In Part 1 of this series, entitled 'Press Release: The New Facebook Groups', we introduced this new development after viewing their recent press conference held in California.
I mentioned that this will have implications to internet marketers particularly those utilising Facebook among the social media available to promote their business.
I also covered briefly the headings and functionality that is present in the new Facebook groups.
In this article, further new features will be elaborated on.
Again, I reiterate that things may change, new features added or removed subsequent to this article being written.
Access to Facebook groups can be done in the usual manner.
On the sidebar of your Facebook homepage, there will be a listing of the groups you have joined.
The new Facebook groups can be accessed in the same way.
An icon can be chosen for each individual group.
This will also appear next to the heading of the group homepage.
This will allow easier access to your group by recognition of a visual image instead of scrolling down your list.
The main significant change is the new privacy settings for the groups.
This will have the most implications on your online marketing using Facebook.
There are now three different privacy settings, namely open, closed or secret.
For each of these settings, you now need a request from a current member before you can sign up.
If the privacy setting chosen is Open, this also applies.
In other words, in an Open group, while you can see content put up by group members, as well as view who has actually joined the group, you cannot interact with them or share stuff until after you have been invited to join.
If you are not a group member, and have not received an invite, the other settings are even more restrictive.
In the Closed setting, you can find out that the group exists, but cannot view any content put up within the group.
Secret setting will prevent you from knowing about the group or finding out about its existence until you are invited to become part of it.
As a group, you can view the items shared as discussed in Part 1: Press Release.
Again, this would be Post(ed messages), Links, Photos, Videos, Events and Doc(uments).
As a group owner, you can choose a group email address as well as put up invites to select friends and request them to join.
There is also a chat function for the group to interact live online.
This is a powerful tool for networking and having discussions online at the same time.
The next article (the final part of this new Facebook Groups series), we will cover the implications these changes will have on internet marketers.
I mentioned that this will have implications to internet marketers particularly those utilising Facebook among the social media available to promote their business.
I also covered briefly the headings and functionality that is present in the new Facebook groups.
In this article, further new features will be elaborated on.
Again, I reiterate that things may change, new features added or removed subsequent to this article being written.
Access to Facebook groups can be done in the usual manner.
On the sidebar of your Facebook homepage, there will be a listing of the groups you have joined.
The new Facebook groups can be accessed in the same way.
An icon can be chosen for each individual group.
This will also appear next to the heading of the group homepage.
This will allow easier access to your group by recognition of a visual image instead of scrolling down your list.
The main significant change is the new privacy settings for the groups.
This will have the most implications on your online marketing using Facebook.
There are now three different privacy settings, namely open, closed or secret.
For each of these settings, you now need a request from a current member before you can sign up.
If the privacy setting chosen is Open, this also applies.
In other words, in an Open group, while you can see content put up by group members, as well as view who has actually joined the group, you cannot interact with them or share stuff until after you have been invited to join.
If you are not a group member, and have not received an invite, the other settings are even more restrictive.
In the Closed setting, you can find out that the group exists, but cannot view any content put up within the group.
Secret setting will prevent you from knowing about the group or finding out about its existence until you are invited to become part of it.
As a group, you can view the items shared as discussed in Part 1: Press Release.
Again, this would be Post(ed messages), Links, Photos, Videos, Events and Doc(uments).
As a group owner, you can choose a group email address as well as put up invites to select friends and request them to join.
There is also a chat function for the group to interact live online.
This is a powerful tool for networking and having discussions online at the same time.
The next article (the final part of this new Facebook Groups series), we will cover the implications these changes will have on internet marketers.