The challenge of juggling career and family continues to be a front-burner issue till date, especially for women.
No matter how professionally sound a woman is, there comes a time when she has to choose between her professional and personal life.
Or rather, sacrifice her professional brilliance for personal reasons.
Swadha Shubham Goel – who’s the founder of Fashionista Factory Events and the owner of the Facebook group, Pune Entrepreneurs Association (PEA – MII), found herself at the same crossroad a few years ago when she was expecting a baby.
However, she decided to do it all – pursue her ambitions, raise her child, and manage her family.
In fact, she used the power of Facebook groups to help 12,000+ aspiring entrepreneurs (especially mompreneurs) of her like to achieve their dreams, and become empowered and financially independent.
Her Facebook group connects over 53,000 buyers and sellers from all over India, and emphasizes on enhancing the knowledge of members by discussing various topics, getting experts onboard, and helping them tackle different kinds of situations.
To help alleviate the hardships of the pandemic, Swadha Shubham Goel had hosted more than 175 virtual flea shows, helping 200 local business owners earn a decent living during the tough lockdown days.
Swadha’s efforts have been acknowledged by these awards and accolades:
🎖️The Times Entrepreneur of Pune 2020 by TOI, India’s leading publication
🎖️Ray Of Hope for Entrepreneurs during Pandemic by Pune Pulse Publication 2020
🎖️I Inspire Award by MeToWe Mission 2034 for the work done towards women empowerment & community building as a whole
🎖️The We Women Influencer Star Award by Karyashala Foundation for the work done towards women empowerment during pandemic
🎖️The Women of Influence Awards by Udgam Foundation for the work done digitally towards women empowerment and upliftment of the society during pandemic
🎖️The Real SuperWoman 2020 for the exclusive work done digitally during pandemic times
🎖️Success Story Featured in the Online Magazine-WomenLines-Promoting Excellence in Women
🎖️Acknowledged by Umang Group (in 2019), a Social Initiative by Forbes Marshall for the work extended for the upliftment of the society
Sharing her best ever moments while building her community, Swadha tells:
“Members often call to thank me for everything I’ve been doing for them. All the workshops, business meets, etc. are to educate them and help them become the best version of themselves. They are growing a lot at a personal level.
This is a trigger that motivates me, pushes me to go beyond my limits, and empower them all the more.”
Scroll down to know all about:
- How Swadha goes the extra mile to help her community members
- How she is earning from her group while providing value to the members
- Ways she is keeping her group active and engaged
- Ways she is growing her group and managing it
But first, let me start off by telling everything about Swadha’s background.
A Corporate Professional turned Entrepreneur and a Community Builder
After completing her MBA from ISBS, Pune, Swadha Shubham Goel worked as a PR and Marketing professional with Tech Mahindra.
A few years later, she got married and shifted to Delhi. There, she took the role of an HR head.
When she shifted back to Pune in 2012, she struggled to find the right opportunity. Having to go through the same thing time and again motivated her to start something of her own.
That’s when Swadha started Fashionista Factory Events (FFE) and turned her life around.
It’s a platform that encourages all aspiring entrepreneurs to come forward, and showcase their talent be it decor, food, fashion, paintings, etc. They host numerous offline events and annual events for corporates.
In 2014, Swadha learnt that she was expecting her first child.
Although it was one of the best things that had happened to her, it meant Swadha had to choose between her career and her family. But, she was determined not to.
“I took a sabbatical from work for the first few months. When I got back, I used to take my son along with me to the office and to meetings. This way, I could take care of him and work at the same time.”
Furthermore, Swadha decided to create a Facebook group to empower more women like her, strengthen them financially, and most importantly to help them do business online.
In 2015, Pune Entrepreneurs Association, came into being.
Helping one another and spreading positivity are its core values.
Both males and females in the age group 25- 65 years are a part of this closed community.
“Our Facebook group is theme-based and we have dedicated topics for each day of the week,” tells Swadha.
“It is these member conversations that make up for the awesome engagement rate and activity rate of PEA,” tells Swadha.
An engagement rate of 69% means that on an average, a member does 0.69 actions in a month in your Facebook group.
An activity rate of 30 means that on an average, a post gets 30 reactions and comments in a month in your Facebook group.
If you’d like to know more about any of these metrics and why they increase/decrease, check out this BLOG.
How does Swadha go the extra mile to help her members?
She conducts workshops (either herself or by collaborating with experts) from time to time on different topics like healthy eating, skin health, how to expand business online, to name a few.
During the pandemic induced lockdown, Swadha collaborated with experts from different fields and hosted extremely high value workshops on topics like PCOS, marital issues, and hair health.
She also hosted numerous motivational workshops, fitness and yoga workshops, and even art and craft, painting workshops for kids.
Since they have a lot of doctors onboard, Swadha has even organised a few Homeopathy sessions to create awareness on how it is beneficial for adults and addressed the concerns of members.
“Elderly women – those who are 60 years + are also a part of our Facebook group. They obviously aren’t as technologically savvy as their younger counterparts. I make it a point to teach them everything personally (over call or through live sessions) – how to go live, how to showcase their products, and more,” tells Swadha.
How is Swadha earning from her Facebook group while providing value to members?
Swadha charges a nominal fee of INR 2.5/per day from the sellers/ aspiring entrepreneurs in exchange of providing them a platform to sell their products via PEA -MII.
They can choose to opt for a monthly, quarterly, or yearly package based on their requirements.
The best part is that all the sellers are registered. Before getting any seller onboard, Swadha personally collects their government issued ID card and hands them a seller card that entails their details like name, validation that the seller is verified, and the date till which the card is valid.
“Till date, we have not received any complaint against any seller and neither has there been any case of fraud,” smiles Swadha.
The money earned through this is used in outsourcing the designing of seller cards and organising contests and competitions for the group members.
5 things that guarantee maximum engagement in PEA – MII
1. Workshops
In February, Swadha organised a workshop on Hairlogy in collaboration with a curly hair expert.
They talked about scalp health, offered tips on hair care, deep conditioning, ways to manage dandruff, oily, and itchy scalp, and more.
Members clearly loved it. Have a look at the engagement (101 reactions and 214 comments)
2. Live sessions
All the verified sellers go live in the Facebook group quite often to showcase their products.
Look at the engagement when one of them went live. (65 reactions and 418 comments)
3. Competitions
“We value every single member of our community. Which is why we host numerous competitions to make them feel valued and appreciated,” tells Swadha.
During the holiday season, Swadha organised a food decor contest wherein a lot of members participated and engaged on each others’ posts. Have a look yourself.
4. Recognizing top contributors
Once every month, Swadha calls out the top contributors of the group. Apart from that, she even recognizes the top star sellers and star buyers.
“This makes the members feel happy and at the same time motivates them to participate even more in the community,” says Swadha.
5. Stories of aspiring entrepreneurs
As a part of the ‘Unleash your true potential’ series started by Swadha, she highlights and shares the story of one aspiring entrepreneur every month.
“Each one of us has an inspirational story which needs to be shared. It can motivate others to pursue their dreams and ambitions,” says Swadha.
If you’re looking for ways to increase your Facebook group engagement, check out this BLOG where we have mentioned 21 actionable tactics.
Word of Mouth has helped Swadha’s Facebook group grow massively
When you provide value to the members, they will not think more than once to communicate outside the Facebook group about the value you are providing in there. And, will recommend their friends and family to be a part.
That’s exactly what has helped Swadha’s Facebook group grow.
Apart from word of mouth recommendations, Swadha hosts giveaways every two months or on a quarterly basis.
Here’s one wherein she encouraged members to invite their friends and acquaintances.
Those who invited the maximum number of people were called out in the community and were given a token of appreciation.
3 insanely easy ways Swadha keeps her Facebook group spam-free
1. Moderation Alerts of Facebook
Swadha has added keywords like fake, covid, wrong, bad, fraud, etc. in the moderation alerts of her Facebook group.
Whenever any member uses any of them, she is notified, and can immediately take an action.
While this is an awesome way to track spam, there is a high probability that you might miss out such important notifications in the pool of notifications on Facebook.
To tackle this problem and keep things even more organised, Convosight’s Keyword Alerts feature is here to your rescue.
Check out this GUIDE to know how admins are using it to tackle spam and track brand mentions.
2. Scrutinizing member profiles
“We are very considerate about whom to allow in the Facebook group. I myself go through each and every member profile that has requested to join to stay on top of all fake profiles,” tells Swadha.
She further adds,
“There are times when I reject more members than accept them in the group.Quality over quantity, always!”
3. Post Approvals
Swadha has not turned on post approvals for any member, except for verified sellers who go live and post time and again to showcase their products.
“This way, every post goes through me and my moderators first and we take care that no unnecessary promotions/spam posts are posted,” tells Swadha.
Swadha is glad to have such humble moderators
It’s just been two months that Swadha appointed 2 moderators for her Facebook group.
Before that, she was a one-man army and did everything herself.
As Swadha felt the need for assistance in the day-to-day tasks, she posted in her group about expanding the team. Entries started pouring in, and Swadha spoke to a few of them who stood a chance.
“I was keen to bring on someone who’s hard-working, shares the same values as me, and has been contributing to the conversations,” tells Swadha.
Basis this, she kept a close watch on the activities of the shortlisted candidates and finally onboarded two of them.
They are responsible for:
- Approving/declining member posts
- Ensuring that members posts comply with the everyday theme of the group
“Both of them are doing an amazing job even when they don’t have prior experience in moderating a Facebook group,” smiles Swadha.
If you are looking to choose a moderator for your group, but don’t know how to get started, this GUIDE will help you.
Swadha’s message for other Facebook group admins out there…
That’s some great motivation!
We have our Facebook group, Growth and Monetisation for Facebook Group Admins, where Swadha and thousands of other community leaders are constantly motivating each other and discussing ways to grow, engage, and monetize their communities. If you wish to gain some valuable insights, feel free to be a part.🙂
Besides, if you would also like to get your story featured on our platform, please fill this FORM and we will get back to you.🙌🏻
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! 💛