How to use our Facebook group for Perth bloggers – WABAK

One of my blogging students had the fabulous idea of starting a Facebook group for Perth bloggers who met in my courses, so that they could all keep in touch and follow each other’s blogging journeys. WABAK: Western Australian Bloggers Amanda Knows was born in a hurried fashion as a result, and the odd name seems to have stuck. In fact, Rae from I Opened My Mouth and It Ran Away Without Me told me one afternoon we should absolutely change it but then came back the next day saying the opposite, with this justification:

So here’s why I don’t think it should change:
Western
Australia – not discriminatory includes country WA
Bloggers – proud to be a blogger that is who we are
Amanda – Amanda is our founder and fearless leader
Knows – Amanda brings us together, gives us the opportunity to share and discuss via this group, alerts us as to what is happening in our blogging world
Sounded out Wayback – was way back when we started
I think that we should share and contribute as individuals such as what we are doing and how it has hleped us to either improve/change/direct/focus our blogging world be it either business or pleasure/hobby. Sharing journeys allows other members who are interested to see how we/they can develop should they be interested. I like being nosey!

And I think Rae sums up exactly what I’d like this group to be all about. (Although I am not sure about being a fearless leader.) The only thing she failed to mention was that one of the key results of coming together in our Facebook group is the ability to organise physical meet ups, which must include cake. Very important!

WABAK blogger meet up in February 2014

How to use our Facebook group for WABAK

Now, I know that some of our members have never had the cause to be involved in a Facebook group before, and I promised to give a bit of a how to guide to help them out. To start with, if you haven’t joined the group yet, head to WABAK on Facebook (assuming you have a Facebook account) and hit the “Join Group” button – I’ll be notified that you’ve asked to join and will approve you, unless I don’t know who you are, of course!

So, what can you do in this group?

1. Respond to posts in the group – some of them are from me, some from other group members. You can “like” or comment just like any other Facebook post. However, only people who are in the group can see it (it’s a “closed” group).
2. Post an update, a question, a link or an image yourself. Stick to posting stuff that is useful for other WA bloggers (if anyone gets too self-promotional we will get out a big stick). When we have meet ups I definitely encourage you to post any photos you take afterwards. Makes the fun last longer! 
3. Edit files. Yes, we have files! Facebook groups give you the ability to have basic documents. See the image below for the spot where you can click “Files” – at the moment, we have just one document, a list of the blogs written by group members. When you open the document, there’s an option in the top right to “Edit” – click that and edit away, then click “Save” at the bottom.

Menu options for the WABAK Facebook group – using Files

So, those are the three main functions you can use in our group at the moment – simple, right? Oh, and before you ask, the arrangement of the members’ profile pictures across the top (you can see them in this graphic) is based on who has previously left a comment or made an update – the most recent updater is on the left. So it’s constantly changing.

Have you got some more questions about using our Facebook group? Let me know in the comments and if there’s something important that I’ve missed I’ll add it in to this blog post.