Facebook just announced a pretty big change: Third-party apps will no longer have access to Facebook groups. Being required to replace the tools we use to connect to our community might seem daunting, but Jennifer Johnson, CEO and founder of CinchShare, joined us on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast to explain the ways in which this adjustment could actually benefit social sellers! Whether it’s posting more publicly, running parties in new ways, or doubling down on content, listen in to learn how you can embrace this change and broaden your reach—and, of course, how CinchShare can help!

Ready to test out CinchShare in your business? Visit CinchShare.com, or download the app, and use code GameChanger for a free 30-day trial!

Time based notes:

• 1:00 Changes to Facebook groups
• 2:56 The scoop for social sellers
• 4:06 Posting for the most success
• 7:15 Best practices for Facebook parties
• 10:54 Parties on a business Page
• 15:34 Embracing change
• 17:24 Connecting through CinchShare
• 20:05 Jennifer’s favorite office supply

Pivots to Facebook Parties and Posting with Jennifer Johnson

Facebook just announced a pretty big change: Third-party apps will no longer have access to Facebook groups. Being required to replace the tools we use to connect to our community might seem daunting, but Jennifer Johnson, CEO and founder of CinchShare, recently joined us to explain the ways in which this adjustment can actually benefit social sellers! Whether it’s posting more publicly, running parties in new ways, or doubling down on content, read on to learn how you can embrace this change and broaden your reach!

Well, Jen, I feel like there was nobody better to bring on the Modern Direct Seller Podcast than you to clear the air, clear up any rumors that might be firing around, and let us know what is going on with Facebook groups, because if you’re using a tool like CinchShare, or StreamYard, or Zoom, or Vimeo to stream into a group, some of that access has been cut off from Facebook. So, what’s your take on it? Should we be alarmed? Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? I want your scoop on what this actually means for social sellers out there in the field that maybe previously really relied on scheduling into groups.

I think that this change is good. I’m one of those people that likes change, and the platforms are ever-changing; they’re adjusting to the market and adjusting to their own users. And, Facebook is 20 years old. So, it’s understandable that they’re making some changes. Facebook isn’t super transparent about what changes they’re making and why; sometimes they just do things, and they announce it, and sometimes they don’t even announce it. This time, we got a little bit of an announcement, saying that in a few months, third-party access won’t be allowed for groups anymore. And so, it gives everybody some time to pivot. And, I think that it seems like a big change, but it doesn’t necessarily mean groups are going away. People can still post in their groups. They can still manually show up in their groups. They can still use Facebook Scheduler in their groups, if they need to do that. There’s a lot of different options, so there’s no need to freak out.

Well, and I think you and I are the same in that we watch a lot of what’s happening on social media. We keep an eye on, “Okay, this is getting a lot of engagement,” or “Wow, we’re really not seeing as much visibility in this spot,” or, “Oh my goodness, somebody’s posting over here, and look at the traction that that kind of content is getting.”

So, as we’re thinking about some of these changes, I think we both agree that visibility for groups has been down for a while now. And, before we clicked “record” on the podcast, we were talking about business Pages, and how they’re coming back, and we’re getting more visibility over on the business Pages. So, what are your best tips for direct sellers that are thinking about the impact of these changes on their business, specifically those that are used to running parties in groups and are now thinking, “Okay, maybe I need to make a change,” or “Maybe I need to be thinking about my business a little bit different”?

I think a lot of people thought that they were doing social media marketing on Facebook, but what they’re really doing is just posting inside a private Facebook group—which is like talking to a living room of people over and over again. And, you might host some parties and get some other people to drip into your group so you can slowly grow it, but you’re still just talking to the same people over and over. So, I think that one of the eye-opening tips that we could share going into 2024 would be to expand your business beyond a Facebook group. You can still absolutely show up and post in a Facebook group. But, it’s really easy to post in a Facebook group, and then also post over on your business Page, which is public, and has the ability to be found when somebody is Googling something. It has the ability to be found on Facebook when people are searching things. So, the information that you’re sharing to your group is the same information you can be sharing to your business Page, but there you can have it be public, so you can get more reach, more views, and have the ability to grow your business because of all of those things.

So, let’s talk about Facebook parties. Many CinchShare users have used CinchShare as their preferred scheduling tool for Facebook parties inside a private group, whether they’re running that inside their customer VIP group, or they’re creating a pop-up event or a pop-up group for each party that they’re having. How are these changes going to impact those that are doing parties, and are there any best practices that you’re testing or that you’re seeing that’s going to really help our party plan social sellers continue to reach their customers and have that consistency?

Yeah, so a lot of our customers schedule posts to their Facebook groups. And, after April 22nd, they’re going to have to have that process be manual. But, with our app, our users are still going to be able to schedule all of their party posts to their group. What’s going to happen is, it’s not going to be automatic, but it’s going to schedule a push notification to their phone at the time that their post is scheduled to be delivered. And, it’s going to be preloaded on their phone. So, all they do is click “paste,” and it pastes their media, it pastes their copy, and then they can push it through. And then, if they have another post a few minutes later, that one pops up. So, they’re not going to have to go searching in folders and running around like crazy. It’s still going to be organized, it’s still going to be timed, and then all their content is still going to be able to be saved and organized in their history for easy reuse. So, it is going to be one extra step, but our app is going to be able to make that manual process a lot easier.

So, what I’m hearing from you is that with this new way of posting to groups, you’ll still have to click to say “post,” but you’ll be able to also batch schedule and plan things out ahead of time. And, rather than it automatically landing in the group, you’re just going to see a pop-up on your phone, you’re going to click “post,” and it’s going to go into the group that way. So, this will hands-down beats manual posting any day, every day.

Alternatively, what do you think about running a party on a business Page?

I think it’s a fantastic idea.

I mean, why not, right?

Yeah. Right now, if you do a party in a closed group, that’s kind of like hosting it in your living room, right? Well, maybe a party on your Page is like you’re having a party in your front yard. You’re still with the same people. But, there’s a possibility that somebody walks by and is like, “Oh, hey, I like that bag!” Or, “Oh, wait a minute, she’s using that blender?” They might get excited about whatever it is that somebody is showing off at their party.

Or, as a greater benefit, all Page posts are shareable. So, every single person at a Page party can share that post with anybody in a message, in any groups that they belong to, with friends. If they belong to a family group or a family thread, they can send and share it there. Posts inside a closed Facebook group are not shareable, but clicking the little “share” button on a Page is going to extend who’s going to be able to see your posts. I can’t see any downside to posting on your Page for a party.

So, weird Facebook things happening for me lately? When I am scrolling just my feed, I am seeing more business Pages pop up than ever before. I used to coach people, like, “A business Page is great, but consider it secondary, because Facebook really wants you to pay to play. They want you to invest in advertising. So, a Page is great, but don’t spend a whole lot of time there.” And, I’m seeing this as a big pivot for the industry, and I know CinchShare is leading the way. I watched your recent Tuesday night training; I saw that you ran it through the CinchShare business Page. And, one thing that I did not know, but I loved, is that all the posts stayed in chronological order!  

Actually, we started testing that a few weeks ago, where we were posting content on our Page and posting in our group at the same time. We just didn’t tell anybody. And, interestingly enough, we found that several posts got more engagement over on our Page than the ones in our group. So, this time, we said, “Okay, we’re doing this 100% on our Page.”

And, like you said, all the posts stay in order. So, it’s really easy for people that come in late to scroll back, find the beginning, go through, and comment; and it’s easier for the people who are throwing the parties, because then we can go back and comment, as well. So, it made the entire process nice and smooth, and the engagement was more than triple the engagement we’ve been getting in our group posts. So, I’m not disappointed!

Triple the engagement! That is incredible. And, I’m with you; at the beginning of this year, I started sharing my Make Money Monday Lives not just in my group, but through my business Page. And then, I doubled it up and started sharing them on my personal-slash-professional profile as well as my business Page, and then shared them using that nifty little “share” button directly into the groups that I manage. And, some weeks, I’m like, “Wow, my business Page is beating out even my personal profile,” and historically, that’s where you get the most engagement.

So, I think times are changing. Things are shifting. And, that’s just part of the business. We’ve all pivoted and adapted before; we’re doing it again. And, I’m just really loving the openness to test new things and try things differently and see what happens.

That’s right! Definitely try something new. I mean, business Pages aren’t new, they’ve just historically had less reach or less engagement. But, I don’t know if that’s 100% true. I think it’s just more about where people are hanging out and where people are driving attention. I mean, it was, what, six or seven years ago when we didn’t host parties in groups? We hosted them in events on our business Page. It was a completely different world. And, at least over the 10 years that we’ve been in business, we’ve seen that there are multiple ways that you can party. There are multiple ways to be successful. So, don’t pigeonhole yourself into thinking there’s only one way of approaching anything. Change is a good thing.

And, I think that the platforms, again, are changing too. Because, like you said, they are increasing reach. We are getting more visibility. And, not only is that a good benefit, but also there are all these extra benefits. The fact that your post is public and shareable gives more power to your community, and that extends your brand and your business based on how many people that you’re connecting with. So, I think it’s a win-win.