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Facebook has changed our world forever. So much so, that businesses cannot ignore the importance of the platform as part of their marketing strategy. It enables your business to advertise to billions of users and it is a public-facing profile for posting relevant updates. It acts as the perfect tool to market your brand to potential customers.
The platform has an astonishing 2.9 billion users and your business must have a Facebook page if it hasn’t got one already. It will not only increase brand awareness, but it will also help your business advertise to new audiences, collect insights and communicate with customers who are looking for more information.
Chances are that many of your employees will have their own personal Facebook profiles and this may have led you to consider using it for your own business as a marketing tool. Immediately you may be thinking of creating a business page, but you can’t forget that there is also a group feature that may be just as useful. Both have an abundance of information about them online, making it difficult to know exactly what your business needs. Let’s discuss the features of both so you can make an informed decision on whether a page or a group or both is beneficial for your business in the long run.
Facebook group or page - which is better?
Your organisation should have a Facebook business page. A page enables you to advertise on Facebook, and post company updates and information to Facebook users at large. A Facebook group, on the other hand, is typically more exclusive than a page. Groups enable you to set up open memberships upon approval and invitation, making it much more of an exclusive offering for customers who want to feel more connected to your business.
Simply put, a Facebook page is company-focused, whereas a Facebook group is focused more on community.
A Facebook page offers brands and public figures the opportunity to promote themselves to millions of users. Posting consistently, running brand awareness campaigns and boosting posts can help promote your product or service.
Facebook advertising allows businesses to promote their messages to a targeted audience through a system of enhanced targeting options. If you’re trying to decide whether Facebook advertising is the best option for your business, read our blog post 6 Reasons To Use Facebook Advertising For Your Business to give you more insight.
It is important to make the best use of Facebook’s page features as it can grow your audience, leading to more engagement, website traffic and conversions. Some of the main features include:
Company information including a description, contact information and opening hours
Posts that can be promoted or boosted through Facebook Ads
Analytics for tracking engagement and providing powerful insights into post performance
Audience building for targeting a specific group of customers for better results
Messaging functionality, which allows customers to provide direct feedback, praise and reviews
A Facebook group acts more as a forum. Its purpose is to drive conversations within the community for people with similar interests. Customers can easily provide information to one another and share hints and tips. Group discussions are a lot more casual, informal and opinionated. There are several types of groups available - secret groups, open groups and closed groups.
Open groups let anyone join and invite others, and the content posted and discussed is completely public, even to people who haven’t joined. It is another tool that provides valuable insight into its products and services. Closed groups need the approval for a person to join and the content is not public and is exclusive to those within the group. Secret groups are hidden from Facebook search and users need to be invited to be added.
Facebook group features can be beneficial to your business and some of these features include:
Group information such as a description and the benefits of being part of the group.
Group rules: These allow businesses to outline what is acceptable or not in the group, for example exerting rules such as no promotions or spam and no hate speech.
Moderating tools for administrators: This allows group administrators to have more control over how their groups are managed. These tools reduce abusive comments, control promotional posts and can even let admins flag specific rules when they're broken.
Optional short surveys.
Built-in events calendar for the group.
At this point, you can already notice several differences between a Facebook page and a Facebook group. Each, of course, has its pros and cons. Facebook pages can be created easily and posting updates is a breeze. With groups, there is more communication which is more personal so you’ll be able to market your product or service more intimately.
In terms of drawbacks, pages are hard to grow organically because there are so many pages that are paid and given more attention, leaving you constantly battling with your competition for your customer's attention. Facebook groups are also challenging and don’t have any analytics, making it hard to track and analyse data to make better and more informed business decisions. Having a group and a page also increases your workload as you need to spend time maintaining and monitoring them both.
So which is better? It all depends on your business goals and strategy. Pages are a necessity if you’re looking to promote your products and service, whereas a group suits those who are looking for a better discussion and to expand their network. Both are very powerful and one may work for your brand and one may not. In my personal opinion, a Facebook page is a must, but a group is a great way to drive communication. Both provide your business with the opportunity to interact with your audience and build your brand.
Are Facebook groups better than pages?
Ultimately, the answer will be determined by your goal and what best suits your business. If you’re looking to promote your brand and products, then a Facebook page makes the most sense. However, if you’re a new or small business looking to establish your presence in the market, a group can help provide valuable feedback, especially if you sell niche products.
In my opinion, a page is built and designed to help grow established businesses. To get a business off the ground and create a strong community feel around your business and products early on, create a Facebook group. As your business grows, if you haven’t already, create a Facebook page. The community that you have built through the group can easily be transferred over to your Facebook page, providing you with more likes, comments and traffic to your website.
If you would like help with your social media marketing, get in touch with SilverDisc.