Facebook groups became less and less popular over the past few years, but now as they begin to make a comeback thanks to Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm changes, Facebook is testing out a new feature for groups, which will allow admins to charge a fee for subscribing to information, how-to’s, and news.
This article comes from the Facebook Newsroom.
Introducing Subscription Groups for Admins
Group admins build safe and supportive communities that people come back to every day. We know that admins invest their time and energy to maintain their groups, and some have told us that they would like tools to help them continue to invest in their community and offer more to members. Today, we’re piloting subscriptions with a small number of groups to continue to support group admins who lead these communities.
Subscriber-only groups
We hear from group admins that they’re looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and continue to support their communities. Many admins do this today by creating an additional subscribers-only group that sits alongside their existing group, and rely on additional tools to track and collect payments. Subscription groups were created to make it easier for admins to provide these experiences with built-in tools, and to save them time so they can focus on offering members-only content. For members, they’re now able to sign-up and manage their subscription through the Facebook app for iOS and Android.
Subscription groups align with the experience that we made available to support video creators earlier this year and is part of our overall approach to helping creators and leaders to financially support the work they do to engage their fans and communities.
One such community leader looking to support her work, Sarah Mueller, started a group called Declutter My Home as a way to inspire and motivate others to tidy up their apartment or house. The group quickly became an active community for helping tens of thousands of people across the world to reduce clutter in their spaces. With her new subscription group, Organize My Home, members will be able to work together on bite-sized projects and have access to easily actionable checklists, tutorials, live videos and more to help with home organization.
“Since I started Declutter My Home, it’s been motivating and fulfilling to help others get on the path of clearing their homes of unnecessary clutter, and creating a safe and supportive space for people to come together around this common goal,” said Mueller. “With the new Organize My Home subscription group, I will be able to provide this new community with more interactive ways to having an organized home like mini-projects, group challenges, trainings, and live Q&A, while still keeping the original group as a robust community for getting free advice and motivation.”
This subscription groups pilot is testing with a small number of groups across a range of interests who will share input and feedback along the way. They include Grown and Flown Parents: College Admissions and Affordability, a dedicated college preparation group with access to college counselors to help prepare parents of high schoolers for the college application process; and Meal Planning Central Premium, a meal preparation group that includes weekly meal plans, shopping lists by preferred grocery store, and more.
As we learn from this pilot and understand how group members feel about subscription groups, we’ll continue to improve this experience to help admins offer more to their members and continue to invest in their communities.
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