Does this scenario sound familiar? You have built a vibrant community with much engagement… on Facebook.

But you now have a growing concern that Facebook will eventually make a change that will trash – or at least significantly stunt – your business model. Or worse, that your community will leave due to their alarm over Facebook’s profiling activities and disregard for privacy.

Then there is your realization that even though the community contains “your” prospects and “your” clients, Facebook actually knows more about them than you do. And if you do want to reach your community and beyond, you must pay for the privilege by boosting posts.

Finally, there is a growing recognition that a community on Facebook (or any other social platform) is really no better than being a tenant in someone else’s apartment building. Being an “owner” – building a community on your platform, not someone else’s – reduces risk, provides more control, and also allows tighter integration with marketing automation, CRM, and customer support systems.

As a result, many organizations are rethinking their Facebook-oriented community strategy. The key question, though, is HOW to migrate a vibrant group from rented premises (eg Facebook), to one fully under your own control. The answer: not easily, and not without risk.

Here are some ideas that can help, with a shout-out to Ronja Francoeur of the Braintrust Professional Institute:

• Pre-populate your new system with content
• Allow for third-party (Google/Microsoft/Apple/etc) or internal single-sign-on to the new platform so it’s not yet another password to remember.
• Have a soft-launch, and use ambassadors, community managers, or other user-leaders to spur conversations on the new system. You don’t want it to look like a ghost town.
• At the same time, solicit participants who want to be in a beta test group to give feedback on the new system. Not only will this raise awareness and build anticipation, but the beta testers will add useful content. (It will also start to swing momentum to the new system by removing key people from the legacy Facebook group.)
• Once a launch date is set, use online (email, Facebook posts, etc) and offline promotions to publicize the launch.
• Schedule webinars to show people “the tour” of the new platform and help them navigate it.
• Record the webinar and make it available to others in the community.
• Slice up the recording and make short, laser focused videos on how to perform key tasks and trouble issues where users are getting stuck.
• Allow users on the new system the option to get notified (via email, or text message) about activity on the new platform, or if there is a comment on their threads.
• Provide incentives to make the switch: digital swag, labelled as founding members, coupons/discounts, etc.
• Set up a contest for all who register/switch to the new group by a certain date.
• Set a deadline for when the Facebook group will be shut down (or turned into a read-only group)
• Once the new community is launched, change the graphics and “about” content for the Facebook group, so that people know to go to the new group address.
• Create an FAQ for reference, and post on the old Facebook (and new community) pages.

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