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Facebook: Group or Fan Page?

At Online Design bureau clients often ask us if they should create a Facebook Group or a Facebook Fan Page. To most people they don't look all that different, but trust us, they are very dissimilar.

Facebook Groups are recommended for common interests. If you are a member of an organization, you can use Facebook groups to create events where people can gather to discuss common interests, or post relevant information and allow members to respond with comments.

Facebook Fan Pages have the same interactivity as groups, but with much more room for personalization. Just as a group, a fan page has a wall and a discussion board (optional), but there is much more possible than with a group. On a fan page you can use Facebook applications, flash and html code.

The big differences:

Send messages to members:

In a group you can send a message to the group and depending on their settings on Facebook, they can receive an email in their inbox. A fan page does not allow you to send messages, but you can send members an update. Updates are seen less often than messages, since they aren't emailed.

Google index:

Fan pages are indexed in the Google search results, group pages are not.

News summary:

A new message on your Fan Page wall will be seen on your 'fans' stream, but a post in a group will not.

Targeted news messages:

A fan page enables you to speak to a section of your members. For instance, you can send a message to all people from a particular location. A group doesn't allow you to pick and choose a demographic who the message will be sent to.

Deny members:

A fan page doesn't allow you to to deny members. Anybody who wants to become a fan can do so. A group on the other hand can be open to anyone, it can also only accept people after you invited them and you can even make your group secret.

Support applications:

A Fan Page supports applications, a group does not allow this.

Invite based e-mail:

In a group you can invite people based on an email address. With a fan page you cannot do this.

Vanity UR Ls:

A vanity URL is a short Facebook URL where your name is mentioned, eg http://www.facebook.com/pages/Online-Design-Bureau/122098354960 . Fan pages can create vanity URLs, groups don't allow you to do this. Vanity URLs are a great way to have your Facebook fan page found in Google. You can also set a vanity URL for your Facebook profile http://www.facebook.com/username.

Statistics:

A fan page allows you to review in depth statistics about interactivity, demographics and other factors, but a group will not allow you to do this

Widgets / fanbox:

You can turn your fan page into a widget on your website or blog. Groups don't give you that option.

Event inbox:

If you create an event on your fan page, you can not mail that event to your members, but a group will allow you to do this. So if your organization runs lots of events that you want your users to be aware of, you'll want to create a group, not a fan page.

Visible to non-members:

Fan pages can be viewed by anyone, including people who have no profile or aren't logged into Facebook. In other words, someone who has no Facebook profile can find your Fan page on Google and look at it. Groups will not only be invisible to Google searchers, they require the user to be logged into Facebook. Groups can also exclude certain members.

Anonymous:

The name of the Fan Page creator does not appear on a Facebook Fan Page. If you set up a group, your name appears on the page.

Overview:

Function	Fan Page	Group
Send messages to members	no	yes
Google index	yes	no
News Overview	yes	no
Targeted news messages	yes	no
Targeted mail updates	yes	no
Refuse members	no	yes
Support applications	yes	no
Invite based on email	no	yes
Vanity URLs	yes	no
Statistics	yes	no
Widgets / fanbox	yes	no
Events in inbox	no	yes
Visible to non-logged in members?	yes	no
Anonymous	yes	no

If your company, brand, celebrity or band aims to build a long-lasting conversation with your audience, you should choose a fan page.

A group is not recommended for commercial use, but is better suited for personal projects you don't want to feature on your profile page and where a smaller scale interaction is expected.

You can follow these links to create your Facebook Group or a Facebook Fan Page.

The Facebook fan page of Online Design Bureau.