Facebook Page or Group: Which One?

It might be a bit confused trying to figure out how to properly brand your company on Facebook and start engaging with your prospects, customers, employees, and fans. Both the Pages and Groups features within Facebook have many benefits. Which one should you choose and why?

Generally, if you’re a brand, organization, celebrity, politician, or other public figure, and you want to engage with your prospects, customers, and fans, you want to set up a Facebook Page. Pages are public. That means that all features of the Page can be seen without having to become a fan of it. Everyone can join your Page and can promote it into their news feed. Furthermore, the available features and level of customization is unparalleled when comparing it with the capabilities of Groups. This isn’t because Facebook has decided to neglect Groups. Facebook Pages are designed for brands, celebrities, and other public figures to be encouraged to set up public presences on the network. This is why in March 2009, Facebook made the decision to convert Pages into having a similar look, feel, and functionality of personal profiles. Facebook wants this to be another place for your brand besides your company website. For those that choose to embrace this, it can prove to be beneficial. In fact, a paidContent.org post in May 2009 states that Facebook has overtaken Google as the top referrer to large websites.

For all intents and purposes, a brand is equivalent to a person in Facebook. Also, because Pages are public, they’re also visible to search engines.

Groups are private and you must request access to join the group. This feature is good if you want to have private discussions with a select group of people. A group is good for brands that might want to set up a private community but lack funds to have an enterprise-level community developed. A group is also good for companies that want a quick, private community for their team or a select group of customers. Although I’d be careful of sharing sensitive data on Facebook because you don’t control what happens with that information, it is an easy way to set up a private community quickly. You might start a Group that you invite select customers into for feedback purposes and discussion around an upcoming product or release, or allow direct access to particular individuals within your organization. If you choose to set one up for your employees, it is an easy way to communicate with your them.

Source of Information : Facebook Marketing Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign

Facebook Page or Group: Which One?