Facebook Will Start Surfacing Some Public Group Discussions in People’s News Feeds and Search Results

Facebook is expanding the reach of public groups today with new features that could lead to more people engaging in group discussions, but also potentially more visibility for dangerous or nefarious communities. The company announced multiple updates today for Groups that include automating moderation and covering people’s News Feeds with group discussions.

Facebook says it’ll start surfacing public group discussions in people’s News Feeds. These can show up if someone shares a link or reshares a post. Beneath that link, people will be able to click to see relevant discussions that are taking place about that same post or link in public Facebook groups. The original poster can then join the discussion even without joining the group.

Recommended groups will also show up in the group tab if Facebook deems them relevant to people’s interests. Additionally, public group posts will start showing up in search results outside of Facebook, effectively giving them more reach and a much larger audience. Facebook says any posts marked false by a third-party fact checked won’t be eligible to be surfaced through these features.

They are also introducing a bunch of Group Admins tools

• Admin Assist: Set rules so Facebook can help moderate posts in your group for you. For example, you can decline posts with certain keywords or from people who haven’t been in the group very long or whose posts have been reported in the past.
• New Topics: Organize content by topic with hashtags and pin a topic to the top of the group to highlight it for everyone.
• Branded Content for Public Groups: Use the Brand Collabs Manager to make money from your Public groups by connecting with brands looking to promote their products and services.
• Community Management Certification: Take an online course on how to build, grow and support your communities through a set curriculum and exam.

Some new Group features announced include

• Chats: Create and join real-time conversations within a group.
• Prompts: Start conversations with a new type of collaborative post where you can share photos about a specific topic and swipe through everyone’s responses.
• Q&A: Admins can host text-based question-and-answer sessions that are easy for the community to participate in.
• Customize your profile in groups: Change the way you show up in different groups by setting a custom profile photo and sharing info that’s relevant to each community.