246 SLP Facebook Groups and What to Look Out For When Joining

April 8, 2022 – Life as an SLP

Ah, Facebook… undoubtedly, there are so many benefits to joining SLP Facebook groups and building your connections. Personally, I’ve met dozens of SLP colleagues that I’ve later worked and become friends with through Facebook. Facebook has also done wonders to help me grow my own SLP-related business. But there’s something that needs to be discussed. As with most good things, there’s a dark side to Facebook groups, too, and this appears to be very true in the SLP Facebook community. The intent of this article is:

to explain how and why certain Facebook groups may be problematic
list alternatives to the groups with the highest numbers of problematic reports
provide a comprehensive list of all the current SLP groups for you to browse and vet on your own

What Makes a Facebook Group Problematic?

Usually, the answer boils down to “undisclosed financial gain.” To be clear, there is nothing wrong with profiting from a Facebook group in general: plenty of SLPs start Facebook groups for their own business’s audience, work hard to maintain the quality of the group, are transparent about when they’re selling something, and disclose their financial affiliations with a product when recommending it. A problem arises when an admin of a group is dishonest about their intentions when posting and makes an effort to hide their attempts to put money in their pocket. Here are some examples of the ways that tends to happen:

Admin may heavily censor the posts that are approved to make sure only their own financial affiliations are discussed, even if the group “appears” to be for open discussion
Admin may delete comments that mention products in competition with their own financial affiliations
Admin may ban/block members who post any comments that question products they’re financially affiliated with

When these things happen, it’s essentially invisible to members of the group that have not been moderated. Therefore, discussion “appears” to be real.But in reality, members are having a one-sided discussion without knowing it, because any hints of dissent are immediately deleted and blocked. Members might think that the group is a useful place to discuss and find resources, but in reality, they’re unknowingly participating in a paid advertisement for a single resource or set of resources because any mention of others is immediately deleted.

So how are administrators of these problematic Facebook groups making money, anyways?

There are a number of ways admin in problematic groups may be making money, but the most common situation is that the admin either owns or has undisclosed partnerships with certain resources that they talk about. According to anonymous reports, many of these “partnerships” include deals similar to the following:

An admin makes money based on the number of times they mention a particular product; the bigger the group, the more they make per mention
An admin makes money based on how many people travel from their Facebook group to the product’s site and eventually (even if weeks later) make a purchase

While affiliate programs and partnerships based on referrals are common and acceptable, this is a different beast. It’s one thing to partner with a product you love and share about it in a way that both you and the product creator benefit. It’s another thing to do so in a large, influential Facebook group while censoring/banning those who mention any other options, and attempting to maintain the guise of “open discussion.”At that point, it’s more than just one person making a profit: it’s unethical and potentially dangerous to the field as a whole.

What can I do about it?

That’s the big question, isn’t it? There are a few key things you can do to help combat this problem:

1. Leave any problematic Facebook groups that you’re a part of.

This may be the most important one. When many SLPs leave these groups, it shows that we are not okay with what’s going on, and it lessens profit being made on censorship.

2. Spread the word about the problem.

As mentioned above, something that makes the Facebook problem tough is that fact that those who haven’t been censored don’t even know that it’s happening. They think they’re having genuine discussions, but they’re really just participating in a massive echo chamber. Sharing this article to any local Facebook groups that you’re a part of, or writing your own post explaining the problem, may be a great way to do that.

3. Join alternative groups for the same topics without the censorship.

There are other spaces to discuss the same topics in a truly open forum; several groups have been made specifically to combat this problem. Alternatives to reported problematic groups are listed later in this article.

Problematic SLP Facebook Groups and Alternatives

In this article, I’m defining “problematic” as any SLP Facebook group that I’ve witnessed or received at least 5 credible, documented reports of dishonest practices/unethical censorship taking place in the group. I’m serving as only the messenger and am not personally validating the reports on my own. The reporters will remain anonymous due to a reported history of admin in some groups threatening legal action against anyone who highlights unethical practices in their Facebook groups.

The groups will also not be linked here to prevent additional traffic to them, but it’s highly recommended that you do a search through your own groups and check to see if you’re a member of them.

Quick additional note: Many groups have several admin. This does NOT necessarily mean that every admin of the group is responsible for (or even aware of) unethical practices going on within it.

SLPs for Evidence Based Practice

Short summary of problematic reports (there are far more reports than these listed, but they generally fall into these categories):

Declining any posts that are about resources other than those that the admin promotes
Declining any posts that question or discuss the validity of resources that the admin promotes
Deletion of comments that are about resources other than those that the admin promotes
Deletion of comments that question the validity of resources that the admin promotes
Blocking of members that attempt to post about resources or therapy practices other than those that the admin promotes
Blocking of members that negatively discuss the group as a whole in other Facebook groups
Removing other admin who have helped the group grow without notice
Turning off comments on any posts that begin discussing anything the admin doesn’t directly promote or subjectively agree with
Ignoring 2 of the 3 pillars of EBP: clinical expertise and client preferences, and blocking any members that attempt to discuss that
General bullying of members by the admin

Alternative Group: Clinical Research for SLPs is a space for uncensored discussion about research and evidence based practice

School-Based SLPs: For Professionals Only!

Short summary of problematic reports:

Deleting comments about resources in competition with admin’s own financial interests on posts requesting advice about resources
Blocking members for discussing resources in competition with the admin’s own financial interests
Deleting comments from the pinned post for sharing resources if the comment lists a resource in competition with the admin’s own financial interest
Blocking members for seemingly unknown reasons
Blocking members for discussing the group negatively in other Facebook groups

Alternative Groups: K-12 Speech-Language Pathologists (transparency: I admin this group and occasionally share my own resources on Materials Mondays), Pediatric SLPs

Speech Pathologists at Large

Short summary of problematic reports:

Deleting comments about resources in competition with admin’s own financial interests on posts requesting advice about resources
Blocking members for discussing resources in competition with the admin’s own financial interests
Deleting comments from the pinned post for sharing resources if the comment lists a resource in competition with the admin’s own financial interest
Blocking members for seemingly unknown reasons
Blocking members for discussing the group negatively in other Facebook groups

Alternative Groups: Speech-Language Pathologist Lounge (SLPs and SLPAs) was created specifically as an alternative to this group (I am a co-admin). SLPs Uncensored is also a great space for truly uncensored discussion (not all posts are SLP-related).

Comprehensive List of All SLP Facebook Groups

This is a list of all SLP Facebook groups that are currently active, and that I have not personally seen any reports of problematic practices about. This is just a list; I have not personally vetted all of the groups for quality, but I’ve placed an asterisk next to the ones that I have personal experience with and enjoy. If you know of any that I missed, let me know!

If you:

know of another SLP Facebook group that I missed
have any evidence of problematic practices in an SLP Facebook group to report, even if that group is already listed as problematic here

please send me an email at jenn@jenngethers.com. Thanks to all anonymous reporters for helping protect our online SLP community!

I send out weekly lists of freebies every Friday, plus updates like this one straight to your inbox. Just enter your email address to join the community!

4 Comments

Kari on April 11, 2022 at 12:15 am

Thank you so much for putting this information together!!
Reply
Carla on April 11, 2022 at 2:22 am

Amazing! Thanks for doing this.
Reply
Ryan DePauw on April 11, 2022 at 4:53 am

As an avid social media user and a new clinician on the scene, I am super grateful for this resource! I want to continue to learn, question, and challenge my bias at every possible step. I need all y’all’s perspectives, insights and wisdom! Keep it comin’!
Reply
Amanda on April 11, 2022 at 1:49 pm

Thank you SO MUCH for compiling this list! I value open minded discussions and authenticity 💕
Reply