25/08/2025
Whaat!? Big oversight by Facebook! Anyone else think they are more and more intrusive and presumptuous.
If you set up a new Facebook Group, there is a setting that automatically invites your followers *as well as* suggested users to join your group.
Not only that, many new members get automatically added *even* if they did not accept the invite. This is a horrible hot mess, tbh. 😳
This happened to me over the weekend. I have a new Facebook group for my private coaching program exclusively for paying clients. The group had 20 members.
I woke up on Saturday morning to 150 new members and 1,200 pending invites. My family members, close friends, other clients, longtime members of my community, as well as lots of random people from all over the world.
I was stunned ... and mad!!!! 😡
HOW could this have happened?
You can see in my screenshots the setting is VERY prominent. You really cannot miss it. And there is NO way I would've left the setting on. 🚫
[Btw, note that on desktop the toggle is just for 'current, active followers.' Whereas if you create a Group on mobile, there is an additional setting to invite 'people who may be interested in joining.' Unreal! Basically taking the interest graph to the next level; same AI-powered discovery engine that gets our content in front of non-followers. Which is a very good thing! BUT not for private groups, IMHO!!]
Also, this setting / bug only happens if your personal profile is switched to Professional Mode. And one possible workaround I found folks talking about on Reddit is to assign other Admin(s) > leave the group > then come back in and have one of your Admins approve you. This apparently stops the automatic invites going out.
OH! And to be clear, this NEW setting is *inside* the group (and cannot be retroactively disabled). It's NOT part of the setting in your Professional Dashboard that does the automated invites (whether personal profile or business Page). That's the first place I checked and all my groups were set to OFF.
I'm positive this automated invitation malarkey is an intentional bug at FB to spark more engagement and grow groups faster. (Meaning that my setting was OFF, but FB sent the invites anyway).
Okay, fine -- if that's what your aim is, then the setting *could* be effective to rapidly grow a new (free!) group.
EXCEPT, most people do not like being added to new groups without their permission/knowledge. (Unless you're generously giving away a lot of value. But I already run a lively free group and don't have bandwidth to add another one).
For now, the only solution was for my Admins and I to quickly manually remove added members and then pause the group. It's too laborious to manually remove the invites as well.
I'm moving my groups for paid programs to Mighty Networks. 🥰 Love that platform! I've had a quiet community over there for the past several years: Mari Smith's Superstars. It's free to join.
Something that has always been close to my heart for decades is RELATIONSHIPS and relationship marketing. 🥰 It's what my flagship book is all about.
I cannot stand any sort of 'bait and switch' or miscommunication or misunderstanding.
For example, some folks suggested that I just move my paying clients to a separate platform and then take advantage of all the new members to upsell them. No. That would feel icky to me. I promoted my coaching program for many weeks to my community and figured those who wanted to sign up did so by now.
Anyway, I'm in touch with Meta trying to get to the bottom of what the heck happened and WHY this setting got enabled without my permission. It has to be a bug. I'll update you when I find out.
Btw, I heard from a reliable source that Meta’s experience of users pushing back on a new feature that is default on is LESS problematic than trying to enroll us all into a new feature to turn it on. What a JOKE!!
Have you had this experience with a new group? What did you do?
