Do you run a membership? Are you fed up with Facebook? In this post I talk about why I think Circle is better than Facebook and how easy it was to set up.
We all sense that Facebook has been in decline in terms of the ‘good vibes’ you pick up from it (or not!) In January this year, I was running some very simple Facebook ads to grow my email list with a lovely free download. A nice simple thing to do I thought….
Well turns out I was wrong as I got an email from Facebook saying I’d been reported for violating community guidelines – and my account had been blocked and would be deleted in 30 days. This is the account I’ve had since 2007 -the one with all the connections I’ve built up over the years, the old photos, old trips and memories. Suddenly it was just gone.
I emailed Facebook to submit ID to report the issue and confirm I was in fact a decent Human Being- Zero response. Zero response from emails, from messages, from anything. All I got was a day by day countdown of when my account would be fully deleted.
In the end I took it as a message from the universe- I am not meant to be on Facebook right now. It is no longer aligned with me and the work I’m doing. It also felt like a massive release- everything I’d built up over the years in that account- just gone! Talk about Digital declutter!
The only issue really was that my membership group for the Intuitive Business Academy was still operating in Facebook. I actually couldn’t even access it as I was the only admin in the group (a good tip if you run a group- have a back up admin!) After doing some research I found that Circle could be a great alternative – a place where I can both have the community element as well as hosting all the recorded content from the live sessions.
We’ve now been in Circle for over a month, and it feels so much calmer and more nurturing – whenever I’d log into Facebook before, I’d get distracted by all the notifications and other groups I was in. Now going into Circle feels really focused and contained. No annoying ads on the side- just the content from the group. There is an iPhone app, and it also works well in a mobile browser.
I chose Circle above other options as they have a clear roadmap of development and are always bringing in new features- I was also able to integrate it with my payment systems and website, so it’s fully automated – when someone joins the membership, they automatically are invited to join the space and get instant access- not something I’d figured out was possible with Facebook. The same thing happens should someone cancel, they will automatically be removed- taking away a lot of the backend admin for me too.
Do you run a membership? Are you wanting to move away from Facebook? Perhaps look into Circle (not an ad, just a genuine recommendation!) Feel free to get in touch if you want to chat about it – I offer support and mentoring for business owners – many of them also run memberships.