Facebook Group Alternative: A Private Community You Own

Looking for a Facebook group alternative? This video shows a private community running on a WordPress site you own: groups, polls, comments, a member directory, private messages and announcements that reach every member.

Transcript

Looking for a Facebook group alternative? Start with why so many groups begin there. It costs nothing to open. People are already there. Posting is easy, and so is inviting a friend. But the group sits on a platform you do not own. The rules are theirs, and they can change them. The member list stays on their side, not on yours. And your group is one tab among many, competing with everything else on the screen. The alternative is a private community. It is a members-only group, on a website you own. You choose who gets in. You set the rules. And the member list is yours. Here is one on a real WordPress site. Each group is called a space, and this running club is one of them. Members post, share photos and vote in polls, the way they would in any group. Comments open under each post, so a conversation stays with the thing it is about. You pick how private each group is. An open group lets anyone read and join. A private group is listed, but you approve each person before they see a single post. And a secret group does not appear anywhere. The only way in is an invitation. Inside a group you can see every member, and who is running it. And when you have news, an announcement is pinned to the top of every member feed until they dismiss it. Your post reaches everyone. Members find each other in a directory, and connect. Then they talk in private messages, which stay on your site too. As the owner, you see every member, and you can export the list any day you like. You decide how people join. Open sign up, or each new member waits for your approval. And when someone breaks the rules, members report it and you decide. A warning first, then a strike, then a suspension. Because it is your own site, you can add to it. A meet up becomes an event page, with registration and a list of who is going. A forum keeps the answers findable, so the same question is not asked again every week. Moving a group does not happen in a day, and it does not need to. Set up your own site. Open your first space. Share one invite link in the old group. Everyone who opens it can join. Then post your news on your own site first, and let the old group point to it. Side by side. Their rules, or yours. Their member list, or yours. Their address, or your own domain. What they offer, or what you choose to add. Every member who joins the rented group is one more person you will have to ask to move. The earlier you start, the fewer there are. BuddyNext is the free community plugin for WordPress. Open your first private space this week, on a site you own. Get BuddyNext. The link is below.