Facebook Groups 101: 

How To STOP People From Adding You To Facebook Groups! 

There is nothing more irritating than waking up on a beautiful and sunny day only to notice that you’ve been FORCED into Facebook Groups without your permission. You have no interest in the topic or discussion going on in this group, so why would the admin think that YOU need to be automatically added to their Facebook groups without giving you an OPTION to join or decline? This trend has become a top-notch annoyance for many bloggers and Facebook users in general, so I thought it would be a great idea to talk about how we can put an END to the madness. 

As an administrator of a large blogger support and media group, BloggerPR, I have never considered the idea of actually harassing my Facebook friends by forcing them to join my group. Instead, I prefer to give bloggers the option if they are interested.

Forcing my friends to join a group places them in an awkward position that I would never want to be in myself! They will feel as if they are creating sour grapes or tarnishing your relationship, which will indeed force them to just stay and humor you! Rather than automatically adding your friends, allow them to decide whether the group is suitable for their interests or something they could care less about! 

Why don’t you want to be added to my Facebook Group?

It isn’t that I don’t WANT to join, but I don’t want you to force me and automatically decide that I will be interested in buying your products or hearing about what you have to say all day in a Facebook group. Leave your Facebook friends with an option to opt in or skip on your group. Forcing people to join a Facebook group is a nuisance and very unprofessional. 

Allowing friends to automatically add you to groups is one of the dumbest ideas ever developed by Facebook. I wonder what went on in the office that day when an employee raised his hand and proposed this insane idea. Clearly no one told him to put his arm down! Either way, I am constantly amazed at how easily people can add me into their Facebook group without asking, but luckily we can eventually leave (as soon as we wake up and discover what sort of madness has unfolded overnight on our Facebook accounts!). 

This issue went viral during a little bit of a situation in 2010, which resulted in Mark Zuckerberg added to Facebook Groups that promote child abuse and molestation. This horrific scenario that proved the Facebook Groups system was flawed should have displayed plenty of reason for Facebook’s CEO to sit down with his technicians and rethink this idea. Did they? No. 

Why would I want to add all my friends to a Facebook Group?

To be brutally honest, I have no idea. Perhaps you woke up this morning with this brilliant idea to start a Facebook Group that talks about your dogs. Instead of doing what everyone else does and uploading images to your Facebook timeline, you thought that your 500+ Facebook friends would prefer to sit in a group and talk about Fido’s latest dog bone flavor. 

If you are creating a Facebook Group specific for your family members, fraternity, company, or a study group – that’s great and perfectly fine. Although I still think you should avoid automatically forcing people to join, I would possibly consider the idea of creating smaller groups if this is something you have previously discussed with your friends. However, I know many others that have found this Facebook feature to be a complete invasion of privacy and a real injustice when it comes to our Facebook freedoms (or lack thereof). 

Whether or not you have a brilliant idea, new business, or hobby that you want to use as a platform for a Facebook Group – automatically adding people is a bad idea. End of story!

Are you sure people will hate it if I automatically add them to my group?

I am 99.99% sure they will either be angry, upset, disgusted, confused, or weary of what you are actually trying to achieve. Presenting your Facebook friends with the option to join will almost always result in a much better success rate for your group and the return on your investment of actually setting up and creating a unique Facebook group name will be worth it! Otherwise, I am pretty sure you could wake up the next day and find that everyone you forced to join your group has indeed left the group 24-hours after your unethical forceable actions on their Facebook account.

How can I stop people from adding me to their Facebook Group?

Short answer: You cannot stop people from adding you to their Facebook Groups. 

I am sorry, I really am! You will be subjected to the ridiculous rants about your Facebook friends dog or newest sales gimmick until you select "Leave Group". You can leave faster than you can say "leave me alone!", but your ‘friend’ can continue adding you BACK into their fantastic group. You can continue leaving the group until your friend gets the hint that you are not interested.

Another option would be to BLOCK that friend altogether. Hey, I think a good friend cares about your interests before themselves, but what do I know! ;O) Alternatively, contacting the so-called friend and requesting that she halt all harassing Facebook Group additions immediately is another idea, which will hopefully work out! 

The Facebook Group concept of allowing users to automatically add their friends into a group is unethical and ridiculously flawed. Being a member of a group that you do not want to be part of is reason enough to hate this feature that Facebook has unfortunately created and allowed on their social network. 

How do I know when someone adds me to their Facebook Group?

You will receive a Facebook notification letting you know that "Renee O’Bryan has added you to the Greatest Facebook Group Ever! group". You’ll be curious and bewildered over the fact that someone you considered a friend decided to SPAM your account. Luckily, I will explain HOW to leave that group below!

You can also opt to receive an email notification when someone adds you to a group. Head on over to your Facebook ‘Account Settings’. Select "Notifications" on the lefthand side and scroll down to "All Notifications". 

Find the row for "Groups" and click on the blue Edit link in order to present a drop-down menu of notification alerts that can be received via. email. Opt for Facebook to send you an email notification immediately whenever someone adds you to a group. Once you receive the email notification, leave the group! 

How can I leave a group I didn’t want to join in the first place?

Very easily!

[1] Click on ‘Groups‘ along the righthand side of your Facebook profile page:

[2] Scroll down the list of your groups and find the name of the group you want to leave:

[3] Once you’ve located the group that you were automatically forced to join, select the small pen icon located to the left of the group name and click on "Leave Group":

[4] Since Facebook alway likes to make sure we are getting what WE want out of the social network experience, confirmation will be required to ensure you actually want to leave this group:

*Another alternative, which is a little quicker than completing the process above, would only require finding the group with a quick search on the top toolbar in your Facebook account by typing the name and bringing yourself "INTO" the group. Thereafter, select the gear icon located on the top right of the Facebook Group that you were forced to join and select "Leave Group". 

*

 You can learn more about these issues and security flaws over on Facebook Groups Help Center, which is basically going to let you know that unfortunately.. there’s nothing you can do! So long as you are friends with someone on Facebook – they have the ability to add you to whatever group they’d like!

Moral of the Story:

Choose Your Friends Wisely. Anyone who is currently listed as your ‘friend’ on Facebook can add you to whatever group they want, which means you will obviously be automatically added to the group. 

Friends Don’t Add Friends To Facebook Groups

… Without Their Permission.

FIN!