Social Marketing: Facebook
| Jaya Ramesh |
Elite SEM
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN A FACEBOOK GROUP PAGE & A FACEBOOK FAN PAGE
Many social media experts advise that marketers set up both a Facebook group page as well as a Facebook fanpage because although they render similar functions as outlets for a community of fans, visitors, and clients,they provide slightly different options.Both Facebook fan pages and group pages offer the following capabilities:
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Invite members
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Video/photo addition and exchanges
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Logo addition
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Discussion board
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Message all members
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Comment wall
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Add posts
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Main Facebook membership profile required before joining
A breakdown of the differences between fan pages and group pages:
Facebook Fan Page SpecificFacebook Group Page Specific
Bigger logoSmaller logoTraffic/Visitor Stats ("Page Insights")Event posting (via notes, imports from blog,etc.)Event Creation and Invitation (via built-inapp)Import posts from blogs as notes/add notesMini FeedPublicly Visible (because it's public, thesearch engines can index it. They can't indexgroups)Private (must be a Facebook member toview, thus can't be indexed by the searchengines)Bulk updates to fansCan send out bulk invitesMembers can send invites to othersAbility to add Facebook ApplicationsRelated event creation and invitationPromotion with social adsBetter for long-lasting relationships withclients and creating an interactive communitywith themBetter for things like updates, quickdiscussions, etc.
Most important differences:
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Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed.
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Unlike pages, groups can send out “bulk invites.” You can easily invite all your friends to join the groupwhile with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually. Thus, groups are better for what iscalled “viral marketing,” meaning that each group member can also send bulk invites to his or her friends.Small businesses benefit from both group pages as well as fan pages. To summarize, here are a list of pros andcons regarding using group pages to market your business (from addicottweb.com):
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Administration
– As the group administrator, you can easily send messages to group members, making iteasier to communicate with them about your business.
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Familiarity
– Facebook pages are relatively new, only having debuted in the last year or so, but groups havebeen around since the start. Because of that, people are a lot more familiar with groups and how to joinand use them than they are with pages.
But there can be some drawbacks to using a group, such as:
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Not widely accessible
– Groups are only visible to Facebook members, so someone who’s doing a search onFacebook won’t be able to see it unless they have a profile and are logged in.
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No extra applications
– You can’t add extra features to Facebook groups – what you see is what you get,which is generally the bare-bones stuff such as discussion boards, a wall, photo gallery, and basicadministrative features.
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Need to visit regularly
– If you post a message to the group’s wall, you won’t see if or when someoneresponded to what you wrote, unless you go back and visit often. This can be a big drawback if you want tofacilitate a flowing conversation.
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Less visibility on people’s profiles
– When you join a group, it gets added to a long list of the other groupsthat you’re already a member of – and one that isn’t bulleted and lists the groups in no particular order toboot. If someone has a lot of groups, it’s difficult to find yours among all the others.
On the other hand, Facebook fan pages were made almost exclusively to allow people to connect withbrands and artists. There are many more benefits to using a fan page than using a group:
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Widely accessible
– Pages can be seen and found on the Internet by people who aren’t members of Facebook, so you do gain wider exposure in that sense. But even so, you have to be a member of Facebookto interact with the group.
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Applications are available
– As the page administrator, you can add applications to your page, similar tothe way you can add applications to your Facebook profile. For example, you can add an application thatimports your RSS feed from your blog and displays your new posts whenever you post something to yourblog.
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Tracking
– Facebook has provided page administrators a tool that lets them know how many visitors thatthey’re getting.
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Better visibility
– On your profile page, groups are displayed at the bottom with an image associated withthat group next to it. The presentation and use of an image means that you get better visibility on theirprofile, making it easier for them (and others) to find your page.
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Actions are documented
– If a fan of your page takes action on it, such as writing on your wall or posting avideo, their actions will be documented on the news feeds of their personal pages. Their friends will seethe news feeds and if curious, check out your page – giving you more exposure.
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