How to Create a Facebook Group

Wondering how to create a Facebook group? Creating a Facebook group, or multiple Facebook groups, can help you meet new people, connect your social networks or interact with your friends in a whole new way.

How to Create a Facebook group?
A Facebook group is kind of like a club; people who share your interest in a specific topic can join your group and share information, plan events or just show their support for said topic. If a Facebook group for your desired topic doesn't already exist, you can create one, and you might win hundreds or thousands of followers to your group. By creating and joining groups, you can expand your online social networking circle and connect with other like-minded individuals who are interested in similar topics.

Do a little preliminary research.
Before learning how to create a Facebook group, find out whether or not the group already exists. Type keywords relating to your theoretical group into the Search box in the upper right-hand corner of the Facebook Web site. If there's already a group out there, you might just want to join that group, or you'll need to find a sufficiently unique angle to warrant creating an entirely new group.

Create a new group.
If the group you want doesn't already exist, click on the Groups icon from the Facebook toolbar in the bottom of your screen. When you get to the Groups page, click Create a New Group. From there, you'll have a screen where you're prompted to enter required information, such as the group name, description and type. Try to make your name descriptive so users can find you easily, and enter a complete description, as keyword searches target the description section of your group page. Select the appropriate category and sub-category.

Provide appropriate information.
Beyond the required information, the Create a Group page gives you an option to fill in voluntary contact information, such as office, e-mail, street address and city or town. Whatever information you enter into these fields is visible to group members. Avoid entering personal information unless you want to distribute information to the group.

Select a network.
Once you've entered the group information, you click the Create Group button. From there, you're prompted to select a network of people who can see and join your Facebook group. You can restrict it to specific social networks, or you can make it a global group that anyone in Facebook can see and join. If you restrict your group to a specific network, only members of that network can see and join your group.

A note on privacy.
Once you've learned how to create a Facebook group, you can set your group to three privacy levels: Open, Closed or Secret. An Open group is visible to anyone in the network, and anyone can join. A Closed group is visible to people on the network, but they cannot view the wall, post comments or otherwise interact with the group. People who want to join a Closed group must be approved by group administrators. Finally, a Secret group isn't visible to anyone on the network, and is available by invitation only. Choose this option if you don't want your group to be searchable or viewable by the general public.

Add a picture and invite your friends.
After you've created the group, you'll be prompted to add a picture. If you don't have a picture ready, you can skip this step and add a picture later. Then, you simply select friends to invite, and proceed to the Finish and View option. Congratulations: You've created your Facebook group!