Over the past couple years the Facebook Pages and Groups products have moved closer together, forcing marketers to ask themselves: which one should they use? After writing a complete guide to Facebook Pages, we thought it would be useful to highlight the core differences between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. If you had any lingering questions, this guide should completely clear things up for you!
What Are Facebook Groups?
If you don’t know what Facebook groups are, there’s a good chance you haven’t spent more than an hour on Facebook. However if you are a rare exception, we thought it would be useful to explain groups. According to Facebook, groups are “for members of groups to connect, share and even collaborate on a given topic or idea”. While the company continues to make a distinction between groups and Facebook Pages, we see these products eventually merging over time.
Groups can serve as an extremely effective marketing tool. Most importantly, groups serve as a tool for building awareness around various ideas. We’ve rapidly seen many users use Facebook Pages for the same purpose, but this is what groups were initially intended for. The key feature behind Facebook groups is the ability to make them “invite only” or limited to specific networks.
What Are Facebook Pages?
In contrast to Facebook groups, which are focused on organizing around topics or ideas, Facebook Pages “allow entities such as public figures and organizations to broadcast information to their fans.” If you are looking to set up your company’s “official Facebook presence” you would opt for Facebook Pages. We’ve previously highlighted the features of Pages in our Facebook Pages guide and a number of other articles.
Simply put, Facebook Pages are a tool for companies and public figures to engage their fans and customers. With the eventual launch of the Open Graph API, Facebook Pages will continue to serve as a tool for Facebook users to interact with companies and public figures around the web.
Groups Vs Pages: A Feature Comparison
For those looking to determine whether or not groups or Pages will more effectively serve their needs, we’ve decided to highlight the various features that the two products have and how they differ from one another. After reading through this guide you should be able to make a decision about which product will best serve you.
Mass Messaging
One of the best features of groups is the ability to send messages directly to members’ Facebook inboxes. As the table at the end of this post highlights, messages are restricted once a group surpasses 5,000 members. If you are looking to build a group for marketing purposes, this feature will quickly become useless as the group surpasses a certain level. However the ability to send messages directly to a user’s inbox results in higher conversions over Facebook Page notifications, something we’ll highlight later.
Indexed By Search Engines
Both groups and Facebook Pages are indexed by search engines, however Facebook Pages provide administrators with greater search engine optimization opportunities (see our Facebook Page SEO guide) when used in conjunction with the Static FBML application. That doesn’t mean Facebook groups have zero Google juice. You can control the content within the information area of your group, which is sufficient for showing up in Google and other search engines.
Stream Publishing
One of the most significant features of groups and Pages is the ability to publish stories to members’ and fans’ news feeds. While stories will not be visible to all users, stream stories can obtain a significant reach. Just as Facebook users have their status updates displayed in their friends’ feeds, groups and Facebook Pages can do the exact same thing. While I don’t know how Facebook prioritizes group stream stories versus Facebook Page stories, Facebook Pages provide post insights which adds a little more value to administrators.
Targeted Stream Posts
In addition to being able to publish to fans’ streams, Facebook Pages also have the ability to target stream posts based on location in language. If you have successfully attracted fans from around the world, you may want to distribute your English content directly to English speaking fans. Alternatively, you may want to limit the content you publish international content to international users, rather than bombarding your domestic fans with irrelevant content.
Targeted Updates
While Facebook has continued to de-emphasize the importance of Facebook Page updates (or notifications), they still remain as a valuable communication channel for Facebook Page administrators. If you want to learn how to send Page updates you can read more here. Facebook Page updates show up in your fans’ inboxes under a separate tab named “Updates”. Since moving updates to this area from the Facebook requests page, the open rate (and response rate) on updates has increased dramatically.
Support For Applications
One of the most significant differentiators between Facebook groups and Pages is the ability for Pages to include applications. Applications enable Facebook Page administrators to extensively customize their Pages. For example, the Static FBML application lets Pages administrators create custom page tabs. Some Facebook Page administrators have opted to use more interactive applications. For example, Einstein Bagels is giving away bagels to users that become fans of their Facebook Page. A BMW dealer in Minnesota published their entire lot inventory on their Facebook Page.
The point is that custom applications provide Facebook Page administrators with infinite customization opportunities.
Membership Restrictions
One of the few benefits of groups over Facebook Pages is the ability to restrict who can access them. There are three types of groups: open, closed, and secret. Open groups function just like Facebook Pages: anybody can join them. Closed groups appear in Facebook search results, however group administrators must approve all members of the group. Secret groups are not visible in Facebook search results and are accessed by invite only. In contrast to groups, Facebook Pages are always public and there is no option to make them private. This is a key differentiator between the two products.
Event Inbox Messaging
One of the greatest weaknesses of Facebook events created by Facebook Page administrators is that you cannot send inbox messages to your fans. Instead, users are sent Page updates. While a decent percentage of your Facebook Page fan base will see the update about new events, many fans will not see the notification. While you can use Facebook ads to promote the event, it’s more challenging to reach all fans.
In contrast, Facebook groups can send event invites to their members. As usual there are still restrictions even to group administrators. As is the case with mass messages, Facebook group admins are restricted from sending event invites to members once the group is beyond 5,000 members. As is the case with Facebook Page, the best way to ensure your members are aware of the event is by using Facebook ads.
Engagement Metrics
One of the greatest values of Facebook Pages is a feature called “Page insights“. Page Insights provide administrators with information about the demographic break down of their Facebook Page fan base as well as engagement information. Whether it’s the number of people viewing media (photos and videos) on your Facebook Page or the number of likes and comments, Page Insights provides administrators with a lot of detail about user interactions.
This in itself may be the one reason you choose Facebook Pages over groups, however some individuals have no interest in detailed analytics. If you want detailed information about how your fans are engaging with you and who your fans are, Facebook Page insights should be a reason to choose Pages over groups.
Promotional Widgets
Want to convert visitors to your company website into fans of your Facebook Page? Facebook provides all administrators with Facebook Fanbox widget (as pictured to the left) to help promote their Facebook Pages. Facebook groups on the other hand, have no similar feature. Simply put, Facebook Page are developed for organizations and public figures to engage with their fans, which is why Facebook is working to help administrators promote their Facebook Pages as much as possible.
While Facebook provides other widgets for webmasters, the fan box widget is the only widget that is currently available for Facebook Page administrators. Learn more about Facebook fan box widget.
Vanity URLs
The final feature is vanity URLs (also called “usernames”). Vanity URLs are the unique URLs that redirect users to your Facebook Page. Facebook groups do not have this functionality as they are simply tools for discussion but not a place for brands and public figures to engage with their fan base. The idea is that by having a vanity URL, you can more easily promote your Facebook Page. When you are talking to your customers you can say “Just visit facebook dot com slash ‘my business’ to learn more about us”.
If you want a vanity URL for your personal Facebook profile or your Facebook Page, you can visit the username assignment page.
Conclusion
If you are trying to determine whether to use a Facebook Page or a Facebook group to promote your company or spread ideas, this guide should help you make a decision. We’ve also created a handy chart below, that breaks down the various features of Facebook pages versus Facebook groups. If you have any other questions about the difference between the two products, feel free to post them in the comments!
I Agree with the benefits of having a page, but to improve them Facebook should permit mass messaging in order to be able to make the page grows
There is an important thing that you forgot, is about inviting people when ypu create an event at pages, you can only invite your friends, is not possible to invite your fans. At least the pages owners should be able to invite all fans to the events.
Thanks
I’ve always been annoyed that Facebook didn’t make some sort of tool for transforming groups into pages. My organization has kept a group because they don’t want the hassle of getting everyone moved from one place to another. But I guess I understand why Facebook can’t make a tool like that, what with the differing privacy settings between groups and pages.
Why wouldn’t you use both?
Thank you for comparing and contrasting Facebook Groups and Fan Pages.
A Taipei citizen who has consistently spreading facebook’s value to the world through Chinese Types.
A Google Preacher since 2002
An Android Preacher since 2008
Sam Lu/Taipei, TW
You didn’t mention the difference between Pages and groups as to how they handle photos. On a Page you can organize the photos you add into albums, and create an almost unlimited number of albums. In a group you can add photos, but you can not create albums, so all of the photos are dumped into one large area, with the most recent ones at the top of the pile.
As a user of both the Fan Page and Group, there really seems to be a disconnect that the two exist as different aspects of the same thing. I publish group events weekly for users to interact with that are totally lost to the fan page until I update the blog which then publishes via networked feeds into the fan page. It would make WAY MORE SENSE to allow users to push the Group tool onto the fan page, so that you can get the best of both worlds.
Seems like a really missed opportunity.
Thanks for the nice compilation. I have been using groups a lot. But never had a page yet. Now I am gonna hit it.
I don’t think they should charge to use facebook. It is not fair.
Groups do not publish updates into the stream. Posts from group admins show up from a personal Facebook account and not the Group itself. However when a group member comments on something in the Group stream the action may show up in the homepage stream of their friends. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Addendum: Same goes for friends posting to the Group stream, it will show up on the homepage streams of their friends.
Solid post!
But if by “mass messaging” you mean sending messages to everyone, you are able to with pages. All you have to do is click “Edit Page” then in the right side, click on “Send an Update to Fans”
It won’t show up as a message, but when you go to your inbox, to the left it says, “Updates” and that’s what those are. I personally find them to be annoying though.
Otherwise, I liked this, thanks for posting!
I would say a big difference is how personally public the person in charge of the page/group is. I was touched upon by Mark, but EVERYTHING you do while administering a FB group is shown as being done by you personally, while a page is more anonymous, everything is done in the name of the page, so to speak. You need to decide whether you yourself want to be the posterboy for your FB presence or not.
Although you are right that Facebook Applications cannot be added to Facebook Groups (as opposed to Facebook Fan Pages) I would like to point out that there are some applications that can interact with Facebook Groups.
One of them is RSS Graffiti (http://facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti) which will allow you to publish RSS/Atom feeds to the wall of any Facebook Group you administer.
Great article, Nick, tweeted and FB-Shared. 1 clarification: Unless this has recently changed and I am unaware, Groups cannot publish to the stream for all of its members - rather - when an admin OR a group member posts, it will appear in the stream of anyone who is both a group member AND a friend of the poster.
I wish they would just get rid of groups. I’m tired of explaining to businesses that they need to create a fan page. And the response is always “we have one and it does nothing”. It is because they are using a group.
Hi.
So just to make sure I understood properly, can anyone confirm that now, when the Fan Page functionality “send an update to fan” is used, the fans do not receive an email anymore?
I don’t even see where the update goes ?!
What’s the difference then between this and simply posting a message that will show on the fan news feed???!
I thought there was a time when we could : Any idea if FB will put this emailing functionality back?
Tx
Yawye
I read this post with interest as someone with both a group and a fanpage for the same purpose. I started off with a group in the beginning, then moved over to the fanpage because at that time, you could only publish to newsfeeds with a fanpage and also you could get a vanity URL that way.
However, I organize local events and my “followers” are less than 500 right now so it’s important to me to be able to send them messages and invite the entire group to events. Since the fanpage can’t do this for me, I’m forced to use groups. And now, group updates are posted in newsfeeds so that is one more thing it has going for it.
I can see how a large company would want to go for a fanpage over a group but for smaller scale marketing, I still think groups are the way to go.
Thanks so much for this article, I found it incredibly useful. I have to agree largely with the last person who left comments - my organisation first had a group page which was brilliant for messaging all members directly. I then set up a fan page for a vanity URL and the fact they can be indexed on search pages and go on newsfeeds, plus I did not have to be the “posterboy” (or girl in my case) when I updated the page. BUT the lack of mass messaging is a real problem for me and as the last person said, a group works well for small scale marketing for those with an equally small budget. However I am going to explore this again. I think a fan page could be a useful way of reaching out to a less traditional supporter base.
Isn’t another key difference the privacy of groups vs. pages? In the current iteration of Facebook, I can join a group and hide my groups, but I can’t hide pages, even in my public listing. Can you comment? Thx
I was wandering if how does it work in FB Pages the “repost” feature, as it exists in Twitter with “retweet”. For example, if I see an interesting photo album in my personal stream, how do I repost it on a FB page wall that I administer?
I’d like to interact as my business page with others but when I become a fan it becomes part of my individual account. How do I keep my individual account and my business account separate?
I administer a group for our local animal shelter. I had to set up a separate profile so my posts wouldn’t show to all my personal friends. We were considering transitioning to a fan page, but the ability to email is our most important feature since many participants aren’t regular visitors to Facebook.
Nick wrote: “Simply put, Facebook Pages are a tool for companies and public figures to engage their fans and customers.”
If you’re a company or public figure and you want to find out how to target your audience using your Facebook page, here’s how:
http://idaconcpts.com/2009/04/15/how-to-target-your-audience-using-facebook-pages/
can someone enlighten me on why a social network would put a maximum on the number of groups one can be a part of as facebook does?
Can someone tell me what info from my personal profile is displayed to the “Group” when I join a FB Group, and can the Group creator see more or same info as another member of the Group can see about me? In other words, can the Group I join see my “Wall”, “Info”, “Photos”, etc?? THANK YOU!