There are many reasons why people want to join Facebook Groups. They might search for a solution to a specific problem, look to connect with people who share the same interests, or maybe they're passionate about the group's topic. But regardless of why anyone joined, it's vital to make every new member feel welcome. This acknowledgment can get them more interested in the group, more likely to engage with posts, and eager to participate in content creation. As a result, you'll grow a receptive audience and have more options in monetizing the group later.

So what are the best ways to say a warm welcome to your fresh Facebook Groups members? We're here to help you with that. This article reveals our top methods to make every new member feel valued as part of the group's community together with some personal templates I use for my community. Let's take a closer look at 5 of them.

1. Ask for an email to send welcome series

Sending out a welcome email is an excellent way to make a great first impression. It creates a personal connection with the recipients and welcomes them to contribute to activities. And although you can use email marketing software like HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Sendinblue, to send a sequence of messages, a simple hello is mostly enough to start a fruitful relationship. Here's a template to guide you in writing an email to welcome Facebook Group members:

Hi there {{first_name}},

Thank you for becoming a member of [the name of your group]! Take your time to bring yourself up to date with everything. And don't hesitate to ask questions. We're here to help you set everything up for the best experience in our community.

Also, we would all be thrilled to get to know you a bit better. So feel free to introduce yourself and tell us where you're from and some fun facts about you.

And don't hesitate to spread the love and recommend joining our community to your friends. Together we can make this group work for everyone!

Pay extra attention to your email's subject lines. When it comes to emails, they are just as important as the content of your message. Eye-catching subject lines ensure that your recipients click on your email and open it, and you'll get a chance to connect with them. So what makes a good subject line? Your primary aim should be to state clearly what the message is about and who the sender is. Plus, keep it relevant, avoid spammy phrases like making money, the real thing, zero risk, etc., and you're on the right track to make your subject line pop out.

But by now, you might be wondering how to collect the emails from your Facebook Groups members. Here are the best ways to do that:

• Give away a freebie via a lead generation link. People can get the file after opting in with their email address. However, it's not always a good idea to welcome Facebook group members with sales posts. You can also experiment with a less direct option: promoting a video or a blog post that ends with an opt-in option for an email address.
• Offer the lead magnet on a banner that's the cover image of your group. Again, new members might not be enthusiastic about clicking on a link in the group. So use it cautiously and make sure your offer brings lots of value to your group members.
• Add the link to your group's description. It won't be as visible as with the first two options. But the plus side is that even people who won't join your community will see this link when they explore the group.
• Ask the email address as one of your group onboarding questions. However, the answers will get lost the second you approve someone's request to join the group. One of the best ways to overcome this problem is to collect the emails and other replies comfortably with software like Socialtribes specifically built for this purpose.

2. Tag the New Facebook Group Members and Ask Them to Introduce Themselves

Another effective tactic in getting new members invested in your Facebook Groups' activities is to tag them and ask them to introduce themselves. It's an excellent opportunity for other group members to learn about the new ones. Plus, when sending out this request, you can also use the chance to explain the responsibilities and guidelines in your community. It helps everyone quickly get on the same page on your group's purpose.

Keep the message short and sweet. Let people know they can introduce themselves by writing about the problem they're solving or their general aims in this community. A typical message you'd send out might look something like this:

Hi there {{new_member_name}},

Welcome to the {{name_community}}, we're happy to have you here in this growing community!

Please tell us a little about yourself and what made you join this group. It helps every one to get to know each other quicker.

Also, please take the time to read through our group's rules to keep group harmony.

We're looking forward to your participation!

All the best,

{{Your Name}}

Or here is an example I am using in a community I am managing which is focused on digital nomads looking for a place to work in Brussels, Belgium.

Ideally, you are allowing each member to shine but also collect valuable insights about your community to create better content.

For example, with each reply to my above questions, I (and the community) are getting better insights on where to work in a certain region.

Another alternative to this is to tag them in a giveaway you are hosting like the example below:

This gives you the opportunity to ask for an email to add to your Marketing Automation or CRM.

If they don’t feel comfortable sharing their email, you can always connect with them on Facebook Messenger to keep the conversation on the platform.

3. Send a Personal Message on Facebook to Welcome New Facebook Group Members

Unless you've got hundreds of new people coming on board every week, it's a good idea to create an individual message for each new member. You can use the information they gave you in the three onboarding questions to craft a personal message. Thank them for joining. And ask additional questions about what type of help they hope to find from the group.

Here's a template you can use:

Hello {{the new member's name}}, and welcome to {{the name of your group}}. Thank you for joining! There's nothing more beneficial than people coming together and sharing ideas.

This group's purpose is to {{state your group's purpose}}. And we can do that by creating this community of individuals from different fields who inspire, challenge, and support each other on this platform. You seem like a good fit to our community as you {{cite an answer the new member put down to an onboarding question}}.

Also, let us know more about what you hope to get from this lively community. Is it a boost to your career development, networking, or something else?

P.S. the administrators of this group are {{list your group's administrators}}.

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4. Add an Onboarding Guide to Your Facebook Group

Your welcoming message can also include an overview of the steps your new members can take. For example, you might offer an onboarding guide that's a sequence of the group's best content. New members can subscribe to it and quickly gain all the knowledge required for the most relevant contributions. Take a look at this example of a message that includes a call to subscribe to an onboarding sequence: 

You can create this Onboarding Unit out of any posts you like and even add quizzes to it. And all newbies can mark once they've gone through the whole unit. They only need to click on "Done," and the Group Insights feature will show it to the administrators. Getting an overview of the completion rate can be crucial for units like training guides or group rules. 

5. Create a Welcome Post to welcome your new Facebook Group Members

How to welcome new members in your Facebook groups where so many people join every day that you don't have time to send out a personal message? Luckily, Facebook has made it pretty easy to welcome people via a post that automatically tags all new names. If you've had any new members in the past week, you should see the prompt that enables creating a welcome post.

Here are some tips on what to write in the post:

• Introduce yourself and tell a bit about why you created the group.
• You can include the guidelines of the group.
• Add visuals. These draw the attention of the new members and visitors who explore the group.
• End the post with a call-to-action (CTA). You can ask people to clarify the industry-specific issues they hope to solve in the group, encourage them to introduce themselves, etc.

Here is an example copy is written for my community which you can tweak to yours

—-----------

Welcome, Nomadpassers.

If you are in this group this means you are now part of a small yet important movement happening in Brussel right now.

A movement where the goal is to accelerate the collaborative remote work economy through vetted, productive and bookable workspaces in just 3 clicks without getting stuck in one place.

What is Nomadpass?

Discover, book, and work from 100+ coworking spaces, hotels, and work-friendly cafés across Brussel with great WiFi with a single pass.

1. Stay Flexible (don't get stuck to one co-working or office)

2. Reliable Places (Good Wifi, Chair & Desk Available, and no loud music)

3. Unlimited coffee, tea, and water.

4. Book within 3 clicks.

5. Meet other Digital Nomads with the same interests.

Find more information here {{ add relevant link}}

Why this group?

With this limited amount of people, the goal is to discover and rate productive places to work from to make sure we always have a great place to work from without ever worrying if the place is good to work from.

Why was Nomadpass created?

I personally started Nomadpass with my girlfriend after one particular experience I had in a coffee bar JAT Caffe, Brussel.

It was 17:01 on a Tuesday evening when I was presenting an important status update to a client. Which happens from time to time as a Freelancer Digital Marketer.

I remember the exact time as this was the point I realized my WiFi was gone.

So I did what everybody in my situation would do. Check the network and try to reconnect again.

Which is when the surprise hit me. I couldn't find the WiFi network anymore.

It turns out, 17pm is the closing time at JAT Caffe which also results in switching off the WiFi entirely.

I felt completely powerless and angry at the same time.

Which is when I decided I never wanted to have somebody feeling this again.

So the last question remains.

Who are you? Introduce yourself here: {{add a link to post with introductions}}

- What do you do?

- Where are you based right now?

- What is one place you would recommend working from?

- What is one place you would recommend NEVER to work from again.

—-----------—-----------

Time to tweak it towards your example!

5. Connect a Member With Another Member

Encouraging other members to reach out to a newbie is another great way to send a welcome. It introduces onboarding people to your group's culture and initiates conversations that can lead to more meaningful posts in your community.

And it's easy to carry out: write your veteran group members and encourage them to message the new ones. You can use the answers from your new members' onboarding questions to connect people who share similar interests. Maybe a newbie has joined the community to learn to create profitable LinkedIn Ads. Think of how thrilled they'd be if someone with years of experience in LinkedIn advertising would message them for a chat. 

Also, if your group focuses on personal and professional development or parenting, you can access Facebook's Mentorship feature. It aims to provide one-on-one help to people navigating a specific issue. For example, someone who has just started a company might seek business advice from experienced CEOs in the same niche. The Mentorship feature enables group administrators to create a guided program from a template, and both mentees and mentors can sign up for it. The admin will then bring together pairs who start progressing through the steps of their program. What could be better in giving new members the support they seek to reach their goals?

Pin the Crucial Information

Every time someone joins your group, they want to get updated on everything important that has happened in the community. They can always find the information by scrolling back the group's feed. However, a way to send a warm welcome to your newcomers is to make all the crucial information more easily accessible by pinning it to the top of the group. That way nobody has to feel like an outsider and can participate in discussions from day one.

Pinning a post is super easy. Click on the three dots on the top right corner of the post, and select Pin to Featured or Pin to Top of Page.

Every time someone joins your group, they want to get updated on everything important that has happened in the community. They can always find the information by scrolling back the group's feed. However, a way to send a warm welcome to your newcomers is to make all the crucial information more easily accessible by pinning it to the top of the group. That way nobody has to feel like an outsider and can participate in discussions from day one.

Pinning a post is super easy. Click on the three dots on the top right corner of the post, and select Pin to Featured or Pin to Top of Page.

If you've got the Social Learning feature activated on your group, it's also a good idea to state all the instructions for getting started on your cover image. It enables new members to familiarize themselves with the Guides quickly. These are collections of posts that administrators arrange in a specific order to form a learning course. Have you already created one? If not, it's easy to get started. Firstly, you'll need to click on Manage Group and select Settings. Then click Add Extra Features. Below, there's the category Group Type. Change it to Social Learning. Next, select Guides under the cover image. Find the button for Create a Guide from the right. Add a title and description to your Guide and hit Save. And that's done. 

But how would you fill your Guides with content? You've got two options: 

• Scroll through your group. Every time you get to the content that could fit your Guide, click the three dots at the post's top-right corner. It opens the option to place the content into your Guide.
• You can also search a specific piece of content by keyword. The search results will display all relevant posts. Then, click on the three dots of the content you wanted, and add it to the Guide.

Come Up With Ways to Engage the New Members

Ultimately, if you want new members to engage with your group's content, you need to create plenty of opportunities for that. For example, after someone posts their first content, administrators can leave relevant comments and ask questions. These can spark discussions around the post, encouraging newcomers to produce more content. 

You can also make a video of yourself talking about the benefits of your group. That gives the new people a sense of your personality, which inevitably hints at the character of the entire community. Both newcomers and veteran members can see the community's administration, which puts a human face to the group and gets people more invested in it.

Most groups can benefit from hosting fun contests every once in a while. It draws the new members right into the activities. And look, the competition doesn't need to be overly serious and looking to solve a vital problem. Keep it entertaining. The aim is to engage people. It can be something as simple as "who can come up with the funniest caption to this pic."

In Summary

So this was our overview of how to welcome new members to your Facebook groups. Making new people feel at home in your online community gets them to visit the group more often and contribute to content creation. And if you've created your group to promote a business, the warm greetings can turn many of the members into your best-paying clients.

What could be better?

Did we miss one of your favorite ways to welcome new members to Facebook groups? Let me know what works for you in the comments.

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