If content is king and engagement is queen, then Facebook groups are the private parties with exclusive handshakes and the ‘jobs for the boys’ opportunities. Access to these groups have accelerated the success of Two Scots Abroad and guess what? You don’t have to be on the guest list to join.
Each of these Facebook groups for travel bloggers differ in the type of support and possibilities they offer, from social shares threads to financial opportunities, technical help, and topic advice. Every niche will have hundreds of groups, some will be more active than others. Let’s take a look at joining Facebook groups, how to behave and what each offers.
How to Join Facebook Groups
Each Facebook group has its own rules. Always read them before posting to avoid being kicked out. Facebook now has a nifty function for admins so when you as to a join a group a pop-up request information set by the group. In the olden days, groups asked bloggers to display their websites in their private profiles, if you can I would recommend still doing this.
Etiquette in Facebook groups for travel bloggers
Unless stated (see the list below), the majority of these groups do not like ‘link dumps’. This means you should avoid posting your content unless it is asked for. The majority of admins are voluntary, most run their own online companies and host groups to be helpful. Avoid backchat and be nice to others, you never know who you’ll be working with or for in the future!
Warning: two very useful groups have just stopped taking in new members because the admin was tired of members not reading the rules. Remember, admins are business owners who volunteer their time to control Facebook groups. Be nice, respect the rules.
General Blog Advice Facebook Groups
The following examples are travel related however there are groups for each niche. Take a look at the groups that other bloggers you work with/look up to are a part of and join.
Make Traffic Happen
Laura and I run a group for travel content creators who are looking to increase traffic to their websites. We also provide tips on how to increase your organic search engine traffic (e.g Google) through weekly tips. If you want to break through and drive real traffic to your blog, you must join our group. We also give away a LOT of really useful content and advice.
→ Make Traffic Happen – Support | SEO | Social Media
The Business of Blogging
This group is for asking questions and sharing information about the business of blogging (SEO, marketing, developing writing skills, etc). It is designed to foster a community dedicated to knowledge and growth for everyone involved. Any shared posts not directly related to the central topic will be deleted immediately.
Digital Nomad Wannabe
A go-to for affiliate based questions for me. Affiliates are when you recommend a product or service and receive a small amount of commission on that click-through or purchase. Lots of bloggers I respect are in this group.
→ DNW
We Travel We Blog (travel-specific)
A great group full of friendly, supportive bloggers. Admins, Mapping Megan and Talon from 1 Dad 1 Kid run a tight ship. Members ask for advice on everything from Pinterest to Plugins. There is also an application for website critique and other specific threads detailed below.
→ We Travel We Blog (closed to new members)
The Aspiring Travel Writer (travel-specific)
Dream of a travel writing career? Want to travel more and write about it? Join our group for tips and tricks for breaking into travel writing. This is a group to ask questions, share ideas and support each other in the travel blogging world. There are also sharing threads for social media in this group.
Food Blogger Entrepreneurs
The purpose of this group is to bring together food blogger entrepreneurs that are committed to learning how to run, build and optimize profitable food blogs & freelance food media services. They focus on cultivating an abundance mindset, business topics, and the technical aspects of food blogging workflows and production.
→ Join the Food Blogger Entrepreneurs
Social Media-Focused Facebook Groups
If content is king then engagement is the queen and there’s no point shouting into the Twitter/Faces/Insta abys if nobody is listening. Use force and exposure to break that barrier by liking, tweeting, pinning, flipping and commenting on other’s posts and they’ll do the same for you via organised social media share threads.
The following groups post specifically about social media. Be sure to read the group rules for each group as the purpose and direction varies.
Travel Bloggers Social Media Sharing Group
I part admin this very active share group set up by the lovely Emily Luxton. Daily threads include Twitter, Instagram, Stumble Upon, Pinterest, Facebook and a generic post share Saturday. We also have a weekly sponsored support, guest post callout, and questions threads.
→ Travel Bloggers Social Media Sharing Group
Slaying Social
This group is a space for travel content creators to discuss & learn how to turn our platforms and influence into meaningful vehicles for social change. The goal here is to empower you with the tools, resources and community you need to create an impact with your platform, whether that’s a blog, YouTube channel, podcast, Instagram, Tinder profile (jk) or whatever else.
Social Media Marketing Support
The “Social Media Marketing Support Group” is for travel bloggers and (aspiring)digital nomads who want to learn from and support each other with everything that is related to social media marketing. If you have a question about how to improve performance on x platform or a specific (technical) problem, the group aims to resolve the problem.
Food Bloggers Central (FBC) Social Sharing
This Facebook group is for food bloggers who want to collaborate with other bloggers on social media and collaboration (round up) food posts. Membership in the standard FBC Facebook Group is required. The group has “always open” social sharing threads and you can request collaboration posts.
We Travel We Blog {currently closed to new members}
Although this excellent group falls under the ‘catch all’ group, it also hosts a weekly Twitter threads where you can expect 30+ shares on your Tweet. I’ve been less active in this share but joined recently to assess its worth, during the share week my new article received 300 clicks from Twitter.
Under 1000 Club – Aspiring Travel Bloggers
This Under 1000 Club is all about helping travel bloggers grow their blogs, increase their readers and achieve their goals. You will get the opportunity to network with some fantastic bloggers, as well as share knowledge and learn new skills.
YouTube/Video Groups
There are heaps of groups to support video creation and provide YouTube advice, here are a few:
→ Travel Videographers: Link
→ Travel Video Youtube Group: Link
Pinterest-Specific Facebook Groups
If you are not using Pinterest to drive traffic back to your website yet I urge you to put everything down and start now. The Pinterest-specific groups listed below can help you understand Pinterest, how to use it, and also to promote your pins through sharing threads.
Pinterest for Travel Bloggers
This is a daily share group. Each day there is a light thread and heavy (50 pins). The heavy thread is usually maxed out by 1pm GMT so get in early. Home to mega Monday – this no limit thread will give you carpal tunnel
→ Pinterest for Travel Bloggers
Mappin Monday
A week-long thread, no limit to the number of pins, expect close to 200. I participated once and but it gave me anxiety! For those with the fear, check out their light thread.
→ Link: Mapping Monday
Travel Bloggers Guide to Pinterest
This group hosts daily and weekly Pinterest share threads for travel bloggers.
→ Travel Bloggers Guide to Pinterest
Travel Bloggers – Boost Your High Performing Pins
Vicki from Make Time to See the World is a bit of a Pinterest pro and part of her strategy is to re-distribute her older top-performing pins. This group celebrates pins with more than 350+ re-pins and at the weekends the big hitters, the 1000+ re-pins. Vicki is not afraid to call you out if your pin does not meet the quality threshold. This makes me happy.
→ Boost Your High Performing Pins
»»» Read more: do you want to rank on page 1 of Google? Here is how I do it
Building Backlinks
Travel Blogger SEO Support Group
This group is for travel bloggers only, with the purpose of helping each other’s blogs grow by connecting you with other bloggers to find link placement opportunities.
→ Travel Bloggers Link Swap Group
The Indirect Travel Blog Link Swap Party
You may already belong to a link swap group but this one is different as it does not involve direct swaps or even 3-way swaps. All of these swaps will be indirect meaning they will look more natural to Google. The general idea is every time you drop your own link, you look through the newsfeed and find something else you can link to.
Food Bloggers Link Building
Building backlinks is an important part of SEO. This group is to help aid in natural linkbacks to your site. This group is not for Round Up posts but for posts where you want to link back to a few similar or attractive recipes within your posts.
→ Join the Food Bloggers Link Building group
Guest Post Request Group (Travel)
This is when you write an article on another blogger’s site to help fill a gap in their knowledge which in return you receive advertisement and do follow backlinks to your articles. This is part of a solid strategy that has worked for me.
Guest Post Request Group
Collaborations
Collabs are quick. A blogger asks for a group of other writers to write a paragraph on a topic (e.g tips for travelling with children), your tip/paragraph is then combined with other responses to create a post. What do you get in return? Exposure and backlinks. Aim for a backlink to a specific post you are marketing over homepage, ask politely. You will need to know your DA if you are requesting collabs info, they are a great way to get to know other bloggers.
For Travel Bloggers: Travel Collab Post Opportunities
For Food Bloggers: FBC Social Sharing
Blog Article Comments
Travel Blogged is a bi-weekly comment thread. You read fellow bloggers articles and leave insightful comments.
Press Trips
Members share contacts for businesses who offer comped stays and tours etc. Great opportunity group.
Self-promotion groups
These groups allow you to share your own content, some on specific days under callouts though.
Local Groups
You will also find blogging groups local to you. For example, I admin the Scotland Travel Bloggers group for influencers in Scotland. There is also Edinburgh and UK Bloggers groups. Find a blogger who is from the same area as you and check out which groups they belong to or use the search function in Facebook to investigate.
London Bloggers
This group provides support and advice for any blogging or blogging-related questions, a sharing space and opportunities for us to collaborate. It is only open to London bloggers at this time.
Link Building for Aussie Small Businesses
Australian small business owners interested in boosting their website SEO by swapping links. Keeping it Australian leads to more relevant links. It’s open at all bloggers and small business owners in Australia.
Travel-Related Groups
There are hundreds of travel-related FB groups where bloggers circle like sharks waiting on content related questions so they can self-promote on. Tip, chill – use the search bar to see if any topics you can help with. Here are a few:
→ Girls LOVE Travel: Link
→ Women who love travel: Link
→ Girl Vs Globe: Link
→ South America Backpacking: Link
→ Europe Backpacking: Link
Today’s task
- Add your website to your personal Facebook page
- Create a spreadsheet of which groups you have joined
- Await acceptance
- Join one social media share
- Tell me how you got on in the comments below
Want more? Check out our SEO the Easy Way course and learn exactly how we rank on the first page of Google and bring incredible, free traffic to our sites.
Just when you thought Facebook was only for food pics and public grief you bounced into the world of blogging. Believe me, after a year of Facebook groups clogging up your newsfeed you’ll be pining for pictures of your pal’s kids on their first day at school. Jokes, no one really cares about those shots. I hope that joining Facebook groups is as fruitful for you as it has been for me. Although these are travel related examples there is an e-world of gangs for every niche.
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Thanks for the list – very useful!
You’re welcome, Megan!
This is priceless. Thank you.
A few month ago I didn’t know groups existed, now I’m in (or hopefully am about to be in) roughly 20. I’m going to need an assistant soon. Thanks for the great listing
Oh we hear you on that! We always say Facebook is very good at sucking away time.
This made me laugh big time!
Thanks for sharing this list…
No problem! Hope you find it useful.
This was such a helpful article! Thank you! I have a lot of work to do now… , but excited to get started!
Thanks for visiting, Lauren. Come back for more resources whenever you need it!
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing all those facebook groups!
I own a blog for travelers to Vermont (launched in 2008). It is not my priority anymore, so I am trying to see if someone could be interested in taking over. Google loves websites which have several years behind their belt. Reply if you’re interested or if you know where I could post that offer. Thanks!
Christine, you can list your blog for sale on sites like Flippa or Website Broker.
Oh, thanks so much!
Hello! Thanks so much for this. I have a question – is it best to join these groups using my personal Facebook (I have quite a big network on that already and it’s where I post my blog article links) or should I create a new Facebook profile for my blog? I hesitate to do that because I’d be starting from ground zero for my followers on that … thanks again!
Great questions! Groups will only let you in using your personal account and you should have your website clearly indicated on your profile. Hope this helps! Don’t forget to check our Facebook group on Fridays for weekly traffic tips!
Hi there!
Wow this is such a helpful page! I have now basically requested to join all of the groups in your list for Facebook! I don’t have a Pinterest or twitter account – is this very necessary as a blogger? Thank you so much for all the advice, it’s been so great!
Olivia
Cheers Olivia! Pinterest is my second biggest referrer for traffic. It’s not a social media channel like Facebook, more of a search engine. Personally I would recommend it unless you are happy just to focus on traffic from Google. Twitter is great for chatting with businesses but you could get away without it for a blog audience. Hope this helps!
thanks for the list Gemma
so helpful
It’s a great list. Do we have a list for technology groups as well?
I’m afraid we don’t at this time. Will consider adding in the future.
Thank you Gemma. I joined some Facebook groups and am anxious to meet some other bloggers!
Fantastic, Clare. Good luck.
Thanks for the useful and informative article.
Great article Gemma, really enjoyed reading and got some good resources to start with. Keep going.
Thanks Marie!
I have just stumbled across your blog as a newbie . I have also joined a couple of groups to see if I am accepted. So thank you
That’s great Sally!
Such a great idea to track them in a spreadsheet! I’m afraid I’ve already joined too many to remember why I joined each of them and what they are primarily for. Will definitely need to sit down and organize that out. Thanks for the tips!
It can be tedious to do it after the fact, but still useful!
thanks for the post.