Following is a guest post from my Canadian friend, Rebecca Leaman, who writes for Wild Apricot and runs the NonProfitWorkshop with Chris Garrett and me.

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You set up a Facebook Group, sent out invitations, and attracted some members. For a while, the discussion board was humming, members posted their photos and videos, and the comments were flying. Cool!

But after that first mad flush of excitement, is that Group activity starting to fade?  Before you give it up or shut it down, here are five tips to get that good energy flowing again:

1. Get in touch

The admin of a Group can send a message to all members — as long as there aren’t more than 5,000 of them.  Just look for the “Message All Members” link on your Group page.

Do make your messages interesting, relevant, brief… and rare. “Too many messages” is the Number One reason for people leaving a Facebook Group.  Once or twice a month is usually plenty for Group mass-messaging, unless you’ve got urgent news that must be shared.

2. Freshen up

A stale page won’t get visits. But if your Group page is a continual source of interesting photos, videos, links and discussion, members will soon learn to make a point of checking in regularly so they don’t miss a thing!

3. Throw a party

Create an event — real or virtual — with the “Create Related Event” link on your Group page. The “Edit Event” page lets you set your Group as host, so the event will show up in its Events section, and send out invitations for people to attend.

As with any party, you’ll want to put some thought into planning the event — make it convenient for folks to attend, and give them good reasons to want to turn out for it.
Facebook Events are famous for people saying that they’ll attend and then not showing up, by the way, so you might want to follow up with a conventional invitation and/or make a contingency plan in case of smaller-than-expected numbers.

4. Give a reward

Adding your most active Group members as “Officers” can help to make them feel more actively involved, which in turn will often encourage them to add content, join discussions, watch for unsuitable postings, promote your Group to their friends, and otherwise help you to make it a success.

Officers have the same privileges as regular members, but their names and titles will appear on the Group page for all to see. You get to create whatever titles you want, so go ahead and get wildly creative!

5. Get out more

Groups can easily die for lack of members. Have you promoted your Group lately, to help new people find you?

Think outside the Facebook box to publicize your Group, and go wherever prospective new members may be found — at your own website or blog, in your mailing list, on social media sites, and even offline.

Unfortunately, Facebook Groups are assigned really ugly URLs that are impossible to remember — let alone to give out in a PSA or over the phone!  (Something like this: www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=85395661509.)

Fortunately, there’s Memorable Web Addresses, an application that will let you set up an easy-to-remember custom URL that people can use to access your Group directly. You can choose just about any name you want, to a maximum length of 30 letters. (Something like this: groups.to/plasticroses.)

Sometimes a Facebook Group  — like any social group, online or otherwise — will have a limited natural lifespan, especially if it’s formed around a timely issue or cause, or when a few key founding members move on to other interests.

But don’t just let the Group fade away until you’ve given it every chance. It’s not just about the admins — your members have invested their time and energy here, too. Why not ask them how they’d like to see the Group evolve, or what other kind of connection they’d like to maintain with your organization or cause?

The answers might surprise you.