Facebook Fan Pages vs Groups

[Cucumber Marketing]

I finally updated our Facebook Fan Page yesterday! Yay! So, now we have a Facebook Group and a Page dedicated to all fun Cucumber Marketing Inc. I thought it would be good timing to write a quick post about the differences between Groups and Pages.

Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups were introduced way before Pages and they *can* outrank Pages when a Facebook search is performed. That being said, Facebook is heavily promoting and favouring Pages over Groups right now, so it’s highly recommended that you start a Facebook Fan Page over a Facebook Group.

Facebook Fan Pages

My personal favorite! You simply can do more stuff with Pages vs Groups. You can customize the page using FBML (Facebook Markup Language), create new boxes (Contact us, Our Services, etc.) and link them to your main site. It’s easier to stay in touch with your fans because every time you update your Fan Page, your fans will get an update in their Live Feed.

There’s nothing wrong with creating both a Fan Page and a Group. If you already have a Group, invite your members to become your fans. Play with both of them and see which one is right for you.

Both Groups and Pages determine their popularity in search results by their size. It’s important not to just create a Group or a Page, but also to maintain it, promote it and grow the membership base.

My conclusion:

My personal feeling is that Groups are good for a specific cause or an event. It’s great for people that share similar interests to create a presence on Facebook. For example a University Group or a high school reunion Group, or a Santa Clause is coming to town Group, etc.

Fan Pages are great for businesses, artists, famous personas, etc. to get their fans together and keep them updated.

[Iorek]

I agree with ya. These were the same reasons I went with a page over a group. 450+ friends and counting. I'm pretty conservative with my posts so I dont get hidden.

[wowmobilegirl]

I like your fan page! I had the same thoughts and created my own fan page as "WOW Mobile Girl." I only have 9 fans so far, but it's at start! :]

[joshuaeric]

Holy crapoli, I completely forgot about Groups.

Just the other day I was writing a business requirements doc and looking into the social media aspect of it. Signing up for a twitter, facebook, friendfeed, blah blah.

I think it is ridiculous you need 25 fans before you can pick a custom URL, but I suppose that cuts down on the spam. Not that a particular username is that valuable.... yet.

People thought Twitter usernames were going to be valuable, but we have yet to see that yet.

Great writeup!

[arnoldsmithh]

I agree with your point that facebook fan pages are better than facebook groups because it is easy to market a fan page and you can also install many cool fan page applications on fan page.

[Lizaveta]

I vote pages as well. Also as the neat custom URLs aren't available, one thing I'd suggest doing is setting up a 301 redirect from your site to your page. For example, I recently made one for 1 Fit Mutt and you can reach it through 1fitmutt.com/facebook