Obviously everyone knows who Facebook is by now. Gaining about half a million new users a day is no small feat. So how can we leverage FB to our advantage?
One of my responsibilities for a company that I consult for includes creating a social media plan. Part of building that plan consists of me breaking down the difference between a Facebook fan page and a Facebook group.
Although we get fan page and group invites all the time, how do we know which to take advantage of when it comes time for us to them for ourselves? While working on this for my client, I thought it might also be useful for you folks.
Here’s a quick cheat sheet that I created:
In short, a fan page is perfect for branding and sharing with the public while a group is ideal for community communication.
So based on that, here’s what I believe should work for most companies:
- Create a fan page for external social media purposes
- Create a group for internal photo sharing and other informal messaging
Do you have your own fan page or group? What are you using them for and how have them benefited you?
I am a business professional
with an entrepreneurial spirit. Although I have an MBA and managed websites and IT departments
for several Fortune 500 companies ... 
You have a good article. Is useful for everyone.
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Hi Young,
Most of Facebook fans like me, don’t know the difference between fan pgae and group. Now you have cleared it. Thank you very much.
Dear Gabe,
I’m using a Facebook Fan page for my blog, and find it useful for promotional services as well as communicative especially in relation to leave positive messages on the status. I also use NetworkedBlogs, which I find is more popular.
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Thanks for clearing that up Gabe. I use facebook and I kept asking myself what the difference between the two was (but could never find the energy to work it out). Love your table, facebook should be using it! I should have created a fan page for my business, rather than a group.
Thanks! I’m not sure why FaceBook doesn’t have a table like this on their site.
This is a great website! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Blog | Company | Business
From what I can see from the image you posted it’s clear that a fan page has more potential and can be seen by a larger targeted audience than a group.
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Facebook is a great social networking site to give exposure to your brand (or) product (or) website.
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Hi, its interesting if we can get more SEO benefits from this fan page, i just created one but can’t see if my link is dofollow there, can you explain me where we can add our link without nofollow atribut??
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Hi, I follow the group on Facebook, don’t know if it’s possible for usual person to take benefits from a fan group page.
I created a Facebook Group, but now realize it should be a Facebook Page. Can I transform Group into Page, or do I need to simply create a new Page, and invite the Group to follow?
You’ll have to do the latter: create a new page and invite again.
I have a fan page and am thinking that is a good idea to change to a group page although I don’t want to loose the fans or the content. Is it possible to change to a group without loosing these or can they be swapped in some way!! ????
Any chance that FB will ever allow Fan pages to send personal messages? I know you can send updates to all members, but nothing alerts them to this update, so it is ineffective. I want to send a message to all members and have it appear as a numbered message that they see and click on. Our organization works with youth who often have hundreds of friends, so their news feeds are cumbersome and they miss our posts! If I could message them all, it would be seen quicker! I really wish FB would add this feature to fan pages.
Thanks for clearing that up Gabe. I use facebook and I kept asking myself what the difference between the two was (but could never find the energy to work it out). Love your table, facebook should be using it! I should have created a fan page for my business, rather than a group.
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Good comparison of the various page options. I recently went through this process with a client that had a fairly substantial following on their Group page. It’s been a slow transition moving to their new Fan page, but it’s coming along. I have heard some anecdotal stories about Facebook aiding in this conversion, even automatically “converting” Group members to “Fans” in one fell swoop. I haven’t been able to confirm this independently – but it would sure be useful.
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where you can vote, comment and discover what the web thinks about Facebook Group vs Facebook Fan
HOW DO I GET STARTED? I NEED TO KNOW PLEASE.
Although we get fan page and group invites all the time, how do we know which to take advantage of when it comes time for us to them for ourselves? While working on this for my client, I thought it might also be useful for you folks.
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Wow! Now I have a clearer picture on which is will help my page most.Thanks for the tips.
Great post.As facebook fan page is useful for branding business with in a public while facebook group is good for community purposes.we use the best possible ways to leverage FB to get advantage for our site.
I think the group is better.
In short, a fan page is perfect for branding and sharing with the public while a group is ideal for community communication.
i like fan page any tutorial for this
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facebook is the interesting place to share the conversation
facebook is the best place to share our things with others easily
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I use to have an regular visit to my facebook and got more friends on it
Thanks for sharing an interesting post would like to have an regular visit
Facebook groups and pages combined are the best thing to do, I do like pages though especially with the HTML feature to add a good header graphic.
I suppose groups can filter through pages and vice versa, depending on the size of your network and the traffic that you bring in.
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Fan page is better… Simply liking the page will make user to become a member
Hi there .. Great post .. It is interesting and informative .. great job
I’d like to see more interesting content like this .. 
You can also visit this interesting site:
Fan Page and Fan Page Guide
Good comparison of the various page options. I recently went through this process with a client that had a fairly substantial following on their Group page.
This is an informative post with helpful advice for online business. Online business
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I use fanpage. No need to wait for approval, just like. filtration d’eau
I really enjoyed this wonderful post that you have provided for us. I assure this would be helpful for most of the people. thanks for sharing.This is certainly a content thats close to me so I am very pleased that you wrote about this.
Hi, I like to visit this article. Most of Face book fans like me, don’t know the difference between fan page and group. Now you have cleared it. Thank you very much.
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Hello,
Thanks a lot for sharing this. I have both, but really do not do much with them, just don’t have the time to be checking FB constantly, but it is on my to do list during the slow season to get bore familiar on how to use FaceBook.
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Thank you for offering
I’m using fan pages for my clients but I don’t leverage either with this site. Although I have both, I simply don’t have a need.
Great information but let’s see how it will work and how many people will use it.
Thanks for the information. I am using facebook for years but didn’t know about these features until seen your article.
I think Facebook should make it even clearer about the difference, as many people I know who use it aren’t sure and end up with the wrong one.
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I think it’s best for you until the last. People who live very competitive, always trying to stay on top of the stairs just said. That is why we always hear about these entrepreneurs to top resigned.
Now, I have clearly understood the difference between fan page and group. I am looking for creating a fan page rather the group for my business as it targets larger audience. Love the table and the information provided.
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