Why you need to build your community outside of Facebook

Wondering why you should consider an alternative to Facebook groups? Separating from the crowd, forgetting about privacy concerns, taking back control, and building your group your way, are just a few of the benefits of doing so.

Facebook has over 2.6 billion monthly active users. With a large user base, it might seem like Facebook groups are the obvious solution for hosting your community. 

So why are so many leaders, creators, and business owners seeking an alternative to Facebook groups?

The reason is that there are a lot of drawbacks to using Facebook Groups, as you’ll discover in this article.

The benefits of creating an alternative to Facebook Groups

1. Separate from the noise

It’s important to remember the marketplace you are competing in on Facebook. It is filled with distraction. A notification from your group can easily be lost in a sea of friend’s baby pictures, or family holiday updates. On top of that, you are constantly bombarded with countless ads.

In fact, it’s fair to say that Facebook Group users are often in a state of permanent distraction. 

Facebook group replacements separate your community from the noisy world of Facebook and lead to greater engagement. It’s like watching your favourite band on a festival main stage or at their own gig. At their own gig, they’re no longer playing to a passive audience many of whom just happened to be there – the crowd is filled with people who actively chose to be there. Which audience do you think your followers want to be a part of?

2. Avoid the privacy scandals

It’s safe to say it has been a difficult few years for Facebook. Privacy concerns surrounding Facebook user’s data were realised in the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018. With millions of user’s data taken without consent and used for political advertising.

To show the scale of their data misuse, in July 2019, Facebook was taken to court by the Federal Trade Commission over private data breaches and settled for the unprecedented amount of $5 billion.

Facebook group alternatives are available that offer data guarantees to prevent third party access.

3. Take control back

When using Facebook groups, they are in control.

• You are at the mercy of their algorithm and how it builds users’ feeds.
• Changes can be made to the platform at any time without warning.
• They own all the data from your community.
• You only receive surface-level analytics about your group.

Using an alternative to Facebook groups puts you in control of your community, rather than allowing Facebook to decide what is and isn’t acceptable. It’s not uncommon for Facebook to filter and ban content. Also, you could spend years building up a thriving group only for Facebook to take it down on a whim. Do you really want to risk losing all your hard draft and your hard-won members?  

4. Customisation

When creating a Facebook group there are only a few options for customisation. All communities are different, and it would be good to use a platform that reflected it.

With a Facebook group replacement, you can design it your way with features that suit you, such as live streams or personalised sub-feeds or threads of a topic. For example, a chef could create multiple sub-feeds of different cuisines that people can access and sign up to. 

5. Monetisation

Facebook groups don’t provide any built-in monetisation functions. Companies and other communities have to redirect people to a different site for monetisation such as subscriptions or eCommerce. By tapping into people’s passions, you can easily monetise your audience to create an extra revenue stream.

Community platforms

Why use Facebook as a middleman to get to your audience?

A community platform is a website builder that allows you to create an online community with features such as feeds, private messaging, notifications, media and content sharing, etc.

Community platforms like Disciple empower you to build an alternative to Facebook groups. With your own platform, you can directly engage, manage, and monetise your community on your own terms.

Create your own one-stop community platform that is fully branded and independent. Gather all your followers or fans who share the same passion in a space you control. Design it your way, with functions you want such as feeds, live streams, community moderation, analytics, and monetisation. 

That’s the beauty of setting up your own community platform. It’s your community – your rules!

Final Words

There are plenty of reasons to look for a Facebook group alternative. Whether you’re concerned about privacy, sick of trying to shout over everyone else, want to be able to monetise and manage your community directly.

Community platforms like Disciple offer you the solution you are looking for. Design a customised app that contains all the features you know your community will love and take control into your own hands.