Compartmentalizing has its perks, and there’s an aspect of siphoning off information and contacts that feels clever and efficient, which can feel hugely rewarding. Creating a Facebook group offers such a way to selectively share information, picking and choosing which friends, family, or acquaintances to share which information with.
So, you can spark a conversation with your softball team about how to get to this week’s game field without saturating coworkers and book-club friends with information not pertaining to them.
Here are five tips for keeping a Facebook group operating smoothly:

Flesh Out The Profile

To attract new, valuable members who can contribute to the group conversation in a meaningful way, ensure that there is a lot of visible information about the group. Consider including what the group is, why it was founded and when, as well as what the members’ collective objectives are.
Be sure to complete all of the required profile fields (with an eye toward keeping it pithy, of course). This is especially important for professional groups that want to establish credibility. Posting a group picture can also add validity to the group. Let viewers and potential new members know who you are and what you’re about.

Select Settings Carefully

When first starting your Facebook group, put some thought into which settings best apply to the members you’re assembling.
For example, of the three options, open (public) may fit best if you are creating a large professional networking group of, say, New York accountants. This setting allows anyone to view the group and to see everything that is posted.
For closed groups, anyone on Facebook can see the group and its members, but only group members can see posts.
Secret groups do not appear in searches. For people who are not members, nothing about the group will be visible, including its name and/or members. What’s more, the group name will not pop up on members’ profiles (timelines). People can only become members of a secret group if a member adds them.

Encourage Interaction

By inviting members to take some kind of action often, posting fresh videos or photos from events, and frequently updating by adding new content, posting links, and recruiting new members to join, you can light up the dynamic interaction that is the lifeline of a Facebook group.

Don’t Abuse Opt-Out Membership

Any of your Facebook friends can add you to any group without your consent or knowledge at any time. (Keep tabs on groups you’ve been made a part of by clicking on the more tab on the left side of the homepage, and then clicking the groups tab. Opt out of any group by simply selecting it and removing yourself.)
When you create a group, you also have the option to pull Facebook friends into your newly formed group without contacting them first. Recall, though, when doing so, how easy it is for uninterested parties to quit groups on a whim. Avoid having your members leave by not posting an endless stream of spammy-ish non-information updates.

Talk About A Collaboration

One of the huge benefits of creating a group is that all of its members can work together on lists, share documents, and hammer out projects together in a common space using a text editor. You can also poll the group, strike up a group conversation with all members at once, and post updates.
Additional steps you can take to keep the group connected are selecting the “message to all” option and crafting notes. These will pop up in members’ Facebook inboxes. Remember not to flood inboxes with meaningless posts that could lead members to leave.
Set a participatory vibe by having the group wall remain open. Also consider removing video and photo restrictions to boost content sharing, community, and discussion. A group’s main objective is building a community around a shared common interest.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.