A winding road: increasing visibility in my hyper-niche Facebook group

This week, I tried three new approaches to increasing visibility in my closed Facebook group, Autoimmune Grad Students. This group has become like a pet to me: I want to nurture it, help it grow and shower it with love and attention. But because it’s a hyper-niche, closed group, this requires some creativity.

First, I used targeted hashtags on the public Instagram account I created for my group. For this activity, I integrated some of my favorite key takeaways from Christina Newberry’s 2020 Hashtag guide: I used 11 hashtags, hid the hashtags by adding three periods after my caption and chose hashtags based on popularity and relevance.

And earlier this month, I shared the following post to provide a visually appealing graphic that explains the purpose of my Autoimmune Grad Students Facebook group to potential members. With this post, I went rogue and used 30 targeted hashtags (not all are visible in the following screenshot). I received a few more likes with this post.

So far, the Instagram account for my Facebook group has brought in four new members (I matched members’ names to likes and follows on the Instagram page). This may seem like a small number, but in light of the hyper-niche character of my group, I am impressed with the Instagram-derived, hashtag-driven growth. Now, I’m considering creating a branded hashtag, but I want to grow my audience first.

The second visibility strategy I tested this week involved reaching out to an Instagram influencer. I aimed high and private messaged Michelle Hoover of Unbound Wellness, who has nearly 70,000 followers on Instagram. I asked her to suggest recipes for my Facebook group members, specifically, so that I could return to them with her “personalized” recommendations. I thought it would make my community feel special and valued.

I wasn’t sure if she would open my message because she is a leading influencer in the autoimmune disease realm, but she responded!

Immediately, I wanted to share this with my group, but I decided to “tease” the content and save it for #FoodieFriday —a food-focused day we celebrate each Friday in my group.

Social media “teasing” is a strategy I picked up from one of my public relations undergrad courses, where I watched this Lynda.com marketing tutorial by Colleen Jones. She gives several helpful pointers in her video:

“Don’t wait for people to stumble across your content. Promote it using social media. One especially effective technique is the teaser. … And make sure your teaser answers the question, ‘So what?’ Make the relevance of the content clear.”

On Friday, I shared Michelle Hoover’s snack suggestions, with a screenshot of our conversation.

The post got three likes, which is far less engagement than I receive on posts where I ask members to talk about their autoimmune journeys or when I ask them to vote on something. Even when I am not the creator, my group members love polls — like this one that a member shared this week:

However, I will continue reaching out to influencers. It would be fantastic if an influencer shared about my group on their Instagram story.

The third visibility-increasing action I took this week involved participating in a third-party social media community. To do this, I decided to post in Facebook groups similar to mine. But I didn’t barge in or crash the party, as this week’s lecture warned against. I posted in communities that I am already active in, and I executed a careful balance of “give and take.”

I shared the following post in a gluten-free support group. In the post, I shared a delicious recipe I created, but I also subtly mentioned my Autoimmune Grad Students group.

This post did not receive much engagement at all (one like). But an earlier post in “AIP Favorite Recipes,” sparked more activity and interaction, and I gained three new autoimmune grad students as a result of sharing the shortbread recipe:

I believe this post in “AIP Favorite Recipes” stimulated more conversation than my post in the gluten-free support group because the former is larger and its members are more active. In the future, I will remember to take these factors into account.

So, what was the overall effect on my group? Did my visibility-increasing efforts pay off?

First, by pairing targeted hashtags with rich content on the Instagram I created for my group, the Instagram account has gained 117 followers and will serve as an excellent social companion to my Facebook group. Additionally, my Facebook group has gained a handful of members who are grateful to have found a private space to connect with users on similar health and academic paths — I know this from reading their comments under the introductions post I created.

Second, by reaching out to an influencer and having a conversation with her, I have made a valuable connection that I plan to deepen and maintain. While our “collaboration” did not produce much engagement within my Facebook group, I still believe my members enjoyed the content — even if most of them are lurkers!

Third, by participating in third-party social media communities, not only did I gain a few new members, but I feel like I meaningfully contributed to other groups as well. In every autoimmune support group I have joined, the community members thrive on giving, sharing, mentoring and uplifting. My group runs on the same principles, so I am compelled to contribute to the larger autoimmune community whenever possible.