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Over the past couple of years, Facebook has witnessed an enormous rise in the number of active users – from 100 million in 2008, to 200 million in 2009, 400 million in 2010 and over 500 million at the beginning of 2011. This rise has become an important opportunity for brands to interact directly with existing customers and attract new ones.

Facebook groups & pages are not that clearly distinctive as they used to be. This forced marketers to ask themselves: ”Which one should I use?” So if you are looking for ways to build out your company’s presence on Facebook, here are some guidelines to help you clean up the clutter!

What are Facebook Groups?

According to Facebook, groups are ”for members of groups to connect, share and even collaborate on a given topic or idea”. While most companies keep making a distinction between groups and page on Facebook, these products tend to eventually merge over time.

Groups can be a very effective marketing tool. More importantly, groups serve as a great tool to create brand awareness or awareness around a variety of ideas. Lots of Facebook pages are being used for the same purpose, but this is actually what groups were meant for. The key feature that distincts groups from pages is the ability to make them “invite only” or limited to specific networks.

What are Facebook Pages?

Facebook pages ”allow organizations, businesses, celebrities and bands to broadcast information in an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them”. Similar to profiles, pages can be enhanced with applications that help the entity communicate & engage with their audiences and also capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, New Feeds & Facebook events.

Contrary to Facebook Groups that are organized around topics and/or ideas, Facebook pages are organizing around entities. They are a tool to engage fans or customers. So, if your want to set up an ”official Facebook presence” for your company, choose for a Facebook Page.

Groups vs Pages – a comparison

The various different features of both groups and Pages will be highlighted in these guidelines, in order to let you determine whether or not groups or Pages will more effective serving your needs.

1. Mass messaging –One of the best features of groups is the ability to send messages directly to the member’s inbox. Messages are restricted though, once a group reaches 5000 members. Thus, if you want to set up a group for marketing purposes only this feature will be useless to you. 

2. Indexation by search engines –Both groups and pages are indexed by search engines. It must be said that Pages provide better SEO opportunities when used in combination with the Static FBML application. However, this does not mean that Facebook groups don’t work with Google. You can control the content of your group’s info area, which already lets you pop up in Google and other search engines.

3. Stream publishing –One of the most important features of both groups and Pages is the ability to publish stories to members’ and fans’ News Feeds. These stories can obtain a significant reach. Just as Facebook users’ status updates are displayed in their friends’ feed, groups and pages can do the exact same thing.

4. Targeted stream posts –On top of stream publishing, Facebook pages also have the ability to target their stream posts on location or language. This enables you to better reach your target audience.

5. Targeted updates –Page updates are and remain a very valuable communication channel. Now they appear in your fans’ inboxes under a separate tab “Updates”. Since updates are moved to this area, the open rate (& response rate) has increased dramatically.

6. Application support –One of the biggest differences between groups and pages is the ability to include applications and customize Pages. You can even use interactive applications to for example reward new members.

7. Membership restrictions –One of the advantages of groups is that you can restrict who accesses them. There are three types of groups: open, closed & secret. Open groups are just like Pages; anyone can join them. Closed groups appear in search results, however you must request membership that must be approved. Secret groups are not visible in Facebook and are accessible by invite only. In contrast, Pages are always public and there’s no possibility to make them private.

8. Event inbox messages –One of the disadvantages of events created on Pages is that you can’t send invites to your fans’ inbox. Instead, your fans receive Page updates, which means a great percentage of your fans will not see the notification. You can however use Facebook ads in order to promote your event. Groups on the other hand can send invites to their members. Although there is a restriction for sending messages once the group is bigger than 5000 members. As with Pages, you can also create more awareness by using Facebook ads.

9. Engagement metrics –One of the best features of Pages is called Page Insights, which provides you with detailed info regarding demographics and the engagement of your members. This allows you to better knowyour members. If this is something you want, this is the main reason to choose Pages over groups.

10. Promotional widgets –This is the tool you need if you want to make your website’s visitors fans of your company on Facebook. The Fanbox widget can be placed onto your website to lead your visitors to your personal Facebook Page. Groups, however, don’t have a similar tool.

11. Usernames –Facebook Pages give you the opportunity to create a unique URL that redirects users directly to your personal Page. This way, you can better engage with your fans and promote your Facebook Page.

Conclusion

 If you are trying to decide whether to use a Facebook group or Page, these guidelines should help you along the way.

Not sure how to start your company's Social Media Strategy? Just contact us & we'll help you out!

-- by Nele Waelbers - @lafillenelle