Duking it Out

As a Social Media Specialist Virtual Assistant, I have clients asking me to help them clarify between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Business Page.    For many they appear to accomplish the same thing…but do they? Here are 3 major differences between Facebook Business Pages and Facebook Groups.

Before I begin however, let me mention as I have in previous posts, that Facebook frowns upon anyone using their Facebook profile page to do business. If reported, Facebook will shut down your account if they find you abusing their terms of use, so it makes sense for anyone doing business on Facebook to have a Facebook business page regardless of the other factors below.

1. Findability: Facebook Business Pages allow that once you have 25 fans, you may apply for a ‘vanity url’ on Facebook.  Logon to your Facebook profile and visit Facebook.com/username to explore this option.  Until you reach 25 fans, your Facebook busines page url will have a string of what will appear to be ‘garbage’ attached to the end of it.  Google for example, will have no idea what to do with this address and therefore you won’t be ‘findable’ in the search engines.  Once you have your vanity url, there is a good chance that your page will be crawled and searchable.  Facebook Groups are not searchable by the search engines.   In my opinion, that’s Pages 1, Groups 0.
   
2. Purpose: A Facebook Business Page is recommended for anyone wanting to do business on Facebook.  One can generate content on their business page that has no tie to your personal page.  You many have unlimited fans and update them with no limitation.  Business Pages are great for building your brand.  Almost anyone can become a fan of your Facebook Business Page.  However, the only limitation a business page owner can impose on their page with respect to fans is age and location. Facebook Groups of less than 5000 members can send email blasts to their members. A  Facebook group can be a little like a private club and are intended to be more personal and on a smaller scale.  Group administrators can set their groups up whereby the group owner can control membership.  Many people use Facebook Groups to rally people around a cause.  So for example,  if you wanted to create a group to rally support around the crisis in Haiti, a group would be a good choice here.  Groups are tied to your personal profile.     So depending on what you want to accomplish, the score here for me would be Pages 1, Groups 1.
3. Functionality: Facebook Business Pages allow you the much the same functionality as your personal page. In other words, you can upload photos, video, use applications like HTML or Facebook Markup Language (FBML) to create areas on your page to include things like opt-in boxes or link someone to your e-commerce site. There are some applications however that you cannot install on your business page but that is becoming less so and the possibilities are almost endless. Many people are now building exciting landing pages for the business page to really make it shine.  Facebook Groups allow you to use links, upload photos and video and that’s about it. In my opinion, that’s Pages 1, Groups 0.

Overall in my opinion then, it’s Pages 3, Groups 1.   I believe Facebook Business Pages are more functional and effective than groups.  There has also been another issue around groups lately that you should be aware of.  It appears that Facebook had a breech a while back whereby a fringe group  seized control of many Facebook groups that had no administrator assigned and used these groups to push forward their agenda.  Facebook has shut down the ability now to recapture administrator status on a group that is unassigned.  And, without administrator status, there are things you cannot do such as delete your group if you so desire.

Whatever you choose, if you aren’t sure about how to set these profiles up properly, you should consider using the services of a Social Media Specialist to help you through the process.  Customizing and optimizing these sites is key to your success.

I would love to hear about your experiences with Facebook Business Pages and Groups.  Tell me what works for you!

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While physically located in Newmarket Ontario where I live with my family, as a VA, I’m virtually yours anywhere….

Joanne