How Creatives Can Build their Audience with Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are thriving. With the increase of social media usage, people with niche common interests are finding ways to connect, exchange ideas, debate and even make money. They are also an incredible way for creatives to find and build an audience for their books, episodics, podcasts, web series music and comics. 

How does one find their initial people? How do they keep them engaged enough to stick around and recruit others? And how can creatives generate revenue with such groups? I asked these questions and more to one of the most thriving Facebook group leaders on the Internet. A band of 9 members worldwide who have come together to form a 110k member fan group for the hit television show, Game of Thrones.

Despite the series ending nearly a year ago, the group is very much alive, this Facebook group is thriving with engaged fans. From London to Kenya, this team includes leaders who everything from scientists to a Youtuber and from an attorney to a stay-at-home mother; all with a single purpose: to serve.

How did you meet each other? And how long have you been working together?

Uzma: Victoria and Hassan created this group in November 2016 and they brought Emmanuel on board.

 I was in another small Game of Thrones group with Emmanuel. The rules there were too strict and it wasn't working out for us, [so] Emmanuel asked me if I wanted to become an admin and I was happy to join in.

Later on, we also brought in Bürnadette Fick and Ryan. 

Emmanuel: I promised them a 1000 members in less than a month. And then within a month we nearly hit 2k members. Then, after a while we started to grow exponentially, we decided we needed more help. So we appointed some of our most active members to be temp admins. Out of them all we chose Burny, our angel to be the admin because she’s so full of ideas and highly committed. She’s been very instrumental to our success. Then, as we were about to hit a 100k and more of real life work came in, we needed more help.

Why do you do it? What do you love about creating groups?

Francis: Game of Thrones has been about community. I have been united with people from all over the world, India, Africa, the USA, the UK....synergy with people who view entertainment as I do.

As a graphic artist, we have had countless days where work - even with our [day job] bosses, has ground to a halt just discussing various plot points for Game of Thrones.

I admire the men and women who get to be child-like and immersed in a world different from their own. We all need healthy escapes from our reality from time to time.

That is why many Game of Thrones fans hated Ed Sheeran when he showed up in an episode cameo. It felt forced and jarring because it pulled fans out of the fantasy world they enjoyed. So did the Starbucks cups and what-not.

Uzma:  I agree with Francis. I love Game of Thrones but here [where I live], I barely know anyone who has watched Game of Thrones. And even if they've watched it, they're not as passionate about it as I am. So a group provides a chance for like-minded people to come together and share what they love.

And yes we can achieve that by joining other groups, which we were doing before coming on board with things. [But] I noticed some things which I didn't like. For example: some groups had ridiculous rules like if someone has posted something on a topic, the next person's post even if it's a similar post, but not the same, won't get approved. 

Or if we disagree with the other admin's opinion, our comment/post would get deleted or the members would get muted or removed for no reason at all. 

So, we wanted to provide a place where there was full freedom with minimum rules. We started with allowing all kinds of posts. We only had two rules in the beginning.

1) It should be Game of Thrones-related

2) Respect other member's opinions.

Later on, we had to add a few more rules, but these two are the core rules that drive our group. I guess the fans enjoy the freedom they get in our realm which isn't allowed in some other groups.

Ryan:  For me, the reason to make groups is to bring people with a shared passion together. If it’s done well, you foster a space where people can expose a nerdy side of their personality [that] they may not be able to show often. And you create a seamless web of interconnected people that can help enhance the experience of new and old fans. 

For instance many of our members found out about an event called ‘Con of Thrones’ through our group; that’s an entire convention dedicated to the show and books.

Victoria: The reason I created the group was because of Hassan. We were and still are obsessed of course, with Game of Thrones and it’s all we would talk about. He had the idea of making our own group. I came up with the name and just created the group! And I’m still shocked at what its become and I am so thankful I did. I love seeing what the group has become now and the wonderful team that keeps it running. It’s opened my eyes to the distant world around me. And has brought amazing friendships and connections around the world, but it never would have happened if not for Hassan. And it wouldn’t be what it is without the team. They are all amazing!

Hassan: Groups allow you to poll your members, and receive feedback as well as start a conversation around any topic. In my opinion, groups can help someone to find most raw and honest feedback in an online environment because you are interacting with thousands to people at a time and they are sharing their ideas and creative knowledge.

What is the greatest challenge you faced building your group from scratch and also now maintaining it?

Hassan: I think when someone decides to make a Facebook group, his first challenge would be what name should he give to his group so it can attract people.

Secondly, when you make a group, you have to keep a proper check and balance on the live posts because sometimes people post things which are not related to the audiences. So, that’s why you make the rules clear. And you must recruit more admins and moderators to help you in this process because when different minds join together, they all come up with different ideas and it helps you to boost your group.

Ryan: I was brought on pretty recently after the group was established, so I can’t attest to that part, but maintaining it is a combination of fun activities to keep the members excited to post and be in this group and having members who are very active on their own. We also maintain the group by filtering out posts that are either spam or non-Game of Thrones related so you really feel immersed in a deep collection of Game of Thrones knowledge and fandom.

Uzma: 1 - When building the group from scratch.

i) How to promote the group:

We knew we needed to get the word out so other people would know about us. Manny and Burny knew some admins from other groups, and we also reached out to other groups (mostly Non - GOT groups) and we asked them to share our group. In return, we shared their group in ours. Slowly, our numbers started increasing.

ii) How to keep the group active:

We knew getting people to participate and have fun in our group was really important. So, we tried to celebrate various festivals, and birthdays and come up with other activities and games. We divided the activities on a weekly basis. For example, Funday Sundays (by me), Sexy Saturdays (by Burny), Theory (Discussion) Thursdays (by Ryan) etc. Manny also made discussion posts and brought in other offers from people.

@Bürnadette Fick also kept a record of the birthdays and made sure to make birthday posts.

Fans really loved participating and enjoying our group, and they became very active, and we started growing,

2) Once the group has grown, we faced some other challenges, like:

1) How to resolve Arguments -

Like Hassan said, different minds have different ideas and opinions, and when over a hundred thousand minds come to a place, conflicts are bound to happen.

Our biggest challenge was how to resolve these issues without bias (because we're all human and are bound to agree with one party or the other).

So we decided to solve them together. Just like in Game of Thrones, we decided to give them a fair trial (not by combat). We created the Trial Room (A chat group). Whenever there was a conflict, we invited them to the Trial Room and gave them a chance to put forward their point of view.

And whenever we ourselves were in disagreement, we created a poll and voted to make a decision.

2) How to distinguish genuine posts from trolling posts -

Like I said before, we wanted to give everyone the freedom to post whatever they wanted. We even wanted newbies to feel safe enough to post simple questions without hesitation.

This also gave a window to trolls. Some people would get mad that we allowed questions that sounded "stupid" to the hardcore fans.

Emmanuel: Challenges:

My major challenges was how to grow the group and basically teach others to grow a group. That was why I got a functional team that we had to groom a little bit to take care of issues. Then to grow, we had to contact various groups and friends that we had made overtime in the Game of Thrones world.

I and Uzma almost brought in all our former group members. Then, when the group got larger, it was just basically [about] making it a conducive environment where people could relate.

Facebook was helpful with the trigger words and with other tools and we had to put in long hours going through each post thread, but now the group basically runs itself. 

Francis: Another main challenge is the commitments we have in our personal lives. I have a very stressful Graphic Design background as an Art Director and getting time for any personal commitment is super tough.

That is why I deeply respect the work done by @Bürnadette Fick, @Emmanuel Ogbolu, @Ryan C. Wojo, @Uzma Parveen and all the mods. I don't know what we would do without them.

Are there any ways you can monetize having groups like this? If so, what ideas do you have or have you seen other groups do successfully?

Bürnadette: Sure, there are ways to monetize the group and we have time and time again decided against it; although plenty of opportunities have presented themselves in the past. Be it people advertising for a fee, or promoting their merchandise.

Ryan: Overall we find that putting money in the mix brings more issues than perks.

What kind of day jobs do you have? And how many hours per day/week do you dedicate to the groups you admin?

Victoria: For me, I was in and out of jobs in 2019. I had taken a step back from the group and being so involved for personal reasons. I am pregnant with my second child and stay busy with family issues. To be able to know the group is in wonderful hands is such a relief for me and the credit goes to them.

Uzma: I am a Youtuber, so I have flexible hours. There are times I work late at night and sleep in the morning. At others, it's the opposite. So, whenever I have free time, I pop in to check if there are membership requests or pending post approvals, I approve of them and go offline. When I have more free time, I make posts or participate in others.

Hassan: I am doing online sales and marketing work form Monday to Friday (11am to 7pm) I usually give time on weekends. But nowadays, i am not giving as much time as I gave before because of some future planning.

Ryan: I work as an R&D scientist with a start up so my hours are usually 9-5, but that can change quickly if issues arise.

Emmanuel: I am presently running another B.Sc program this time in microbiology, while I also have my business which I run.

Bürnadette: I am an attorney in sales in executions for the major banks in South Africa, and a mother of one. I used to only work part time so I had a lot of time to give to the group during our peak which was the season finale of Game of Thrones. I used most of my downtime, late nights and weekends on the group and growing our group through share for shares with other fandom groups on Facebook. I don't have that much time to spend on it these days, but when the spin-off airs, I will be sure to make more time for fangirling once again.

If you were to give advice to the you a long time ago about starting a group, what would you tell him/her step by step to reach your levels of success?

Francis: Find a community that will relate with the story you have to share. It really is about the synergy of passions at the end of the day. Then, create a home for such a community and watch it grow exponentially. There really isn't a formula for success though, but hard work always pays.

The Admins and Mods are the catalysts for success...or the doom leading to failure. We also have a very original logo and I have been lucky to do pretty awesome covers for the group over the years. Thank God for the Admins and Mods we have. All talents coming together to build something we deeply care about.

Bürnadette: I'm lucky, since I was rewarded with the admin badge. Being here with the other small council members and being part of the fandom meant so much to me on a personal level. I am forever loyal to this fan club. But I think what make us great is that we don't make big decisions as lone wolves, but rather always consult the council and make informed decisions in the best interest of our group, while always respecting other got groups and their admins.

Victoria: For me, I wouldn’t change a thing. The steps taken in the beginning were the cornerstones to the amazing group that it is today. The methods used led to the amazing team we have. Each admin and mods contributing in such a unique way that has attracted the members we have now. I don’t think it could have moved along any faster and it wouldn’t have such quality that it does now if it had gone another way. Though it’s been a journey to get where we are, we were the fastest growing Game of Thrones groups around. Now we are one of the biggest fan pages to this day.

Uzma: Personally, I'd do all the things we already did, but I would tell myself to use these ideas sooner, which came way later to us. Those weekly activities ideas, rewarding our top 10 contributors each month, providing rewards to the winners of games etc. We started doing these things later. 

In the end, I'd just like to add that if you're trying to grow a group, think of what makes you feel safe and comfortable to open up and make friends in a community and do everything you can to make the members of your group feel that. Give them the love and respect they deserve, and nothing would stop your community from growing.

Emmanuel: My advice for anyone who wants to grow their group properly is to have a very good idea of where they want their group to go to. They should set goals that help them to know if they are actually progressing. They should create a solid admin team (people who are dedicated and have something to offer). They should create an enabling environment for the fans because the members matter the most have to be able to be free to speak their minds without fear of being bashed by other members or admins.Then, you also have to think of innovative ideas to keep your members from leaving.

Ryan: I’d say don’t worry about the numbers, members will come as you create a space they feel welcome and wanted in. Focus on the passion that holds this group together and let that drive you forward.