Information on Group pages are closed to search engines like Google and Yahoo which means that people won’t just happen upon your group, you have to actively invite every single person.
I like to use Groups for things which have a shelf-life, like events and promotions – this way you can create a following, keep people up to date with any changes and then give them feedback at the end. Once the event or promotion is over you can either disable the page or delete it entirely. Below is an example of what a group looks like.
Fan Page
Fan pages work like a personal profile. They take a bit longer to set up because you need more detail although at the end of the process it is worth the extra few minutes. Fan pages allow you to send to all your friends in your address book and once they have accepted the invite, are able to send to everyone in their own networks – fan pages are a bit more serious in nature so you would probably stick to only those friends who are relevant to the page topic.
Updates to your fan page can be automated for any other content like blog feeds and Twitter updates, all of which will appear in your networks newsfeeds, enabling people who were not invited personally to browse through the page and join if they want to. Fan pages are also open to appear in search results which means that you have a wider reach and can be found by more people.
Fan pages are more flexible when it comes to customization. You can create tabs which essentially act as different pages within your fan page, these tabs can be customized to promote specific products or campaigns. A great example of this is the Volvo fan page (http://www.facebook.com/Volvo) which has a new tab for each model along with applications which fans can interact with.
I like to use Fan Pages for corporate identities and causes which are ongoing. You can create hype, inspire people and keep your fans up to date with everything you are doing without them having to actively go to the fan page every time they want an update. You can also promote your fan page through Facebook advertising and target people who may be interested in your services or cause as well as monitor the performance of your page through insights which record things like interaction, page views etc.
Of course there are a number of other smaller differences between the fan page and group and if you are still unsure which one is more suitable for you then let us know. There is also a specific way in which you interact which I will cover at a later stage, or if you would like to organize a workshop on how to do this then feel free to contact us.
