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I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about why I closed my Facebook Group. First – let’s talk about the reasons I wanted to keep it:

1. I love helping people with their marketing. That’s why I started this business – because just working for a big business or two didn’t fill my cup the way helping individual business owners does.
2. With my small group, I could give one-on-one attention – for free. Plus, I was always learning more about what my members needed.
3. All my friends were doing it. Yes, I know that’s not a good reason to have a Facebook group. But I was seeing my friends with their groups – having fun, running Lives, sharing offers, engaging… and I wanted that. It didn’t matter that their businesses were different or that their personalities were different. Good old FOMO raised its ugly head.

But in the end, this is about why I closed the group. I started reading about the Community Canvas – which really got me thinking about what the purpose of the group was. Other than me helping people – there wasn’t one. I wasn’t pulling together people who were working to help each other. The only thing that many of them had in common was a desire to learn more about marketing.

But that wasn’t enough for me. There are already hundreds of Facebook groups that provide a platform for the leader to sell their products. And there are hundreds that add value for the members. And as much as I enjoy participating in the latter, I didn’t want to add to that noise and distraction.

Plus, by supporting the group, I was splitting my attention. I believe in giving as much value as I can – and by trying to create content for my blog, the podcast, and my own social media platforms. I can reach more people by putting more attention into this podcast and my blog and guest blogging and podcast appearances than I was in the Facebook group.

And the fact is – I didn’t want to be leading a Facebook group like the Millenial Entrepreneur Community with 73,000 members or Boss-Moms with 30,000. I didn’t want to get to the point where I needed to hire help to manage the group, and keep away trolls and maintain the rules. I didn’t want to have to create community rules. It took away from what I wanted to focus on – and that’s helping business owners create products and promotions that connect with their audience. I want to lead the movement for customer-first marketing – not keeping away spammers from a community.

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