More than once I’ve been asked to set up a Facebook group when a page might be more appropriate. I’ve also been asked to create a page when a group would be a better fit. So what’s the difference, they’re both on Facebook, right?
Well, yes, Facebook offers opportunities for users to create both groups and pages. However, in my opinion, the social media behemoth does a poor job at defining the disparate benefits in creating either. It doesn’t help hat the names themselves can be a little misleading to the general public. People get hung up on terminology. Everything browser window open is a page to an Internet novice and if I’m sharing common interests on Facebook, doesn’t that already put me in a certain group? In Facebook, “pages” and “groups” mean very different things.
If you want to promote a product, market an organization or broadcast news, you probably want a page. If you have a predetermined population and want a place to privately share photos or chat online, you might want a group. Essentially, pages act as a profile for a business or institutional entity. Groups are online clubs.
What is a group?
Groups are really not much more than the online version of a club, based around “shared interests, activities, or anything you like.” They are monitored by group administrators who can appoint officers, invite others to join and send personal messages to members. The greatest benefit of a group is this ability to message. A group administrator can send a bulk message to the group and it shows up in the recipient’s inbox. Page administrators don’t enjoy this option. Messages sent to the “fans” of a page are received as “updates.”
Groups aren’t trying to promote or sell something as so much as they’re looking for a place to connect online. With Facebook’s available group settings, club officials can control membership (preventing people outside the university from joining), host discussions, share photos and post messages. Groups provide a secure location for all this to occur.
Pages are a little different.
What is a page?
Perhaps it’s best to let Facebook explain its idea behind a fan page: “A Facebook Page is a customizable presence for an organization, product, or public personality to join the conversation with Facebook users. The Page focuses on the stream of content posted by the Page administrators. By leveraging the real connections between friends on Facebook, a Page lets Fans become brand advocates. Posts by the Page will start to appear in News Feed, giving Pages a stronger voice to reach their Fans.”
The public-facing nature of pages allows them to be indexed by Google, Yahoo! and the like, meaning a page will appear in search results. Pages aren’t the place to share photos you wouldn’t want the world to see.
In a university setting, pages work best for departments, programs or various campus locations. They are open to the public, allow for the addition of certain applications (Twitter feeds, Flickr slideshows, event creations, etc.), and can be used to generate advertising. Facebook also allows page administrators to set personalized URLs for pages and monitor traffic via “Insights.” Groups don’t allow for such analytics.
What’s the difference?
| Groups | Pages |
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You didn’t mention that the way you can control membership is by making the group searchable and only joinable by people in a school network (not global). Outsiders will never know it exists.
That’s a lot easier than having to approve every join request.
Is it possible to invite non friend members to a group? That would really work for me. I need a place to share contents with a limited gruop of people, but not necessarily add them as friends.
Thanks