FACEBOOK GROUP OR FACEBOOK PAGE, Which one?
Have you been contemplating on which platform to use to grow
your business? Do you always get confused about making a choice, either a
Facebook Page or a Facebook Group?
Then this is for you!
Facebook is a great tool for reaching audiences—whether as a
business, an individual, or an organization. In fact, anyone with a Facebook
profile can create a page or a group. Let us take a look at the basics of
Facebook pages and groups, the differences between the two, so that you could
make the choice on the one suitable for you.
FACEBOOK
PAGE
A Facebook page is a public profile that allows companies
and brands to introduce their services and activities. A group is a
community-based feature that gathers people with the same interests to discuss
topics and share their opinions. A Facebook page is basically a non-personal
profile page—such as a profile for a company, brand, organization, or website.
You can also have Facebook pages for public figures such as politicians and
celebrities. Pages differ from a typical Facebook profile in that they can be
run by multiple people, they can be followed or liked by anyone on Facebook,
and their posts can be monetized and promoted.
Some of the main features of Facebook pages include:
- Posts by the page are prioritized on the landing/homepage.
- Community/follower posts can be accessed via the Community
Tab.
- Groups can be
linked to the page An optional reviews feature.
- Messaging functionality which followers can use to talk to
the page’s admins.
- Verification
functionality to confirm the legitimacy of a page (similar to Twitter’s
verified status).
- Profile information on a brand or company, including a
description, contact information, location, and operating hours.
-Posts that can be promoted or boosted with money.
- Analytics tab that tracks follower engagement and post
reach.
FACEBOOK
GROUP
Groups are something entirely different. While Pages are
essentially profile pages maintained and updated by the administrators,
Facebook Groups are maintained by the community. The administrators can set up
a Group to have open membership, membership upon approval, or membership by
invitation only. Once someone becomes a member of that group, they can start posting
to that group. Posts will show up in members’ news feeds. Group administrators’
role is to moderate the members’ posts and to enforce the rules as needed, not
just to create content. Facebook Groups are meant to connect your followers to
each other. Groups are best if you have a lot of expertise within your
community, and you would like to provide a forum for your community to connect.
Some of the main features of Facebook groups include:
-
Moderating tools for admin.
-
Optional short surveys for people requesting to
join the group.
-
A built-in events calendar for the group.
-
Basic
group info, such as a group description.
-
The ability to set group rules.
SO,
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GROUP AND A PAGE?
Most of the differences between a Facebook page and group
are in their purpose, their privacy controls, and their analytics.
A Facebook page’s purpose is to connect with an audience. As
such, it prioritizes the voice and posts of the page. It is not a one-way discussion
since users can still engage with posts. But the page takes the lead—it has
control over what appears. Followers have a much more passive role and mainly
comment on or react to posts. Community posts are not prioritized and appear in
a tab separate to the page’s main tab. However, a Facebook group exists for
discussion and interaction between members. As such, posts from all members can
be seen in a group’s main tab.
In terms of access and privacy controls, a page is always
public. The only restrictions that can be added are who can post on your
community page, who can tag your page, and whether to restrict your page to
certain countries. But if you do not want a page to be viewed publicly, you
either have to unpublish it or delete your Facebook page.
On the other hand, groups have multiple levels of privacy. A
group can be public (anyone can view and join), subject to admin approval of
member requests, or invite-only. This makes them suitable for large
communities, but also tiny groups such as a family. Secret or invite-only
groups don’t even show up in search results. This is great for people with
concerns about your privacy on Facebook.
Finally, analytics are the other main difference. Facebook
pages give administrators insights into their audience demographics, post
reach, audience engagement, and other analytics.
ADVANTAGES
AND DISADVANTAGES OF A FACEBOOK PAGE
Advantages:
-
Facebook does not publicly link admin profiles
to the page unless admins manually link themselves.
-
You get analytics for your page that become more
detailed as your follower count grows.
-
You can schedule upcoming posts to publish
automatically.
-
You can promote posts through Facebook’s
advertising platform.
-
Your ads can be targeted towards certain
demographics.
Disadvantages:
-
Admin inactivity means that your page’s feed
will become inactive.
-
Pages are public and visible to everyone by
default, so they are not suitable for private use.
-
It is easy for users to set up pages which
impersonate your brand or company, therefore it may become necessary to go
through the verification process.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A
FACEBOOK GROUP
Advantages:
-
More control over the privacy of members and
posts.
-
The ability to set a code of conduct or certain
rules. You can kick and ban users who break the rules.
Disadvantages:
-
Limited
reach and limited monetization of content.
-
As groups grow larger, moderation may become
more difficult.
-
Administrators’ personal Facebook profiles are
publicly available for members to see.
Page vs Group
Scenarios where you would use a Facebook page include:
1. A brand or company promoting their product.
2. A website that wants to share content with a Facebook
audience.
3. A politician who wants to share updates with their
voters.
4. An organization or non-profit group that wants to share
news and announcements with an audience.
Scenarios where a group is useful include:
1. Linking members of a neighborhood together to share news,
updates, and questions.
2. Linking people with a common purpose or interest
3. Sharing updates and information in a central hub for
people with a personal link, such as family members, friends, or members of the
same organizations.
In either case, getting your nonprofit active on Facebook
will put your name out there and offer your supporters a chance to engage with
your cause and gain awareness about your newest initiatives. So get started
creating your nonprofit’s account, and get ready to see your supporters become
your social media ambassadors.
There are other Situation where one can use both a Facebook
Page and a Facebook Group
To link a page and a group, you need to be an admin of both.
Linking a page to groups is most effective when you want to link a brand to a
relevant interest group or community.
A brand such as a TV
show may link to a group of their fans. For example, TVC’s News page could
choose to link to discussion groups for TVC News fans if they wanted to.
If you run the kind of website that would benefit from user
forums, a group can be an easy way to integrate community discussion.
HEY!
By now, I know you have already decided on which would be
perfect for you. You want to know how to prevent Hacks on all your social media
platform? Check out our next post
