Creating a FB group for your local class
NB: In order to create an Hour of Power® GROUP on Facebook, you must be an Active Licensed Instructor/Club/Independent Provider of the workout, endorsed and authorized by Fitness4x4 Ltd.
STEP 1: Choosing Your Group Name
1.1 If you are an Hour of Power® Franchisee then your Group name should match the Territory to which you have been given exclusivity. If you are an ordinary instructor or independent provider, then you may be able to choose your venue name, local area name or regional name, however all names must receive approval and endorsement by Fitness4x4 Ltd before being assigned to your group and must be in one of the following formats:
Hour of Power Workout – ‘Location or Venue’
Eg. 1 – Hour of Power Workout – Kensington
Eg. 2 – Hour of Power Workout – MyGym
or…
HOP Workout – ‘Location or Venue’
Eg. 1 – HOP® Workout – Kensington
Eg. 2 – HOP® Workout – MyGym
1.2 As far as which option to go for, we recommend using the full ‘Hour of Power’ text unless your venue or location name is particuarly long.
1.3 Having Trouble Choosing a Name?
If you are having trouble choosing the best name for your group, contact [email protected] who will be able to advise you directly and provide the authorization for your final chosen name.
Step 2: CREATING THE GROUP
2.1 To create a Facebook Group, go to facebook.com/groups. You will notice a Create Group 
For the purpose of this tutorial, we will create a temporary Group named Hour of Power® Workout – Test Group
2.2 It is recommended that your Group Privacy is set to ‘Public’, mostly because non-members can only view the content of your group and it is fairly easy to combat potential spammers even if they join the group just to spam it. You will be able to switch privacy back to ‘Private’ at any time, as long as your group has fewer than 5000 members.
2.3 Optional: ‘Pin to Shortcuts‘ adds a link to your Group to your Facebook Shortcuts menu on the left side.
2.4 A required final step during group creation is adding at least one member (other than yourself) from your friend list. Make sure that it is someone who would be interested in joining your group or a person that you will promote to a group admin as soon as you create the group.
2.5 Finally, you will be prompted to select group icon but you can easily skip this step out you wish.
Note: It may take some time for your group to show up in search settings, but it’s worth remembering that Public groups are indexed faster by Facebook than Private Groups.
Step 3: GROUP OPTIONS
3.1 You can find group options by clicking on the button on the right hand side, next to the Group Notifications button.
Select Edit group settings
Group settings are fairly simple and straightforward, but we will review all the options that are available here.
3.2 Group name / Privacy
*Use this if you need to update group name, group icon, group type or privacy settings
.
Optional: Pick a Group Type, we recommend selecting Club, School or class, Support or Custom
To update Privacy settings, click on Change Privacy Settings button and select group privacy
3.3 Membership Approval
If you wish to have full control and manually approve all membership requests, you should select Any member can add members, but an admin or a moderator must approve them. However, selecting Any member can add or approve members is also perfectly fine and it makes it easier for existing members to invite and approve new members of your group which will make the group grow faster.
Note: Only members can post in your Group. Non-members cannot post or comment on any group content. They would only be able to read group posts and content when the group is Public.
3.3 Web and Email Address
Note: We will review this option later in the tutorial, it is entirely optional.
3.4 Description
Information entered here can be used for important information about your Group/Class that would always be visible in the right column. It can include class times, link to your profile on HOP website or link to your venue locations.
In case your group privacy is set to Closed, information in Description section, along with a list of group members are only two pieces of information visible to people who are not group members
Note: If your group is Public, you don’t need to include too much information in Description.
3.5 ‘Tags’
This is another optional setting, but you can add keywords like fitness, Fitness4x4, HOP®, Hour of Power®, Ultimate Workout or other relevant tags, which can help people locate your group more easily & potentially reach the audience you intend to reach.
3.6 Posting permissions / Post approval
Here, you can select if admins, moderators and members, or just admins would be able to post to Group wall. Please note that when Only admins can post to the group is selected, members who are not admins will still be able to comment on your posts, images and videos, but they will be unable to add new posts or upload their photos and videos to the group.
You should select this if you want more control, if you noticed that spam post count is increasing or if you simply wish that only posts and updates made by admins are shown in Group feed. Leave All group posts must be approved by an admin or a moderator unchecked unless you are dealing with heavy amount of spam that requires you to review each post.
It’s important to remember that you don’t need to worry about spammers too much. If any member starts posting spam, you will be able to remove that member from the group and permanently block his access to the group. Other members will also be able to help you by reporting content that might be spam.
3.7 The Web ADDRESS of your group (Creating a ‘prettier’ link name)
If you wish to have a more easy-to-read web URL link to your group, you can set this option in Group Settings by clicking on Customise Address button.
This will open a new popup Customise web and email address
In our example, we will type HOPTestGroup in the textbox. The link to the group will change from the original link (which was https://www.facebook.com/groups/1426773144292105) to a new, prettier looking link – https://www.facebook.com/groups/HOPWorkoutTestGroup
After you enter the name and click on Customise Address, you will notice that the link (URL) of the group and the email address appeared in group settings
This facebook email address can be if you wish to send updates to all group members from your own email address. Simply type in the FB email address you have created (as the recipient) and send it from your own normal email account, and it will be sent to everyone in your Group.
If you wish change web and email address at any point, simply click on the Change Address button. You will be able to change group address, as long as your group has fewer than 5000 members.
Note: The group will always be accessible from the original link, even if you create a ‘pretty’ link. So both addresses can run in tandem.
IMPORTANT Note: Be very careful with Customised Address settings.
Keep in mind that group web and email address customisation is an optional setting and it should not be confused with Group Name which can be changed at any time. Web and Email Address can only be set once. If you think that you might need to change the “pretty link” at some point in the future (for example if you expect to change Group names) or if you are unsure what to use for your pretty link, you should avoid using Customise Address option, or contact [email protected] for advice before going ahead.
3.8 Pinned Posts
Pinned post should be used to post important announcements or basic/important HOP class information. Pinned post will always be shown as first post on the group wall in PINNED POST section, above RECENT ACTIVITY posts.
To pin a post, simply click on the icon in the upper right corner of your post, and select Pin Post from the Menu. Page will refresh and your post will be shown in PINNED POST section.
You can only have one Pinned post at a time, so if you pin a new post it will replace the previously pinned post.
3.9a Adding Members
To add members, simply start typing friends’ name in Add members box in the sidebar.
You can invite one or more members by selecting them from a drop down list that will show up when you start typing, or by entering an email address. If an e-mail address is connected to a Facebook profile, Facebook user will receive an invitation and a link to your group. Finally, they will need to click on Join Group to confirm that they want to join.
To spread the word about your new group, you can also post links to your group on your former Facebook page wall, or personal Facebook profile wall. We will also post link to your group on your HOP instructor profile and in class location info section.
3.9b Admin, moderator and member management
To promote another member to Group Admin or Moderator, go to Members tab, click on the icon next to the name and select Make Admin or Make Moderator.
After you confirm this action, the member will receive a notification.
All admins will have the same level of group settings access, so you should only assign admin privileges to someone that you trust. Other admins will not be able to remove Admin rights for the original creator of the group.
Only Admins can:
- Make another member an admin or moderator
- Remove an admin or moderator
- Manage group settings (ex: change the group name, cover photo or privacy settings)
Both Admins and Moderators can:
- Approve or deny membership requests
- Approve or deny posts in the group
- Remove posts and comments on posts
- Remove and block people from the group
- Pin or unpin a post
- View support inbox
If original creator of the group does not wish to be an admin any more, this member will need to remove admin privileges himself/herself from the Members tab, by selecting Remove as Admin under his/her name.
You can also use this section to remove a member from the group. Click on the icon next to the member name and select Remove from Group. Tick the optional checkbox in the popup prompt to prevent the selected member from ever being invited to the group again. This is basically a permanent ban from the group.
3.9c. Deleting a group
Facebook does not offer a straightforward way to delete a group. From the options menu you can only archive it, so you need to use a workaround.
In order to delete the group, first you need to remove all other group members manually or simply ask them to leave the group.
Finally, once you are a sole member of the group, click on Leave Group.
You will see a prompt warning you that by doing this the group will be deleted.
To confirm that you want to delete the group, click on Leave and Delete.
After you do this, Group will be permanently and irreversibly deleted. It may show up in search results for a while, but this is just because Facebook needs some time to refresh their search index.
Step 4 – Need More Help?
We hope this Tutorial has been easy to follow and covered everything you need to know to set up your open Facebook (FB) promotional group. But if you do get stuck or need any further assistance at all, please just email [email protected] and someone from the ‘tech team’ will be more than happy to help!
We also recognise that Social Media is constantly evolving and it can be hard to keep up. We will be doing our best to stay ahead of the trends and changes for you, but equally if you encounter developments on Facebook or other media which you feel may in some way be of help (or in any way impact) our collective use as an instructor community; or if you encounter any unauthorised use or mis-use of the Hour of Power/HOP brand on social media, your feedback will always be greatly appreciated, and together we will look to use this online promotional tool to everyone’s collective benefit.
Yours in Good Health
The Fitness4x4 Team