure your content gets into everyone's newsfeed, and that is to post smart.

Facebook's newsfeed algorithm is based on people's "likes and interests" which they fill out when they create a profile.  It also looks at what types of content people engage with not just on your page but on other pages as well. If you have a tendency to click on video links, then you are going to get a LOT more video links in your newsfeed.

If you have an important message to get out to your followers, you should create content that is in alignment with the best posting types on your page, as shown by your Facebook Page insights.

Here's how:

In this case, it looks like our links are being served to the widest audience, so we should continue with this trend. That is great news since we will soon be starting a website for this page.

Interesting also is that our regular status updates (without images or links) get served to the second widest audience, and photos are a close 3rd.

You can also click the "Top Posts from Pages You Watch" to see how other pages' content is being "served" to their audiences.  Overall, I like this new language, as it makes a lot more sense to people about where their content ends up (besides making nice decorations for their Facebook pages).

What are your thoughts or questions?