Recently there have been MAJOR changes to group members! Many Facebook groups lost substantial amounts of group members yesterday, leaving the group owners shocked at the sudden change.

I can understand your shock. Losing thousands of people in one day from a group you’ve worked HARD to build up is scary to say the least! And so, if your group members were kidnapped and you’re wondering what happened to them, here’s the answer!

It’s not as bad as you may be thinking. In fact…it’s a really good thing!

Help! My Group Member Count Dropped by Thousands!

Facebook is trying to help us weed out people that were ADDED and not INVITED. Facebook is removing members that were added by someone and never actually visited your group. This, in short, means that you will see your group numbers decrease, some more drastic than others.

If you did major “add your friend” campaigns or promos you will see MAJOR number changes. In the long run, it will help you with engagement but you may be worried right now that you are losing people.

This Change is Good, Because:

✔️Your member total is now accurate to who’s IN your group!

✔️You can now send a notification to their phones with an invite!

✔️Facebook’s algorithms will improve in your group for because the people who are there actually want to be there.

✔️Stats are going to be much better now that the dead weight is gone.

DON’T WORRY!! Those people didn’t even know they were really there because they did not accept an invitation to the group.

THIS IS THE EMAIL THAT WAS SENT FROM FACEBOOK!

“We’re making some updates to how members are invited to your group, and we wanted to share these changes with you. To help ensure people join Facebook Groups that are relevant and meaningful to them, you’ll see the following changes:

Updated Group Invitation — Now, when people are invited to a group, they can accept or decline the invite. Before, people could be added to groups by friends who thought they might be interested in them, and they’d immediately become a member. Some people may have been added to your group, but have never visited it.
Invited Section — In the next few weeks, people who’ve been added to your group — but have never visited it — will appear in the Invited section of your Members list, which only admins and moderators can view. They won’t be considered a member until they accept their invite. This means they will no longer be included in your group’s total member count, so you may see a decrease in your group’s total member count.
Reminder Notification — Because you’re an admin, in the next few weeks you’ll be able to send one notification to invited people to remind them to accept or decline the invite to your group.”

HOW do you GROW YOUR GROUP NOW?

When someone is invited to a group, they will receive at least two notifications from Facebook. FB sends one notification when someone has been invited to a group, and they send a second reminder notification a few days later if that person still has not joined the group.

From the ‘Invited’ section, admins can also send reminders to individual people. There is not a notify all option as people have already received notifications from Facebook about their group invite.

To encourage your group members to invite people to your group you can teach them to do the following —

Add them to the group, then send them a message that states:

“Hey, friend! I am in this fun group XXXX and there is this really great post about __________. I would love for you to see it. I added you so all you need to do is click this link and accept the add. www.facebook.com/groups/YOURGROUPLINK
Once you are in I will tag you in the post or you can have fun searching around a bit.”

If you do not want to add them but would rather they add themselves, then send them a quick message about why you want them in this group:

“Hey, friend! I am in this fun group on XXXXX and there is this really great post about __________. I would love for you to see it. You can request to join at www.facebook.com/groups/YOURGROUPLINK and once you are in I will tag you in the post.”

Or…

Collect the URL of the post you want them to see. Simply right click on the posts time stamp and copy the URL, then send them a quick message:

“Hey friend! I am in this fun group on XXXXX and there is this really great post about __________. I would love for you to see it. You can request to join at www.facebook.com/groups/YOURGROUPLINK and then come back here and click on this link: (post the link to the actual post).”

I would love to know if you have seen changes to your group. Please share this blog post with your friends, and check back for updates on this issue as we continue to collect information!

How to Find Your Kidnapped Group Members:

I’d also love to invite you to join the #ThinkSocial Society where you can get quick access to both experts and like-minded business owners every day for real talk (we cut through the rumors and get to the facts!!) I’ll see you there!