How to Use Facebook Groups to Find Clients

Most freelancers and virtual assistants are hesitant to search outside of job boards. Afterall, the demand for services is inside the job boards, right? And we know for a fact that businesses who list job opportunities are ready to buy.

Job boards make it easier for freelancers to look for an opportunity. While marketing oneself through social media seems daunting for most.

But if you are not utilizing your social media, you are missing a huge opportunity!

Here’s why:

When business owners have a need, they first try to figure things out. In most cases, they ask questions inside Facebook groups.

That should be enough reason for you to be inside a Facebook group for client acquisition.

Look for an opportunity when a business owner’s question turns from “what do I do with this (tool)?” to “I need your help (with this tool)”.

Sure, it takes time, but it’s always worth the wait — you’ll see!

When and how does a business need turn into a business opportunity:

• Takes too much time to learn
• No resource
• No capacity
• It’s more cost effective and efficient to hire

So how do you get started?

Begin by having a clear idea of what services you will provide. Having a clear idea of what services to offer helps you focus your search on specific groups who are in need of them. If you don’t know how to choose a service to sell yet, check out my blog here.

Okay, now on to the best part.

HOW TO CHOOSE A FACEBOOK GROUP TO JOIN?

Start by creating a list of groups you’d like to join on Facebook. You can use Google Sheets or Excel for this. Follow this guide to decide which is the best Facebook Groups to join:

1. Choose a market you want to serve

Narrow down your search by choosing (one) market or industry and go with it for the time being. You can always change your mind later on as you gain more clarity on your VA career.

As a graduate nurse, I worked with healthcare practitioners as a Virtual Assistant. My clients were chiropractors, dentists, medical doctors, fitness coaches. I even worked with agencies whose target market are also healthcare practitioners.

It was years later when I decided to change my target market to software/IT industries.

2. Identify this market’s common tech stack

While the first step is still broad, this next one should be able to help narrow things down further. Once you have chosen a market, the next thing to do is identify tech stack.

What is a tech stack?

A tech stack is a series of software tools that businesses use. These are applications to manage clients, projects, teams, and businesses. These tools make business operations manageable.

Why do this, you ask.

I find it easier to identify my market’s needs if I know what tools they are having challenges with.

How do you identify tech stacks then?

I use a tool that identifies software and apps linked to my target market’s website. Or I ask inside the Facebook group I joined.

One other trick I do is, I go to job boards, search for job posts that are suitable for me. From there, I use the job post to search for apps and tools a business use.

What if you don’t have experience in any of the tech stack mentioned? Don’t worry. You can always learn new skills if you put time and effort in learning them.

I do a lot of management and marketing tasks and I use Zoho, Hubspot, ClickUp, Basecamp, JIRA, Slack, and Go High Level.

I use this to narrow down on my target market search.

Join the tech stack’s main groups ex: Clickuppers: Official ClickUp Group:

On Facebook, I use the name of the tools as keywords. Once I find their communities, I join them. And inside is where I look for my target market by asking questions.

Most groups require that you are a subscriber of their tech. That’s okay! Because a lot of Saas tools are free to try anyway.

By being a part of these Facebook Groups, you have a pool of experts and new users. The experts can teach you something while the new users need your help.

3. Join other groups related to this tech stack

Once you are inside the main tool’s group. Look for other FB groups that related to the first group you joined. Facebook has a great way of matching your profile with your interests — so this is the easy part. The best groups to join are the ones with 1000 to 10,000 members. Of course, check if there’s engagement otherwise, it will be difficult to build a network.

Now it’s time to do social listening!

List the questions members raise and see if you can find the answers so you can jive in the conversation.

Remember, the purpose of joining a group is to be as active as possible and as helpful as possible. And overtime build your group expert status!

10 DAYS FB GROUP ENGAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES

Engagement is the most challenging thing to do online since not all are extroverts. But even introverts can build networks!

When it comes to community engagements, I have a 10-day rule that I follow. Within those 10 days, I make it a point to engage with business owners.

Time is essential in business. That’s why I engage with purpose. I only engage with people who can become my clients in the future. This means, they have to be in the industry I want and they must be using any of the tools I use, too.

By doing this, I have more time to improve my business processes as well as my client acquisition.

If you’re wondering what I do within those 10 days, I do the following:

• Gather relevant questions from groups about how to use their tool of choice
• Create content around those questions and share with the group
• Answer questions of people provided they are my target market
• Follow them online and subscribe to their channel
• Celebrate their wins with them
• Great them on their birthday and work anniversaries
• If they send me a message first, I get to know their business by asking them questions.
• If not, I engage further with them through comments on their posts
• I add their pages to my favorites so my page feed will show their content
• I give them a shoutout inside the group
• I invite people to like their pages
• If our comments become a thread, I invite them to continue on messenger.
• I add them on my friend list (oftentimes, I don’t)

HOW TO GROW YOUR NETWORK

Another is to provide value. So how do we do this?

Value on social media gets thrown a lot and has now become a buzzword. But to provide value, you need to make sure your content will HELP someone. The keyword here is HELP SOMEONE.

It is not enough to join groups, you need to build your email list of people you want to work with, too. To do this, you need to reach that point when it is okay to add people to your friend list.

Most people on social media hate it when a stranger slides to their Facebook Messenger. We also don’t like having to deal with that kind of connection — it’s off putting and will become a waste of time.

You can invite your ideal client to follow your Facebook page, subscribe to your channel, or sign up to your list but only when it is appropriate. That means, you’ve engaged enough with their content. You are someone familiar to them. I get you want to sign a potential client right away but relationship building is having people to KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you. They need to know you (Awareness), they need to like you (Engagement), before they can buy or opt in to your offer (TRUST). Never rush into things — take my word for it.

Once I was so excited to bring in clients, I was so aggressive that I lost most of my clients in 6 months time. Yep, all 7 of them. Simply because I did not build a good relationship with them.

HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS TO BECOME THE GROUP EXPERT

Communities are a great way to collaborate with like-minded people. But it can also be chaotic and overwhelming. Not engaging inside communities shows you are not interested in what that group has to offer.

If you want to get clients inside a group — you stand out by engaging.

As a group member, be aware of community standards and community rules. I cannot stress this enough. When you don’t know how to follow rules and you’re stepping on toes — you can get banned for sure. Make sure that the group allows self-promotion. And I’m not saying you can share your links. Give pieces of advice or provide recommendations. You can also request for help and insights. And in turn, help community members.

If you want to stand out, aim to get badges. In Facebook groups badges can add credibility — I guess, it just does.

HOW TO COLLAB WITH THE GROUP ADMIN TO GIVE YOU THE ENDORSEMENT YOU NEED

Facebook Groups are amazing to get your name out there. For this to happen, you can collaborate with other group admins. Or ask permission from the group admin if you can teach the group once in a while.

Always be on the lookout for collaboration opportunities in groups. Shout outs, endorsements, mentions are a big credibility booster you need.

HOW TO BUILD YOUR SALES FUNNEL

While you’re busy laying your foundations, your email list, followers, community, value posts, and more. Don’t forget to create your tripwires.

Wait what?!

Tripwires are no-brainer offers that can get potential clients into your sales funnel. A tripwire does this one main thing — segment your list from buyers to non-buyers. By having a tripwire, you will gain insight on who can sustain your business in the long run.

In case you want ideas on what tripwires are, here’s a list to give you ideas:

• Quizzes
• Free Audits
• Free Consultation
• Free checklist
• Free Guides
• Ebook/Eworksheets
• Free templates
• Free Webinars and Events
• and more

After the tripwire, you can also, in the future, offer your services. If a tripwire shows you buyers, providing your main offer/services will show you your fans. And this is what’s truly important in business — to find your fans.

If you don’t have buyers and fans, your business will die soon enough. Because having fans means longevity in business. It means your services are needed and you will have repeat customers and clients.

It’s never too late to get started with Facebook groups. In my 14 years of working home based, Communities are my main go to for client acquisition. I’ve been banned from groups, too for not following community rules — so you need to be careful. Take time to get to know the group rules — it’s worth it in the end.

Finding clients inside Facebook groups may be challenging but you will get the hang of it eventually — so just keep showing up. The tips I’ve given here are the things I’ve been doing for many years now and they haven’t failed me.

I wish you all the best in your Virtual Assistant career! Love to know what you think and if you can add more to this list, feel free to do so in the comment section!