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"Howard Greenstein is a Social Media Strategy and Marketing consultant, and President of the Harbrooke Group. He's also a national board member of Social Media Club.\n\u201CShould I create a group or launch a Page?\u201D  It's the eternal question that gets asked as often as, \u201CWhat is Twitter?\u201D at introductory social media training classes. Ever since Facebook launched their Pages product as part of their larger advertising strategy (along with the ill-fated Beacon) in November 2007, there has been confusion over which to use.  Because Groups and Pages have an overlapping feature set, even senior social media marketing consultants are sometimes stumped as to what to tell their clients. And Facebook continues to make changes to how Pages function, complicating the matter even further. \nWhat is a Page on Facebook?\nIn their own words, \u201CFacebook created Pages when we noticed that people were trying to connect with brands and famous artists in ways that didn't quite work on Facebook\u2026Not only can you connect with your favorite artists and businesses, but now you also can show your friends what you care about and recommend by adding Pages to your personal profile.\u201D  \nSo, when you become a fan of a brand, a band, a movie, or a person, that information is posted on your wall, and your friends might see it too. You can see which Pages your friends are fans of via the \u201CInfo\u201D tab on their profile. \n\n\n\n\nTo create a fan page, one simply has to go to facebook.com/pages/create.php and create a new page.  (I chose the categories \u201Cpublic figure\u201D and \u201Cother public figure\u201D and made one for myself at facebook.com/pages/Howard-Greenstein/70939380803.)   Of course, a single fan doesn\u2019t make a fan page very valuable. \nValue of Fan Pages\nFacebook Pages can be thought of in much the same way as normal profiles on the site \u2013 brand or celebrity Pages have the ability to have friends, they can add pictures, and they have walls that fans can post on. Pages communicate by \u201Cupdates\u201D which show on the update tab or a person\u2019s wall if they\u2019re a fan and have allowed the page to show updates. Pages can have applications as well. \nHere, for example, is the Mashable Page on Facebook: facebook.com/mashable \n\n\n\nPages have two walls, one of what the Page owner writes, and one just for fans to write their own messages. Like a normal Facebook profile, Pages have tabs that uncover more information. \nWhat\u2019s a Group?\n\n\n\n\nGroups are a bit different than Pages. I administer an alumni group on Facebook. To create a group you go to facebook.com/groups/create.php and then fill in information about the type of group, and decide if it is open to a particular network (such as a University network) or all of Facebook. You can set join permissions on groups so that they are either open to anyone, closed (where users must get administrator approval to join) or secret (invite only).  Groups have administrators that manage the group, approve applicants or invite others to join.  Administrators can also appoint \u201Cofficers\u201D who are nominally in charge \u2013 however, being an officer doesn\u2019t mean the person has the ability to administer the group. \nBecause of these privacy settings, Facebook's groups are analogous to clubs in the offline world. Administrators can invite members to join via Facebook mail and email, and public groups can be found via Facebook search.  \nPages vs. Groups: How to know which to use\nThere are a number of factors you need to consider when choosing which is right for your project, a Page or a group. \nPersonal vs. Corporate:\nDue to their security features, and size limitations (only groups under 5,000 members can send email blasts), Facebook Groups are set up for more personal interaction. Groups are also directly connected to the people who administer them, meaning that activities that go on there could reflect on you personally.  Pages, on the other hand, don\u2019t list the names of administrators, and are thought of as a person, almost like a corporate entity is considered a \u2018person\u2019 under the law.\nFacebook considers groups to be an extension of your personal actions. When you post something as a group administrator, it appears to be coming from you and is attached to your personal profile.  Alternately, Pages can create content that comes from the Page itself, so that content doesn't have to be linked to you personally.\nUpdate: Also one key difference is that Pages are indexed by external search engines such as Google, just like a public profile while Groups are not. \nEmail vs. Updates:\nAs long as a group is under 5,000 members, group admins can send messages to the group members that will appear in their inboxes. Page admins can send updates to fans through the Page, and these updates will appear in the \"Updates\" section of fans' inboxes. There is no limit on how many fans you may send an update to, or how many total fans a Page can have.\nUser Control:\nGroups offer far more control over who gets to participate.  Permissions settings make it possible for group admins to restrict access to a group, so that new members have to be approved.  Access to a Page, however, can only be restricted by certain ages and locations. Again, this makes groups more like a private club. \nApplications\nPages can host applications, so a Page can essentially be more personalized and show more content. Groups can\u2019t do this. \nModeration\nNeither Groups nor Pages have great moderation features. They can both be a little granular as to how things get posted, who can post, and what kind of media can be posted, but that\u2019s about it.  If someone posts spam on your Group or your Page, you have to remove it manually, and you can also remove specific members.\nAbility to create events\n\n\n\n\nBoth Groups and Pages allow you to create related Events, which show up under the users' Request (and later in the upcoming events page on the sidebar of their dashboard if they've RSVPed).  Neither have any added functionality beyond the generally available Facebook Events application.\nAdvertise\nAds can be purchased to promote either groups or Pages, but Pages can benefit from social ads that publicize the fan connection between a Page and a specific user.\nThe bottom line\nGroups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale interaction around a cause.  Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands, movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed Facebook's 5,000 friend cap. \nMore Facebook resources from Mashable:\n- Twitter to Facebook: 5 Ways to Post to Both- 5 Lessons Celebrities Can Teach Us About Facebook Pages- 8 Essential Apps for Your Brand's Facebook Page- The Anatomy of a Facebook Meme"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/facebook-page-vs-group/>