Questions people always ask me: Facebook page or Facebook group

What's the best way to represent your business or organization on Facebook?

There are a lot of choices – groups, pages, causes, fans, friends. And, none of the which and the why seems terribly clear.

To make it simple: There is one main choice. And, then a few other important options.

First pick: Page or group or both

Page
Who can create it: An official representative of the real public figure, artist, brand or organization that the page is for

Why page?

• First up, pages are indexed on Google. A nice little add to your integrated social SEO strategy
• Allows you to connect with an unlimited number of fans (personal profiles & groups support up to 5000 friends)
• You can send messages to all your fans
• You can use rich media and leverage Facebook apps (super customizable)

Why not page?

• Little of the new content or activity you post is actually fed to your profile new feeds (the most visible? New fans. New photos or video uploaded by fans)
• Messages to fans don’t go into their inbox; rather, they’re delivered as an “update,” which fewer people see.
• Unlike being an administrator of some non-FB communities (like blogs or wikis),there’s no automated way to moderate activity. You have to manually check for new links, videos, etc.

Group:
Who can create it: Anyone (on any topic)

Why groups?

• Most importantly, you can message all members and the notice shows up right in their inbox for maximum attention
• All activities are picked up in the feed – posts, discussion, photos, etc., which provides a lot more visibility
• Tend to be more informal, which can, in itself, feel more social
• Lots of control over who to involve. There are three different types of groups: Open (anyone can join); Closed (the group owner/admins have to approve all members); Secret (only the members and invitees know the group even exists).

Why not groups:

• There’s a 5000 fan limit for messaging. More people can choose to be fans of your group, but you won’t be able to directly contact them
• You can’t add apps directly to a group
• Customization is limited
• Unlike being an administrator of some non-FB communities (like blogs or wikis),there’s no automated way to moderate activity. You have to manually check for new links, videos, etc.
• Word is, these groups are also very tricky to delete 

Then add:

• Fan: both these pages allow administrators to turn on a fan function. Allowing fans lets your organization rack up contacts (just like a personal profile allows you to add friends)
• Cause: Want to raise money, enable supporters to raise money, win volunteers, etc? Facebook’s new action-based app is Causes. It’s a good add for a group or page strategy. But, because it requires users to add an application, it’s definitely not a standalone.

Quick update in response to an offline discussion:

Q: What's the difference between a profile and a page?
A: Short answer: a profile is for people; a page is for non-people (or super people, i.e. celebs). Profiles are the basic building blocks of FB. They represent its millions of members. In a longer answer, I'd also tell you that pages allow a lot more customization and flexibility ... but, I think this whole person vs. nonperson thing gives you the talking point most people need.

Comments

[Jonnie]

What sort of information can you see about your members when you have a group? My profile is set to only be viewed by friends. If I join a group, does that give the group access to view my profile?

[fussball]

Gute Arbeit hier! Gute Inhalte.

[Dr. WRight]

This is actually very helpful! A lot of people are charging big bucks ( or make you take a long boring teleseminar) just to tell you this!
Thanks!

Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
www.wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1

[daniel kremsa]

great article. However there is one more type of a page that facebook supports 'Application' It shares the best of both worlds:
* pages are indexed on Google.
* Allows you to connect with an unlimited number of fans
* You can send messages to all your fans that can appear in email, notifications, or invites. This is the biggest benefit of going with Apps
* You have freedom to show any content (within legal limits) and even make money from those pages (and facebook is 100% ok with it as you can read in their terms)
* activities are picked up in the feeds

We build facebook applications as well as help people with marketing so if you have any questions feel free to contact me through bykd.com contact form.

[erinjoan]

Have you worked with branded events for things that are not really traditional events? Is this a new trend? Or did I just not get invited the first time around? Because that's a very real possibility.

http://tinyurl.com/6txzxr

[David Griner]

Worth noting too that Pages have built-in metrics (Facebook Insights) so you can monitor your activity, fan growth, etc.

[Alison]

Agree with others here. I had a vague idea of when to use each - but definitely didn't know all these details. And now think even my vague idea was incorrect.

[Jess Krywosa]

Excellent and timely advice!

[Julian Perrera]

good stuff. still trying to get my head around facebook. I have my own personal account but am getting a better handle on how to use it for future film projects.

Thx.

[Mary Beth]

This is great information. Was recently looking for an opinion on pages, because a client was thinking about going the facebook route for an upcoming product launch! Thanks!