Facebook Groups Experts Get A Badge That Proves Their Knowledge

There seems to be a Facebook Group for almost anything under the sun, creating communities around all sorts of subject matters. Many groups, however, are also created to help and inform each other about certain topics, and some members of those groups may actually be more knowledgeable than others. Facebook is now allowing group admins to identify and recognize these "Group Experts", making it easier for others to spot who to ask about their burning questions.

It almost sounds trivial, but having recognized Experts in a group could actually be critical to an online community's health. Considering how easy it is these days to receive and spread inaccurate information, whether unknowingly or intentionally, having people who stand out from the rest because of their knowledge in specific subject matters could help give some authority over links and messages from random members.

With Group Experts, Facebook Group admins can give a badge to such authoritative sources. Of course, it will be admins that decide who to consider an expert. Different communities have different standards, and Facebook isn't going to dictate the criteria for assigning experts.

That said, it is giving group owners some tools to help seek out those experts. Some Facebook users in certain industries like fitness and gaming are being given the option to tag the topics they consider themselves to be knowledgeable enough to be called some sort of an expert. Group admins can then search for those topics and can either honor their members that fit the criteria or even invite outsiders to join their group as an expert.

The new Group Expert role fits perfectly in Facebook's new features, particularly those that revolve around live audio chats and Q&As. These Experts are expected to live up to their titles and share their knowledge and experience through these channels to help grow their communities, hopefully in the right way.