Meta says that it is proud to be home to community leaders in South Africa who strive to establish positive and empowering communities on Facebook.

In celebration of their impact and recognition of their efforts, it has launched the '#IAmBecauseWeAre' campaign, which shines a spotlight on the power of connection and the role social media can play in building communities that drive change and create positive impact.

According to Meta, every day two billion people come to Facebook to be entertained, inspired and make things happen. Facebook says that it continuously evolves to meet people and their needs where they are in their lives — because it creates everything around social discovery.

Through discovering a new Facebook group, people can encounter new opportunities, passions and interests. According to Facebook, it sees stories that showcase the best of humanity, it may not always make the public spotlight, but people are using our technologies and apps to help others and support their community whether it's uplifting contemporary artists or addressing deprivation and poverty in underinvested communities.

So, let's dive into three benefits of Facebook tools that can help people find your community:

1. Use keywords and tags to make your community easy to find

Admins recommend using popular words related to your communities' subject matter in your communities' name since potential community members might search for those common terms.

For example, a home renovation community might want to include 'DYI', 'renovating', 'moms', or 'dads' in their community name. This will help interested people find your community when searching for those words on Facebook.

Consider using community tags to make your community easier to find. Location tags help people search for and discover communities that are relevant to their area.

2. Create a public-facing Facebook Page for your community

Some admins recommend creating a Facebook Page to help promote your community, especially if your community group is private. Admins use a Page to spread the word about their community and give prospective members a sense of the communities culture.

Examples of what you could share on a Page include upcoming public events your community has organised or news articles related to your communities' subject matter.

A Page can also help you vet potential members. People who have seen your Page before joining your community might have a better sense of whether the community is a good fit for them. By reading people's comments on your Page, you may be able to tell, which folks are a good fit for your community, too.

You can link the Page to your community so people can easily request to join, or you can proactively invite new members you've seen commenting on the Page.

3. Help people find related communities by linking them

As more people join your community, you may notice that members might not be interested in the same topics. For example, a cat community might have a growing number of members who only want to talk about Siamese cats. Other members are only interested in their own cat's breed.

Experienced admins suggest creating a separate linked community for these specific topics. You can link the new community to your main community to keep members connected to the larger community. Linking communities makes it easier for members to discover these related communities.

You can also use Community Chats to support casual, real-time communication within your group. Imagine starting a chat about dog adoption or memes, inspired by a group post about dogs. Or, you could take a passionate debate on a group post about the best braai recipes or 'potjies' and turn it into a real-time chat.

Chats are a way to complement your group's feed by diving deeper into specific interests and encouraging more conversations; in turn, bringing your group closer together.

For more information, visit www.about.meta.com. You can also follow Meta on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.