Meta Playbook — the group-vetting method

Systematises Paul's Bishops Stortford method for finding local Facebook groups to reach no-website businesses. The whole engine runs on one design rule: public posts / inbound only — no cold DMs, no logged-in scraping (Meta ToS + GDPR). Commenters self-initiate, so consent is inherent and every market stays 🟢.

4search patterns / town
3verdict types 🟢🟡🔴
Inboundonly — consent inherent
Reusablelist per town / niche

1. Find — four reliable search patterns (per town)

1 Community

Search [town] community — the broad hub groups where locals ask and recommend.

2 Buy & Sell

[town] buy & sell / [town] selling pages — high-traffic marketplaces full of no-site traders.

3 Recommendations

[town] recommendations (e.g. "[town] recommendations & reviews") — where "can anyone recommend…" threads live.

4 Small business / trades

[town] small business / trades / networking — the local B2B and trades clusters.

2. Vet each group — read the public Rules/About

Log: name, URL, town, niche fit, member count, and what the Rules say about promotion. Then classify the verdict:

🟢 promo-allowed

Self-promo / business posts permitted — often a "Promo day" or a dedicated thread. Post here directly.

🟡 recommendation-only

You can't advertise, but members can recommend you. Get a customer to tag you, or answer "can anyone recommend…" threads helpfully.

🔴 no-promo

No business posts at all. Skip — or engage purely as a helpful member, never selling.

3. Post compliantly (where allowed)

The opt-in post

Public, helpful, opt-in:

"I build free preview websites for [town] cafés — comment 'me' and I'll send yours."

Commenters self-initiate → consent is inherent. Never DM cold; never harvest members' data.

The hard lines

🟢 public inbound posts where the group allows it.

🔴 no cold DMs to members.

🔴 no logged-in scraping of member lists (Meta ToS + GDPR).

4. Track

Everything into the Group Vetting tab

All groups + verdicts live in the Group vetting tab (Supabase meta_groups), so the target list is reusable per town / niche — vet once, reuse forever.

Klaudius · Meta Playbook · source outreach/meta-group-playbook.md · public posts / inbound only