When you’re not particularly au fait about managing your Facebook presence, it’s easy to be unsure of whether to set up a Facebook Page or Group. Some individuals even go to the extent of posting their business messages and links on their Facebook profile –one grave mistake business people make all the time.
Granted, things have been a little murky on Facebook lately. Not long ago, Facebook made some serious algorithmic change that would see to it that most marketers shift their attention from Facebook pages to Groups.
This act served as proof that people don’t understand the difference between the two. While a great majority of marketers will be torn between starting a Facebook Group or setting up a page, a few just start by posting their affiliate links and promotional messages on their timeline – even when it’s pretty obvious a Facebook timeline is reserved for sharing personal information.
That aside: let’s look at the difference between a Facebook Group and a Page and help you decide which one between them is right for you and in what way.
A Facebook Page
A Facebook page operates a lot like your wall. It’s your brand’s page, featuring your brand posts and everything relevant to it.
A page also serves as a non-personal version of your Facebook profile. You’re simply setting up a company, brand, or business profile on Facebook.
Read this, keeping in mind that you need a Facebook profile to create a page. However, with a page, it’s hard to point out which personal profile is associated with a particular page.
The same goes for public figures such as celebrities and politicians. If you do not wish to mix your personal life with political or celebrity stuff, you have the option to set up a Facebook page and establish some boundaries.
Several people can also manage a single page. All you have to do is assign them roles. It can also be liked or followed by any Facebook user and even promoted and monetized.
The main features of a Facebook page:
- Profile information on your company or brand. With this feature, you have the option to include your company description, location, contact information, and operating hours.
- You can boost and promote your Facebook page posts or the page itself to extend its reach.
- It comes with an analytic tab that you can use to track your post reach and engagement.
- Comes with an optional feature for reviews
- It has a messaging functionality that your followers can use to engage with the page’s admin.
- It has a verification functionality that you can use to verify the legitimacy of the page. This feature operates a lot like Twitter’s verified status.
- A page prioritises the posts you make as opposed to the posts made by other users.
- Follower posts can be found in the community tab.
- It’s possible to link a Facebook page to a group.
A Facebook Group
A Facebook group operates as a discussion hub. It’s a place you set aside where people with similar interests can meet and share thoughts and ideas. Usually, you create a Facebook page when you want to bring people with common interests, traits, or from a common region together.
You can also create a Facebook group when you want to bring people from the same institution, company, or workstation together.
For instance, you can create a group for your workplace or a group consisting of people with an interest in AI or something similar.
Same as creating a Facebook page, you need a Facebook profile to set up a group. However, unlike a Facebook page, your group members can view your personal profile, where you’ll be listed as the group’s administrator.
Here are the main features of a group:
- Basic group info, including a short description of the group.
- The ability to establish group rules
- The group’s admin has a tool for moderating the discussion or removing any member of the group.
- You can create a short survey for people that wish to join your group.
- It comes in with a built-in events calendar.
So what’s the difference between a Facebook Group and Facebook Page?
As you can see, a Facebook page and group aren’t similar in any way. First, they’re each intended to serve a different purpose. They also come with different privacy controls and analytics.
You create a Facebook page when you want to connect with your audience. It’s what you use to stay in touch with your prospects and followers and keep them engaged all through. For this reason, a Facebook page focuses on the posts that you make, with little room left for your followers to initiate discussions.
It’s not completely a one-way discussion forum as users have the option to engage with your posts. They can either like the post or drop a comment on it to continue the thread by voicing their opinions and contributions.
In other words, your page followers take a passive role, where they can only comment or react to what you post. They’re in no position to initiate a discussion.
As the page admin, you’re the person in control of the discussions happening. You introduce what’s to be discussed, creating the room for everyone to join in with their contribution.
Your followers’ posts are not prioritised on a Facebook page. Instead, they’re all lumped together and restricted to a separate ‘community’ tab.
However, you have the option of nominating any of your users and assigning them a role that will see to it that their posts start appearing in the main tab and not the community tab as with the rest of the other users.
A Facebook group, on the other hand, only exists for online interactions and discussion between members who join them. Meaning, every post a member makes will appear in the main tab for other members of the group to see it. Members also have the option to react or comment on any post that’s made by a group member.
You cannot control a page by making it private. But you can control a group by making it private. Meaning, it’s possible to restrict the viewership of your group to members only, and not outsiders.
A Facebook page, on the other hand, is always public. You can only restrict who posts to the community page, who’s allowed to tag your page in a post or bar people from certain countries.
If you don’t make this restriction, your page will be open to being viewed publicly by anyone. So if you wish to keep your page from being viewed publicly, you have the option of either unpublishing it or deleting it completely.
However, unlike a Facebook page, a Facebook group offers multiple privacy levels. The first one is the public level, where the group is not restricted in any way. In other words, the group is open to anyone who wants to view or join it.
You also have the option of subjecting the joining process to admin approval. With this option, those interested in joining the group can only send their invitation and hope for you to approve them.
Lastly, a group can also operate based on invites only. With this option, members don’t have to join the group but wait until you make an effort to invite them. For instance, where you’re creating a family group, you can restrict outsiders from joining the group by making it an invite-only group.
This makes Facebook ideal for managing large communities, as well as small groups comprising of family members only. You can even use them to run secret groups that don’t even show up in the search results.
Coming next is analytics. Unlike Facebook groups, Facebook pages do feature detailed analytics that gives administrators great insights on demographics, audience, engagement, post reach, and other crucial data.
Groups don’t have these features, save for minor information on member activities, and similar data.
Who Should Create a Facebook Page?
Pages aren’t effective when you’re looking to consolidate a close-knit community or network. They’re not suitable for those interested in growing a community of like-minded people.
Rather, they’re suitable where you’re looking for a platform to promote your business or brand. If the only reason you’re working on your Facebook presence is to get more customers or prospects for your products or services, then what you need is a Facebook page and not a group.
Pages are also suited for public figures or celebrities that wish to grow a fanbase or to promote their products or manifesto.
A page allows you to draw the line between your personal or private life and your professional or celebrity life. So while your Facebook profile will be reserved for what’s private or more personal to you, your Facebook page is what you use to promote your professional or public life.
Here are a few scenarios where you can use a Facebook page:
- To promote your products and services as a brand.
- To promote your website content to a Facebook audience. This applies to bloggers and content marketers that are looking for a way to promote their content on Facebook.
- Politicians who want to sell their manifesto to voters and get them to consider voting for them
- Celebrities who wish to update their followers on the going-ons of their careers or if they have any new music, movie, or any other product
- A non-profit organisation that wants to share news or new announcement with its audience
Who Should Create a Facebook Group?
Groups are ideal for fostering discussions. They’re ideal for creating a channel where members are allowed to voice their viewpoints and get the rest of the community to chime in with their contributions.
They’re effective when you’re looking to consolidate a community or network.
A group isn’t effective where you’re looking to promote anything. You can’t use it to promote your business, profile, or individual viewpoints.
Instead, you create a group when you’re interested in discussions or where you wish to see members exchange ideas.
Groups are also great for creating support networks or when you want to solicit the opinions of other group members.
There exist all kinds of groups, and their mission is to allow members to learn from each other. For instance, there are groups on decors, parenting, illnesses, freelancing, internet marketing, and so forth.
Examples of scenarios where you can create a Facebook Group:
- When you’re looking to bring together members of a community to share news, viewpoints, and important updates.
- When you’re looking to bring together people with a common interest to discuss or share ideas,
- To create an information hub for people with a common interest such as family or employees of a given institution, or students from the same college, high school or university.
Scenarios that May Require you to Operate Both a Facebook Page and a Group
There’s no harm in operating both a Facebook page and a group. However, you have to make sure that you’re not just running them for the sake of it.
Plus, Facebook gives you an option to link a page and a group, with the only requirement being that you’re an administrator in both.
Linking a Facebook page is effective when you’re looking to link your brand to a relevant business group or community.
Linking a page to a group also allows you to interact with the group using your page or brand name – rather than your personal account.
Also, where you feel like your audience has a lot to share, and a discussion to conduct among themselves, it fits you to set up a group, which will be acting as their own space for holding their own personal discussions.
For instance, if you’re running an animal shelter, you may link your page to a pet adoptions group in your region. In so doing, you’ll be able to gain an audience to your page post and also crowdsource for information from participating group members.
Another approach is for a celebrity to link their page to a fan group. For instance, Marvel may decide to link their page to a fan group of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If your kind of business is one that needs a forum, then chances are good that it could work with both a Facebook page and a group.
7 Tips and Tricks for Creating an Engaging Facebook Page for Your Business
First, there is a difference between a Facebook page and Facebook group. The latter is only visible to the members, while the Facebook page is predominantly public. However, you can change the settings of any of them to be either public or private.
For example, you can ask screening questions before allowing new members into the group. On the other hand, anyone who likes your Facebook page automatically becomes your follower and views posts made on the page.
Facebook is a social media marketing powerful with millions of active users. Let us discuss tricks and tips for creating an engaging Facebook page for your business. Applying these hacks will enhance your engagement with the followers, drive traffic to your website and consequently increase sales.
1. Get a Custom URL
Facebook is focused on helping users personalise their Facebook pages to connect with the audience better. Claim a custom URL for your page by first logging into your account and heading to the page settings. The URL should be memorable and short.
Include a keyword or your brand name to help the followers identify it easily.
Make sure that you select the page option from the dropdown menu to see the option to change the URL. Don’t be in a hurry. Create a URL that resonates with your brand and reflects its vision, as Facebook only allows users to change it once.
2. Determine Who Will View Content Posted on the Page
You can set a Facebook page to be either public or private, as mentioned earlier. If you want only the followers to view the content posted, go to the page menu settings and click to see the different page customisation options.
Restrict visibility by clicking on the “General” settings tab. Also, if there are countries where you don’t sell products or offer services, restrict them by clicking on the “Country Restrictions” option on the settings menu.
The menu has other options that you can edit, turn off, or control the type of content that users can post on the page. For example, you can turn on the profanity filter and set page moderation words. Posts with words that are blocked from the page will be automatically flagged.
Check all the visibility settings and change them appropriately to ensure that your page is only visible to the right audience. This step will also enhance the performance of your Facebook marketing campaign by ensuring that ads posted on the page are only displayed to the targeted audience.
3. Govern Which Type of Content is Displayed on the Page
It’s imperative to control what type of content is displayed on the page to safeguard the integrity and credibility of your brand. Content that is political or promotes nudity can negatively impact your reputation if it’s not flagged.
Head over to the General settings menu > Visibility settings and change the settings accordingly. In the settings, you can control the people who can post content on the page and the type of content such as videos, photos, GIFs, and memes.
Make sure that no one uses words that could ruin your brand’s image and reputation by changing the Page Moderation settings. The Profanity Filter will also come in handy to block posts with undesired words. This particular setting has three levels: Off, Medium, and Strong.
4. Add a CTA Button
The main essence of opening a Facebook is to increase brand awareness and eventually generate more sales. Make it easy for the followers to visit your website to find more information about your brand by including a CTA button on the page.
You can also add the call-to-action button to direct the customers to a specific landing page. Go the extra mile and make products images shoppable. The product is automatically added to the cart when a follower clicks on the image.
To add a CTA button to the page, all you must do is click on the “Add Action Button.” A menu with different CTA options will then be displayed. Choose one that resonates with the purpose of your website.
Be sure to preview it on different devices to ensure that even users who visit the page via Facebook mobile app can view and click it.
At the time of writing, there are 11 different CTA options, such as:
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- Contact Us
- Call Now
- Book Now
- Use App
- Play Game
- Shop Now
- Send Message and many more.
You can change where the CTA button directs the followers. For instance, you can specify that followers who click on the button from a smartphone are required to the mobile version of your website. That adjustment will ensure that they get the best browsing and shopping experience, especially if the main website is not fully responsive.
The links on the CTA buttons should be trackable to enable you to benchmark the performance of your page in terms of sales and traffic. If a particular CTA button is not performing expected, go back to the settings and try another one. You may have to experiment with a few of them before finding one that best suits your business.
5. Page Tabs Should be Personalised
There are more than 60 million active Facebook pages today. Standing out can be a real challenge if your page is too similar to the competitors.
Making your page different and appealing to the target followers is customising or instead personalising the page tags.
Clicking on the “More” button, then select “Manage Tabs” from the dropdown menu. Change how the tabs appear on your page depending on the purpose of your page and preferences.
There is also an “Add or Remove Tabs” button at the bottom of the Manage Tabs menu. Click on it to access Facebook App’s menu with additional apps such as the Notes app.
Add apps that are relevant to your audience and have the potential to personalise your page more and enhance its ability to convert followers into customers.
Here is another article we found on HubSpot that offers a simple step-by-step guide on creating and adding custom tabs on a Facebook Business Page. Check it out when you get a chance.
6. Add Reviews & Ratings
Online customers rarely shop before looking at the reviews and ratings from previous customers. The two aspects can make or break your website page, and that’s why it’s essential to strive to get as many genuine positive reviews as possible.
That, however, doesn’t mean that you should delete negative reviews. Professionally respond to them to show the rest that you care and desire that all customers get the utmost value for money from your product.
The review widget is only available to pages created as local businesses. Ensure that you provide your full business address when setting up the page.
No need to worry if you didn’t indicate the page as a local business when creating it initially. Click on the About Tab > Page Info > Category section. Click on the pencil icon to switch it to local business.
The ratings and reviews widget will go live on your page when you provide the full address of your business premises. Respond to new reviews promptly to portray your brand’s positive image and start a conversation with your audience.
7. Add Custom Images
Images help communicate the intended message faster and so that the audience easily relates with than blocks of text. Give the followers a snip view of your product by uploading photos of customers using it.
Images of your office and teams will also help you establish a connection with the customers. Desist from using the loyalty-free photos available online. Your competitors may be using them as well, so standing out will be difficult.
It’s also a good idea to hire a graphic designer to create custom images that highlight your brand’s services, products, culture, vision, and branding. Embed your logo in them to prevent other brands from using them without citing your website.
Mistakes To Avoid When Using Facebook Page to Promote Your Business
The above seven steps will enable you to set up a highly engaging Facebook page for your business. Not all business pages are successful in channelling traffic to the website. Let’s look at common mistakes you should avoid when using your Facebook page to promote your business.
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Excess Sales Posts
Posting articles that market your product or service on the Facebook page will help drive traffic and sales. However, publishing too many posts defeats the primary objective of creating the page to create awareness.
Constantly bombarding your followers with product and service descriptions will annoy and trigger them, unlike your page. Avoid this mistake by writing more informative articles about your niche, then towards the end of the article, including the CTA button on landing pages.
The direct sales posts should not exceed 20% of the overall content on your website page. Also, instead of salesy posts, why not post more user-generated content such as testimonials. The goal is not to focus too much on getting sales. Give the followers enough time to know your brand, like it, and win trust by publishing content.
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Inconsistent Posting
Customising the Facebook page to match your brand’s image is just one of the moving parts of the social media marketing engine. You need to work on it to increase the page’s visibility and engagement levels.
Inconsistent posting is one of the primary reasons most pages fail to achieve the set goals. Be consistent, whether you post new content several times per week or daily. Use Facebook scheduling tools to ensure that you are never swamped with work that you forget to post or respond to comments. The tool will automatically publish the new post at the set day and time.
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Cross-Posting
Many social media marketers have made this mistake before. The temptation to post the same content on different social media platforms is sometimes too strong to ignore. To some extent, the social sites support this; for example, you can change settings on the Instagram page such that a new image is posted on your Instagram account and Facebook.
Different networking sites have varying terms and conditions for new posts. Your message will be truncated if it exceeds the set word or character count.
Facebook posts can have 63,296 characters, whereas Twitter only permits 280 characters per post. So, if you were to copy a post from Facebook to Twitter, the latter will only show the first one or two sentences.
Instagram allows users to add up to 30 hashtags, but you should limit yourself to 3-4 to avoid making your post cluttered and unprofessional. Facebook is not a strong advocate of hashtags, and you can only add 1-2 per post.
Therefore, before sharing the same content on multiple sites, confirm the platform settings and confirm with them. Besides, you are better off creating custom content for each platform since the audience in each platform is different and may have unique expectations from your brand.
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Ignoring Engagement Level
The performance of your Facebook is dependent on the engagement level. You can track how the followers interact with your content by checking the Facebook Insights reports.
However, most brands are more concerned about the number of followers than how they engage with their content. As a result, they end up with thousands of followers but little or no conversions.
Be different by focussing more on establishing cordial relationships with the followers by creating stellar content that is relevant and accurate. Otherwise, there is no point in having 1 million followers that don’t respond to your content.
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Forgetting or Ignoring the WHY
Your brand’s WHY is a belief, cause, and purpose. It’s the sole reason your brand exists and it’s not about making money or becoming famous on Facebook. Identify your WHY and focus on it to attract the right audience and keep them engaged and interested in your brand by posting content that resonates with their needs and expectations.
Final Thoughts
By now, you should know which one between a Facebook group and a page is best suited for your business. But if you have the resources to manage the two, why not run with both?
To sum it all in one line: you need a Facebook page to find a much wider audience to promote your brand to, and you need a Facebook group to deepen your engagement with existing fans.
Still undecided or stuck on what approach to take? Talk to our Facebook management team at MediaOne, and let them help you set up a Facebook page or group or help you strategise on how you can use them to drive high quality leads to your site.
