Hello, and welcome to the Midlife Business Show with Suzanne Mountain. This is the podcast that celebrates all those of us who are building a business during our middle years. I’m an ex corporate girl who started my business six years ago in my fifties. And I’m loving it. This podcast is here to inspire you with conversations with other entrepreneurs about the messy and magical ups and downs of this period of our lives. Plus, I’ll be sharing simple, actionable step by step strategies to help you build a business with impact and a life that you love

Suzanne (00:43):

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Midlife Business Show. Today I’m gonna talk to you about why it’s okay that seven people left my Facebook group within an hour. Now this is quite a hot topic on Facebook and any of you who are Facebook users and in Facebook groups will will know about it. What I’m talking about is the use of the ‘at everyone’ tag. 

I’m going to share with you what happened and my thoughts on what took place. 

Just last week in my Facebook group, the Business Confidence Cafe. So on a Thursday night, I decided to post a poll asking the members of the group which topics they were interested in to grow their business, um, looking to create some new products. And I always like to do a bit of market research and I encourage my clients to do market research.

Suzanne (01:42):

So it seemed like a good thing to do.  I popped a quick poll into the Facebook group with a few topics that I thought might be of interest. 

And a couple of hours later I checked back to see how the poll was doing, and Facebook Insights informed me that only five people had seen the poll. Now, you know, you don’t have to be very good at maths to know that five people out of 677 is not a great sample. 

And so I then decided that I would use the app everyone tag, to give people a chance to vote because I thought that might be helpful. Quite quickly, I got a response from a member of the group, someone actually, I don’t know, who doesn’t participate in any of the regular posts or even the promotion days that happen once a month. A name that’s not familiar to me, and this lady said, 

“I’m hating this tag everyone thing, sorry but that alone, is reason for me to leave the group. Nothing personal, but feedback from me and so many others is to stop tagging everyone” 

 And I thought this was really interesting because absolutely she is entitled to her opinion on this.

 I have seen in my feed other people complaining about the at everyone tag, and I’ve also been tagged in groups that I’ve forgotten that I’m in. And so sometimes when I see the @everyone tag, I think, Oh gosh, what am I doing here? Or I’d forgotten I was in this group. 

What was interesting was this person’s decision to make this announcement. And that actually drew quite a response from a number of other people in the group with many of my wonderful loyal clients and members saying that they didn’t mind me using the tag. 

I think actually this lady wasn’t, although it was in my group and in response to me using the tag, I didn’t feel it was personal.

Suzanne  (03:52):

I felt she actually said it’s not personal, but I did feel it was just her exasperation with the use of this tag. But she did choose to leave and six other people chose to leave as well. The other six didn’t make any announcement. 

And you know what? That’s okay in my view, if being tagged irritates you or you can’t remember why you are in the group, then take that as a signal that you should leave, that this is not the right place for you.

 Now, we all join Facebook groups, don’t we? For many, many reasons. Sometimes we think they’re going to be something that they’re not or sometimes we join them because you know, a friend invites us that that doesn’t always mean they’re the right place for us. And heavens are, our feeds are so busy that to have posts showing up from groups we don’t want to be in and posts that we don’t want to see just seems such a waste of your time.

Suzanne (04:56):

So, you know, my perspective is if you find yourself in that situation, then just leave. You don’t need to make an announcement about it. This is not sort of some dinner party where you are sat around just one table. If it doesn’t suit you any longer, that group go. 

The person who is running that group, especially a free group, is doing it part of the good of their hearts and and often trying to help people. I mean, okay, they’re looking to develop a relationship and ultimately to get some business, but they’re doing that for nothing. And if you don’t wish to be there or you don’t wish to see their posts, then please leave and make space for some others that do want to be there. Because as a group owner and I have several groups, I’d much rather have a smaller group of engaged individuals than a large group full of people who don’t wanna hear from me.

Suzanne  (05:55):

Now, you might be thinking that seven people in a couple of hours is a really big below and quite a loss to my group, but my view is different. 

So as a result of me using that tag, seven people found themselves in the wrong place and chose to leave. Now that not point, not 1% of the group, let me just say that again, not point, not 1%. That is a very, very small percentage. 99.9% were tagged and chose to stay and many of them voted in the poll saying what help they needed. 

So for me, although seven people left, the use of that tag and the creation of the poll was successful. As a business owner, it’s our job to lead our business and to have a vision for where it needs to go. However, we do not operate in a vacuum. We need feedback from the market and our potential clients to make sure what we’re offering is what they need, otherwise, we will become extinct as a business

Suzanne (07:09):

So I will continue to use the @everyone tag occasionally when I want to know something or when I think that the post is of benefit to everyone in the group. 

Lastly, if you get tagged in the Facebook group and decide to leave, please remember, there’s no need to announce your departure. Just go. 

Finally, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who showed their support. I really appreciate you and to everyone who voted in the poll. 

Ironically, 46% of the people who voted in the poll within the group voted for growing Your Audience and Sales with Facebook groups, which I think just shows how wonderful Facebook groups are and how so many people rightly see them as an essential part of their strategy. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Midlife Business Show, where I share my experience and give my views on using the @everyone tag within my Facebook group. If you’re not in my Facebook group, please come and join us. It’s called the Business Confidence Cafe. I look forward to welcoming you in and can assure you that I only use the @everyone tag occasionally. 

Bye for now.

Speaker 1 (08:41):

Okay, that’s a wrap for today. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe, rate and review the Midlife Business Show. And if you’ve enjoyed it, tell your business buddies all about it. 

Bye for now.