How To Use The @everyone Tag In Facebook Groups, Without Losing Members

These days there is a Facebook group for everything. And groups are a great place for building a community where you can nurture relationships with potential buyers.

But with so much competition both on Facebook and elsewhere, it can be tricky to ensure your group members see your content. And as a marketer, that can be frustrating. So when Facebook added a new feature for group admins to tag all group members in a post it looked like a great idea.

How the @everyone tag works in a Facebook group

In the same way that you tag a group member or Facebook page, you can now @ mention all group members in a post once a day.

This feature is still being rolled out to Facebook groups so you may not have this feature yet. If you have it, you can simply type @ in your post to see the options available. Choose @everyone to notify all members that they have been tagged in a post.

The problem with the @everyone tag

On the face of it this new feature looks great for group admins who want to get more eyeballs on their group posts. But in reality, it is creating a horrible user experience for group members.

We are all so used to looking for notifications in our social media apps, and we experience a hit of dopamine when see the little red circle with a number in it.

We get another dopamine hit when we discover we’ve been mentioned by someone, even more so when that person is someone we look up to. Knowing someone has taken the time to mention us makes us feel important and valued, and we immediately want to know why we’ve been tagged.

The problem with tagging everyone in a post is that it highlights that they are not being treated as individuals.

If you’re using @everyone in your Facebook groups, you’re creating a horrible user experience for your group members.

Most people are using this new feature wrong.If you’re using it to get your content seen & justifying it by saying, ‘if people leave the group, they were never going to buy anyway.’YOU’RE WRONG!Buyers don’t like being spammed either!When you’re getting tagged in posts in multiple groups, it feels like spam.

Marketing is all about making someone feel like they are seen and understood. When we treat people as one of many, it feels like spam, and no one likes spam!

how it works

You will lose members when you use the @everyone tag in a Facebook group

There is a misconception that people who leave a group after being tagged this way are not the right people. And losing those people is fine because they were unlikely to buy.

If people leave my group when I tag everyone, they were never going to buy anywayPeople using @everyone

We disagree.

Even your best customers deserve to be treated as individuals and misusing this feature could be damaging your brand.

When someone leaves your group, you lose a touch point with them. Is that a risk you want to take? Oftentimes people can lurk for months or even years before they open their wallet to spend money with a business. But if they can’t see you, they can’t buy from you.

Get your content seen without the @everyone tag

Relying on the @everyone tag to get posts seen in your Facebook group, is not a good marketing strategy. There are better ways!

Focus on great content

When creating content for your Facebook group, start with the end goal.

If the goal is engagement, then ensure your content gives people a reason to engage. Simply tagging them will not increase your engagement.

If you want to drive website traffic, then ensure the content you share gives a compelling reason to click a link. And be sure to check your Google Analytics as Facebook insights for link clicks are not a reliable data point.

When using the @everyone tag, the content you share should be high quality and relevant to everyone. But remember that content that speaks to everyone is not a good marketing strategy!

Speak to everyone and you speak to no-one.unknown

Give people what they joined the group for.

When Facebook groups have a specific purpose, more people are likely to join them. But for members to remain engaged, the content needs to stay relevant to why they joined.

Be mindful of this when crafting your content strategy for any Facebook group, regardless of it being free or paid, business or pleasure.

You can use Facebook groups to drive sales and win clients, while giving the members great content and fulfilling your original promise.

Engage on other posts, so get yours seen.

Your posts don’t get seen largely because of how the algorithm works.

Facebook is so busy now that we cannot possibly see all the content we’ve signed up for – there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So when it comes to groups, Facebook is more likely to show your content to people who have recently interacted with you. You can, to some extent, control that.

Spend time responding to other people’s posts in your groups so that they are more likely to see yours. If your group is largely quiet, revisit your group strategy to see how you can encourage more people to create content in the group.

How to use @everyone strategically

Just because you can tag everyone in a post doesn’t mean you should!

If you insist on using this feature, be mindful that you still want to create a great user experience for your group members. Follow these steps to use the feature without upsetting your warmest leads.

Introduce your group to the feature

As group admins, we expect everyone to know how Facebook groups work. Truth is, they don’t. By introducing this feature and explaining its benefits, you can get members to see it in a more positive light.

If your group is brand new, set the expectation that members will be tagged from time to time by joining the group.

Explain when & why you’ll tag all members and stick to the expectations you’ve set.

Use it sparingly.

Just because you can mention everyone each day, it doesn’t mean you should.

Be mindful of people’s time and how they are using Facebook. Your group is unlikely to be the only one using this feature and people will soon become tired of being mentioned every day.

Use the @everyone tag to enhance the user experience, not your marketing

We’ve seen this feature used well, but not often! There are some ways you could use this feature to create a better user experience, but it needs a well-thought-through strategy and good communication with your members.

Only tag everyone when:

• You are alerting them to something time-sensitive that is highly relevant to their reason for joining the group. For example, they signed up to get extreme weather alerts.
• You are sharing highly valuable content that is so good you could charge for it.

Above all, remember that using the @everyone tag leaves a lasting impression on potential buyers—make sure it is the right impression!