I moved my private mastermind off of Facebook groups. Here's why and where I moved my community so we could have a better experience interacting with one another.

1. Denise
Wakeman
Why I Moved My Private Mastermind Off of Facebook
Groups
denisewakeman.com/online-visibility/why-i-moved-my-private-mastermind-off-of-facebook-groups
I moved my private mastermind off of Facebook groups. It had nothing to
do with the Cambridge Analytica scandal or the fact that Facebook has
been mining and storing our data for years.
Let me back up … for a long while, I’ve been contemplating how to
streamline my offers in such a way that I could serve more authors and
online business owners while also creating more room for me to take off
on an adventure when time and space permitted.
I was mulling this over when I was introduced to Tara Gentile by way of an
article she published on Medium. Impressed with her writing and ideas, I
continued following and reading her work. I noticed in Tara’s bio that she
was the Founder of CoCommercial, “the fluff-free social network for small
business owners on a mission.” That was intriguing.
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2. One day I clicked over to CoCommercial and decided to join so I could see
what it was all about. I instinctively knew that this community was a model
for what I was trying to articulate in my mullings about the change I
wanted to make.
Not long after I joined, Tara announced she was doing a two-day
workshop at Creative Live in San Francisco. It was about building
community and integrating it into your business growth strategy. I booked
my hotel and ticket immediately.
Fast forward… four weeks after attending Tara Gentile’s community
building workshop, I launched my own community… Marketing
Trailblazers.
Why the change?
To be honest, I’d wanted to get theVisibility Mastery
Lab off of Facebook for a while, but wasn’t sure
where to put it – what platform to use.
Facebook is a huge distraction. People might log in
to participate in the Lab, but as soon as they’re there,
they get sucked away by ads, by political arguments,
by Aunt Betty, by other groups…
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3. Given that one of the goals of the Lab is to help you get past the
distractions so so you can learn and focus on mastering your online
marketing, being on FB can be counter-productive.
Time seems to disappear when people are on Facebook, and Comparison
Fatigue makes people zone out.
I want members to feel buoyed up by visiting the Lab, not bogged down by
Comparison Fatigue and zoned out!
Facebook groups are terrible for archiving and searching for
information.You may have used the “search” function, but you may have
also noticed that it doesn’t actually work very well!
I want members to get answers to questions you can’t Google, not
frustration that you can’t find what you’re looking for!
There are minimal if any privacy and control issues for members of a
Facebook group. Facebook can do whatever Facebook wants with the
images and text that members upload. Not to mention that you don’t have
much control over what it shows in your stream and who will or won’t get
notifications about the posts.
We needed a space of our own where we could actually maintain the
privacy and confidentiality we value.
In general, Facebook promotes shallow, often meaningless exchanges
over deep, meaningful discussions. This isn’t the kind of culture I want to
promote.
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4. I want our Visibility Mastery Lab to be a space for meaningful
conversations, and sharing of our vulnerable selves and the challenges we
face to get our messages out to the world.
You deserve to have your conversations in a noise-free, ad-free zone, that
is not owned by a big corporation that sees us data points in their
algorithm!
In short, I’m tired of Facebook and it doesn’t serve my purposes. I want a
space that our community can call our own, so we moved.
And, the platform I chose, Mighty Networks, makes it possible for me to
create private groups within the larger community so the private Visibility
Mastery Lab group not only can participate in the community but also has
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5. their private space where only mastermind members can see and
participate in their own conversations.
By creating my own community space, I can now open it up to the friends,
followers, and connections I have on various social networks.
So, what are the objections to moving off of Facebook?
But I like Facebook! And I’m already ON Facebook!
A peek at the Topics Index in the Marketing Trailblazers
community.
Change is challenging. And, as we all know, it’s inevitable.
In addition to everything listed above, here are some of the fabulous things
about the new space:
Events are shown in YOUR time zone! No more having to scramble
your brain to figure out what time the event is! And, if you have a
global community, this is important.
You can find other members based on their “specialty” (i.e., their
primary business niche)
You can find people based on their physical proximity to you,
wherever you happen to be in the world (so if you’re traveling, and
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6. another member is nearby, the mobile app will tell you! As we grow,
this will be super-cool!)
You can write “Articles” with as many embedded images and videos
as you want! (“Posts” are shorter messages; “Articles” are longer
ones)
You can include images and/or videos in your comments on other
people’s (or your own) Posts and Articles, too!
You can send private messages to other members, just like on
Facebook
There’s a fabulous mobile app, that makes it really easy to use on-
the-go!
The content is easy to organize and find via the search function with
various filters. You can hone in on exactly what you’re looking for
It’s a distraction-free zone, solely focused on supporting the members
on their marketing journey
What is Marketing Trailblazers all about?
Marketing Trailblazers is a support and social community for
adventurous business owners seeking to master online marketing.
Marketing Trailblazers is a community of marketers, coaches, consultants,
authors, artists and other creative business owners on the journey to grow
our businesses with smart marketing.
The community is designed as a safe and supportive space to ask
questions, get real-world, real experience answers, meet your peers,
share stories and most importantly grow your business.
My vision is to build a global community of independent online business
owners coming together to help one another succeed, grow, and make an
impact in the world with their important work.
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7. There you have it. That’s why I moved my private
mastermind group off of Facebook and on to our own
platform. The experiment is young. I launched on
March 22 to a small segment of my email list and
several people jumped into the community right
away. I’m rolling out the invitations to my email list
and on social media slowly to ensure I have the time
and energy to greet each new member and get them comfortable with a
different model for getting the knowledge, support and encouragement
they want in order to build and grow their business.
Ready to jump into the community? Click here to check it out. I’d love to
welcome you to our community!
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Denise Wakeman is a Digital Marketing Strategist and Founder of the
Marketing Trailblazers community. Since 1996, she has worked with
hundreds of creative professionals and online entrepreneurs around the
world to help them build their business and strategically use social
marketing to get more visibility, traffic, leads, customers, and opportunities.
Denise is passionate about travel and how it can inspire you to think
bigger and go for what’s possible in your business and life. As an early
adopter and active experimenter, Denise loves helping authors and online
entrepreneurs navigate the adventure of growing their business on the
Web. Learn more at DeniseWakeman.com.
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