If you’ve read our previous post “Using Facebook groups for marketing your dog training business,” you’ll know we’re big fans of Facebook groups for marketing your business.

Today we’re going to walk you through the nitty gritty of how to create a Facebook group for dog trainers from your business profile so you can start reaping the benefits of this great marketing tool right now.

Step-by-step guide to creating your Facebook group

Switch to your business profile. Click on your profile icon in the top right corner to switch between profiles.

Go to Groups in the left hand menu:

Click “Create New Group”: 

Set up your group

Now it’s time to give a name, set your privacy options, and add people to your group.

First decide on what you’re going to call your group. Ideally, your group name should include your business name, your area, and who the group is for. If it’s not obvious, include your topic or subject too.  

People will search for groups so if you include these details there’s a good chance you’ll pop up in search — if your group privacy allows it. (More on that later.)

Name your group:

Set your privacy options. Anyone can join a public group. Only invited people can join a private group.

Set your visibility so your group does/doesn’t show up in search: 

Finally, decide whether you want to invite followers right now — and then click “create.”

Finish setting up your new group

Once you’ve created your group and added your personal profile as a member, you’re ready to finish setting it up. I suggest adding a cover photo and description first so when you start to invite other people your group looks polished.

Quick tip!

Add your personal profile (yourself) as an admin for easy management. 

To do this, you’ll need to switch to your personal account, then copy/paste the group URL into a new browser window. 

You should see this:

Once you click on “join group,” you can then switch back to your page account to accept yourself.

You’ll then be able to see your group now has two members: your page and your personal profile.

Next, add yourself as an admin.

Go to “members”:

Find your personal profile and click on the three dots next to it:

Select “Invite as admin”:

Once the invite has been sent, switch back to your personal profile and you should find a notification in your notifications list. Click on the notification to be taken back to the group and an opportunity to accept the invite:

Now when you look at the members of your group you’ll notice you have two admins listed:

Invite page followers

Once you’ve added your personal profile as admin and got your group looking the way you want, it’s time to add some members. 

First, invite the people who follow your business page. 

While using your business profile, click “invite”:

You’ll be given a list of all those profiles who follow your business page:

Invite personal Facebook friends

You can also invite your personal friends if that would be appropriate. To do this, while in your group, switch to your personal account then click “invite” again:

This time you’ll get a list of your personal Facebook connections:

Sharing your group outside of Facebook

If you want to share your group to your mailing list, or other social media platforms, you have a couple of options. One is far quicker and simpler than the other!

We’ve already used the “invite Facebook friends” option that appears when the “invite” button is clicked but you might have noticed the “invite via email“ option below. We suggest you avoid using this option:  

Why? Because it will try to email from Facebook — which means you have to copy/paste every email address into the invite individually. Very tedious.

Instead, go to “Share” and then “Copy link”:

You can then include the link in an email sent from your email marketing platform, in a social media post, or in any other way you want.

Managing your group settings

Finally, if you need to change any of the settings in your group, you can find the settings in the left menu bar:

Congratulations! You’re now the proud owner of a FB business group!