How Did Sheenu Build A 28,000 Strong, Women-Only Buy And Sell Facebook Group With Verified Sellers?

Back in the day, Sheenu was part of a few buy and sell groups on Facebook.

While she was an active buyer in one of them, she did not like the way things worked there. Rather, she was concerned about:

• The lack of interest of the group admin towards member queries and complaints
• The lack of respect towards female members of the group
• The lack of guarantee of the sellers of the group

Hence, she decided to create a safe space for women which is devoid of all these shortcomings. And, where all members are respected and treated equally.

In July 2019, Super Indian Women (SIW) came into existence.

Today, this Facebook group is helping thousands of women solopreneurs earn a livelihood. Alongside, it provides a 100% safe shopping experience to the buyers as each and every seller is verified.

And, the traction SIW has gained is superb. It has managed to grow from 0 to 28,000 in a span of just 1 year! And, continues to grow even today. (Take a sneak peak into the growth over last 3 months)

“Hard work always pays off,” smiles Sheenu.

When I asked about the best ever moment while building her online community, here’s what Sheenu had to say.

Sheenu is deeply satisfied and happy to have created this online community. As you scroll down, you’ll know all about:

• The core values of her group
• How she provides an amazing experience to both buyers and sellers
• How she earns through her group and manges SPAM
• The engagement and growth drivers of her group

But first, let me walk you through her previous role.😊

Senior English Teacher or Community Entrepreneur: Sheenu has always given her 100%

Based out of Bhatinda, Punjab, Sheenu is a very motivated and hard-working woman. She puts a lot of effort in whatever she does.

After completing her education, i.e. B.Ed. and MA in English, she worked as a Senior English Teacher in a convent school for 7 long years.

But when she was blessed with a baby boy, she could not continue with her job. However, she was keen to do something a few years down the line.

On July 07, 2019, she created Super Indian Women and set sail on her journey to become a community entrepreneur.

Women (aged 25 – 35 years) from all over India are a part of her Facebook group. Mentioning about the core values, there is no discrimination on any grounds or any sort of bias.

“I make sure every woman is treated equally and with respect. And, see that things take place in a fair manner. Even in contests, everyone is given an equal opportunity to win. And, that is what sets my community apart.

The other reason being my personal involvement and availability for members no matter the time of the day.” smiles Sheenu.

All these things combined are the reason for SIW’s high engagement rate of 315% and activity rate 16.

This motivated Sheenu to create a parenting Facebook group, namely Momz World. She started this 1.5 months back and till date it has around 1300 members. It is a safe space where women can leave behind their daily struggles and share their hearts out.

How does Sheenu provide a wonderful experience to both buyers and sellers of her group?

It was not at all easy for Sheenu to build this women-only buy and sell group. She had to face a few unpleasant situations in her journey of scaling SIW. She took each one positively and considered it to be a learning experience.

One such instance was when a buyer cheated a seller. The buyer claimed to have received defective jewellery and refused to pay for it. On top of that, she did not share any proof with the seller.

After the seller reached out to Sheenu, she took charge of the situation and discovered that the buyer was guilty. She instantly blocked her from the group and notified the members in a subtle manner. Sheenu was careful not to spoil the woman’s dignity online.

“I posted that this woman is no longer a member of my group. In case of any fraudulent activities from her end, no one would be responsible and everyone should look out for themselves,” tells Sheenu who now tackles such buyers with ease.

She leaves no stone unturned to make SIW a safe space for all the women, no matter a buyer or seller.

SIW has around 25-30 slots for sellers in a month. These are filled up on a first come first served basis.

Soon after a seller reaches out to Sheenu, she asks them to share scanned copies of either their Passport or Aadhar Card.

“Collecting these documents from the sellers helps me be sure of their identity. Firstly, I get confident that they are genuine. Secondly, I know where to reach out in case of any complaint from the buyers,” says Sheenu.

This way buyers can shop without the fear of being cheated. Moreover, Sheenu takes the responsibility of all sellers listed at her platform which is not usually the case with other buy and sell groups. That said, one can reach out to her and she’ll be more than happy to help.

For sellers, I would say, SIW is one of the best platforms. One, because the members are highly-engaged which means they can be sure of a positive response. Two, because group admin, Sheenu is really humble and generous.

Initially, when Sheenu started the group, she did not demand a single penny from the sellers. It is after the sellers insisted owing to the amazing response, she decided to charge some fee for her efforts.

After the group hit 12,000 members, Sheenu fixed a nominal fee of INR 300/month for sellers.

This way Sheenu is also able to earn through her Facebook group.

3 different ways Sheenu provides value to members and earns through her community

1. Charging a small monthly fee from sellers

“Sellers often tell me that they are really happy with the response from the group and insist to increase the monthly fee for my dedication and efforts,” tells Sheenu.
Hence, she increased it from Rs 300 to Rs 500 per month.

2. Brand Partnerships

Sheenu extends her heartfelt gratitude to Baby Destination for all the brand collaborations until now. She has partnered with brands like Nestle, Dettol, PeeSafe, Fevicreate to name a few.

As part of Nestle’s campaign, Sheenu shared a picture of herself with her 3.5 year old to show how her kid is learning new things while staying at home.

The activity score (total comments and reactions) of this post is 318. Now, if we compare it to the activity rate or average activity score which is 16, we establish that this post got almost 20x higher engagement than average! 🙂

3. Connecting with other community admins

Sheenu has a good bond with the admins of other female-oriented groups like Akansha of Parenting Mom Style. Akansha tells brands about Sheenu’s community and has been able to get some really good campaigns for her time and again.

Here’s a campaign of Momspresso and Fevicreate where Sheenu encouraged her group members to share a picture or video with their kids with the hashtag crafting memories.

The activity score of this post is 124 which means it got almost 8x higher engagement than average.

These 5 things helped Sheenu grow her community tremendously

1. Invites by Sellers

Sheenu is really humble and generous. While she charges a nominal monthly fee from sellers, she exempts those who cannot pay it.

Instead, she asks them to invite their family and friends to the group. And, the members are more than happy to do it.

2. Word of mouth Recommendation

The women have a pleasant experience in Sheenu’s community whether it comes to buying, selling, or contests, and games.

Hence, they themselves spread the word about her community amongst their family and friends. And, this has helped SIW grow.

3. Professional looking Images

Sheenu feels that putting up professional-looking, well-designed posts also attracts a lot of people and has been a growth driver of her community.

“My husband is a professional graphic designer. All the posts be it the logo, cover photo, contest images or others such are designed by him. Hence, the reason they are so different from the rest of the communities,” tells Sheenu.

Have a look at the cover image of SIW that was designed by Sheenu’s husband.

4. Games and Contests

A lot of fun games and contests keep happening in Sheenu’s community. And, rules for a few of them demand inviting more members. Hence, it has helped scale SIW.

Here’s a recent contest for Teej that had its first rule as inviting 20 female friends to the group. The other was to upload a picture as per the theme.

The activity score of this post is 913 which means it got almost 60x times higher engagement than average. (Wow! That’s just awesome! 🤩)

5. Engagement

Lastly, Sheenu credits the amazing engagement in her community for its growth.

For instance, look at this plain text post where Sheenu is encouraging members to have a look at the announcement section for detailed information about a cooking contest.

This post has an activity score of 266, which means it got over 16x higher engagement than average.

With the engagement rate of 315%, SIW boasts amazing health!

Sheenu tracks these engagement metrics via Convosight to measure the health of her community.

• Engagement Rate: The average actions (posts + comments + reactions) per member per month in her group is 315% or 3.15 actions per member per month.

• Activity Rate: The average number of comments and reactions per post per month in her Facebook group is 16.

• Daily Active Users/Monthly Active Users: The percentage of monthly active members that are active daily in her Facebook group is 30%.

FYI: The average DAU/MAU of Facebook groups is 53%. So, if your community’s DAU/MAU is along these lines, it’s good news!

If you wish to know more about any of these metrics, feel free to check out our article on “Top health metrics for your Facebook group”.

These 4 strategies have garnered 100% engagement in Sheenu’s community

1. Contests

To uplift members’ moods during lockdown, Sheenu encouraged them to share their bridal photos in an attempt to refresh old memories. The activity score of this post is 153 which means it attracted almost 10x higher engagement than average.

2. Games

Tambola seems to be the favourite game of SIW members. Just have a look at the engagement! (84 likes and 154 comments)
The activity score of this post is 238 which means it got 15x higher engagement than average!

3. Live sessions

A famous tarot card reader recently went live in SIW. And, the engagement generated was just mind-blowing! (80 reactions and 715 comments)
The activity score of this post is 795 which means it got almost 50x higher engagement than average! 🤩

4. Well- designed posts

Not only do well-designed, professional-looking posts drive growth for SIW but also are a major engagement driver.

A few weeks back, Sheenu uploaded this post wherein she announced the members for Mother’s Day contest. The activity score of this post is 264 which means it got almost 17x higher engagement than average.

Convosight’s Urgent Alerts Feature is her saviour when it comes to SPAM

She marks the words she considers as spam for her group on Convosight. And, whenever any member uses them, she is instantly notified.

Not just that, she even takes the action on that particular comment from the same dashboard.

Most importantly, she does not have a moderator and manages her group completely on her own.

Sheenu is proud of learning these skills while building SIW

1. Facebook and all its features
2. Patience
3. The ability to tackle different members of her group

Sheenu’s message for every community admin reading this…

Wow! That’s some nice motivation!

That said, we have our Facebook group, Growth and Monetisation for Facebook Group Admins where Sheenu and hundreds of other community admins are constantly discussing the ways to build their groups and motivating each other in the journey. If you wish to gain some insights too, feel free to be a part! 😊

Simran Grover

Creating value in the lives of others with my content, little by little.✨

Working at Convosight, I do more than just wrangle commas. I’m passionate about innovating new ways to create super valuable and actionable content about Communities and Community Marketing at large, and sharing it with the right audience.
I also happen to manage a global community of power admins on Facebook, and that’s where most of my learnings come from.

Do check out my latest blogs and feel free to share them! 💛