Tips & Tricks for Using Facebook Groups

Tips & tricks for using Facebook groups

Use these tips & tricks to get the most out of your Facebook groups, like our online book club.

1. Fill out all pre-membership questions. If these are set-up for the group, they will pop up once you request to join the group. Some groups won't allow you to join unless you fill out all  questions.

2. You will miss group posts unless you change "Notifications" to "All Posts" instead of Highlights. Another way to see more posts is to interact regularly with the group's posts.

3. Add the group to your Facebook shortcuts so you can find it easily. (Select the three dots next to Share & then select "Pin to Shortcuts." On apps, this may work differently.)

4. There are 3 types of groups. The primary differences among them are:

  • Public: Anyone can any of the posts.
  • Closed: Only members can see the posts.
  • Secret: Only current & members will see that the group even exists. Only current members can see the posts.

This also means that if you share a post from a closed or secret group to your wall/page/another group, only other members of that closed or secret group will see it.

5. Find important posts pinned to the top of the page. On mobile, this post is collapsed & simply says "View Pinned Post."

6. You can save posts to read later on by selecting the down arrow on the upper right & then "Save post."

7. You can search for posts in the group using the "Search this group" feature:

  • By the name of a Group member to see all the posts they commented on or created. (And you can even search using your own name to find all of your activity in the group.)
  • By a word to see all the posts mentioning that word. Note: Related words are sometimes included as well (e.g., "trip" when you search for "travel", both "read" & "reading" when you search for "read", etc.).
  • By a phrase. If you search for a phrase with quotes around it (e.g., "science fiction"), then posts with that exact phrase will appear. Otherwise, posts with one or more of the words will appear.

Note: Search only goes back a certain amount of time which can change based upon group size.

8. You can add someone to the group only if they are a friend of yours or a friend of someone else in the group. The group admins may also need to approve the person once you add them.

9. If you find a post objectionable, you can report it in 3 ways:

  • Select the down arrow on the top right of the post & then select "Report to Admin." This sends a note to the group admin who can help you.
  • Tag the name of the group admin or moderator on the post using the "@" sign & their name. For A World Adventure by Book, that's @Beth McCrea or @Mia Degiovine Chaveco.
  • Select the down arrow on the top right of the post & then select "Report post." This sends a note to Facebook. We recommend only using this if you've been unsuccessful contacting the group admin.

10. You can get banned from a group if you don't follow the group rules so make sure to read them. They are usually pinned to the top of the group or included under the group description.