Linking Your Library or Genealogical Society’s Facebook Group to Its Facebook Page

Does your library or genealogical society run both a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group? Or multiple Groups? If so, you might not yet be aware that Facebook quietly rolled out a new feature recently–the ability to link together your Facebook Page and your Facebook Group.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook made this new feature available to everyone in July.¹

What’s the Advantage?

How might this new feature benefit your library or genealogical society?

Strengthening Your Brand

This new ability is a way to further establish your organization’s brand presence on Facebook.

• If you manage an online community via a Facebook Group, you should want to promote that Group from your brand’s Facebook Page, and make those interested in your organization aware that you have an official Facebook Group too.
• The opposite is true for any Facebook Group that your organization manages. You want to reinforce your organization’s brand as much as possible in that Group space.

Posting to Your Group as Your Page

What I like most about this new feature is the long-overdue ability for a Facebook Page to post in a Facebook Group as the Page, rather than as an individual user/member. Until now, this has not been possible (unless your library or society violates Facebook’s terms of use by using a personal Profile for your organization instead of a brand Page).²

I help manage a number of Facebook Pages, for the library at which I work as well as a couple genealogical societies for which I volunteer.

There are times when I want to post as me (Colleen Greene) to the Texas State Genealogical Society’s (TxSGS) Facebook Group. Usually this is when I post something like a research query or a personal recommendation, as well as when I want to post a personal comment to another Group member’s post.

But often I want to be able to interact with TxSGS’s Facebook Group as the organization, as TxSGS. I serve on the TxSGS Conference Committee and used to serve on its Executive Committee. When I post promotional items about the conference to the TxSGS Facebook Group, I am speaking as the official organization (not as me, Colleen), so I want to be able to post as TxSGS. Previously I would add my name and committee title to the end of any such posts, much like a byline. There have also been times when I wanted to be able to comment on another Group member’s post as the official voice of TxSGS instead of as Colleen, when responding with an official answer from the society.

With this new linking feature, I can now execute all the above scenarios.

If you are connected to a linked Facebook Page and Facebook Group as a manager of both, you can now choose how you want to post or comment in that Group–as your personal self (personal Profile) or as the organization (brand Page).

You do this by toggling between these options on a Group post or comment, much like Facebook Page managers and administrators could already do when interacting with other brand Pages. By default, this feature is set to have you post or comment now as the Page instead of as your personal Profile.

How To Link the Two?

Connecting your Facebook Page and Group is at first a two-step process.

Part A: Adding the Groups Tab to Your Facebook Page

If a Groups tab does not already show up in your Page’s menu of tabs in the left sidebar, you need to first add this tab to your Page.

If it already does show up, skip to Part B.

Step 1

Click on the Settings link located in the top right corner of your Facebook Page.

Step 2

From the main Settings view, click on the “Edit Page” link in the left sidebar.

On the “Edit Page” view page, look for the Tabs section located about halfway down the page.

Step 3

At the very bottom of that Tabs section, look for the “Add a Tab” button that is located below the list of Tabs that are already active on your Facebook Page.

Step 4

You should now see a pop up box titled “Add a Tab” that displays a list of available tabs to add to your Facebook Page. Look for the Groups tab, then click the “Add Tab” button located to the right of it.

Step 5

Once you have added the Groups tab, you will be returned to that same “Add a Tab” pop up box–minus the Groups tab that you just added to your Facebook Page.

Close that box to return to the main Edit Page view in Settings.

Step 6

The Tabs section displayed now in the Edit Page view of your Settings identifies your Facebook Page’s active tabs, in the order in which they are displayed on your public-facing Facebook Page.

If you would like to reorder your Tabs list, including moving your new Groups tab, drag your Groups tab and drop it in the desired location. This new ordering is automatically saved.

Part B: Linking Your Page and Group

Once the Group tab is added to your Page, you can tackle linking your Group to it.

Step 1

Click on the Groups tab located in your Facebook Page’s left sidebar.

Step 2

This will bring up a new view on your Facebook Page that allows you to either a) create a brand new Facebook Group that is automatically tied to your Page, or b) Link an existing Facebook Group to your Page.

If you already have a Facebook Group, click on the blue “Link Your Group” button.

Step 3

This will display a pop up box that lists all of the Facebook Groups that you manage (as a Group administrator). If you are just a regular member of a Group, that Group will not show up here.

Find the desired Facebook Group and click on the “Link” button located to the right of the Group name.

Step 4

You will now be asked to verify if you really want to link this Group to your Facebook Page. If yes, click on the blue “Link Group” button, otherwise click on “Cancel.”

Step 5

After successfully linking your Facebook Group to your Facebook Page, you will be returned to the new Groups tab and view on your public-facing Facebook Page.

Repeat this entire Step B process if you have additional Groups that you want to link to your Facebook Page.

Sources Cited