Using Facebook Groups For The Win

As mentioned in last week’s blog, for the next few weeks I will be talking about how we at Jaftex have embraced social media and how it has benefited our companies. In particular, today I am going to talk about our implementation and use of Facebook groups.

I find that it sometimes takes a little time for our team to embrace new tools on social media. For example, when Facebook came out with groups, it took us a little bit to realize the value before we decided to pounce. When we decided that all was clear, the first group we started with was the Jaftex Retailers Group.

As I have discussed here many times before, the Jaftex Retailers Group was and has been a true home run for us at Jaftex as well as for our customers who are part of the group. It provided a quick and easy platform for us to communicate directly with customers and vice versa. Our customers love to be able to talk directly with management and get their questions answered in a safe place so to speak. It also provided a platform for retailers to talk amongst themselves, discuss ideas and help each other. It’s also where we provide our Seminar Of Success Classes for retailers. It’s a true win-win for all and will continue to be well into the future. We now have over 2000 participants and we are growing all the time.

Nowadays, I have weekly live updates in the Jaftex Retailers Group. These live videos are called Wednesday Wisdom. If you are a retailer, join me at 5 PM on Wednesday for my fabric and business wisdom for the week. It is a high-level overview of the important things going on that week and some other informative stuff too.

As time passed, more groups were embraced. We added a Jaftex Employee Group which proved especially helpful during Covid when there were a lot of updates to provide to employees about whether the office was open or not and things of that nature. We continue to use this page to communicate and keep morale high too. It’s also a fun place for employees to share personal photos, jokes and stuff like that. Some employees even post pictures of baked goods they made. Those are my favorites!

Then there is the #ScottSentMe2021 Challenge group where we communicate with the ScottSentMe challengers. This really helped to fire up people about my challenge and provided a place for participants to do show and tell and talk about all the shops they visited. It also provided a way for everyone to track the shops they visited for the challenge.

Then there is the Sales Rep Group. Like the Retailers Group, the Sales Rep Group provides us with a direct line of communication to the sales reps. It allows us to post simple updates of information that the reps need to know and the group provides an easy way to share that information. Again, like the Retailers Group, this allows the reps to talk with management and also talk amongst themselves about pertinent things going on in the field. It also allows the reps to share ideas with one another based on successes and failures. This is a win-win for the reps and the management team.

Then there is the Jaftex Brand Ambassadors Group. This is where our team communicates with our brand ambassadors. It is also where the brand ambassadors talk amongst themselves. Like the other groups, Facebook has provided a great and easy communications platform.

As you can see, as time goes on, we at Jaftex continue to embrace more and more of what the social platforms offer. In particular, the groups that I discussed today have proven to be beneficial for our company and help us to communicate more easily and more freely with specific people. To me, that is a beautiful thing.

Tell me about your experiences with groups. Do you like them? Are you embracing them? If not, why not?