| http://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-group-vs-facebook-fan-page-whats-better/7761/Facebook allows for 2 networking tools:
- Creating/ joining a Facebook group;
- Creating/ joining a Facebook fan page.
While the major differences become evident only after you try out
them first, we decided to create and promote both for Search Engine
Journal: Now what we have found from this experiment..
First and foremost the 2 major differences include:
- Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed (important for reputaion management, for example);
- Unlike pages, groups allow to send out “bulk invite”
(you can easily invite all your friends to join the group while with
pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are
thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to the friends of his.
Now let’s go into some details:
| Key Feature |
Facebook Page |
Facebook Group |
| “Ugly” URLs |
No |
Yes |
| Hosting a discussion |
Yes |
Yes |
| Discussion wall, and discussion forum |
Yes |
Yes |
| Extra applications added |
Yes |
No |
| Messaging to all members |
Yes (via updates) |
Yes (via PMs) |
| Visitor statistics |
Yes (“Page insights”) |
No |
| Video and photo public exchange |
Yes |
Yes |
| “Related” event creation and invitation |
Yes |
No |
| Promotion with social ads |
Yes (never tried it) |
No |
To conclude:
- Pages are generally better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers;
- Groups are generally better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention.
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Wine Tasting Wednesdays (free wine with artisanal cheeses and fruit from 5PM - 7PM) and
Ladies & Gents Thursdays (free martinis for the ladies and scotches, ports, whiskeys, and bourbon for the guys from 5PM - 7PM). |
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