What’s the difference between a Facebook group and a Facebook page? Both have the same goal: to market your business, product, or service. But which one is better suited for your needs? It depends on what you want to achieve. There are plenty of similarities between the two, but there are also some key differences.
For most small businesses, a Facebook Page is probably a better fit than a group. Unless you operate in an industry that thrives on closed groups (like fashion or modeling), your potential customers would likely feel more comfortable following you as a Page rather than joining a group. Let’s take a look at some of the key differences between these two social media tools.
What is a Facebook Group?
A Facebook group acts as a hub for discussion and sharing information with people who share an interest, or location. You have the ability to set group rules to help guide what and how the community can share and interact. Groups can be public or private. Public groups can be found on Facebook search and in your feed.
Members can add other people to the group and post updates, including links and photos. The content in a group is available to everyone, including non-members. It’s important to know that there are two types of groups on Facebook — public and private.
Public Groups
Public groups are visible to anyone on Facebook, while private groups can only be accessed by people invited by one of the group’s administrators. Public groups have their advantages and disadvantages. They can be a great way to build brand awareness, network with other organizations, and share information with your target audience. However, they’re also a place where spammers and scammers hang out.
Closed Group
A closed group is exclusive to those that have been invited to join by the group owner. This allows you to build a targeted community where you can engage with your customers, but without being overly promotional or spammy.
Secret Group
Only members with a unique code can access secret groups, meaning they are completely invisible to everyone else on Facebook. Secret groups are ideal if you want to build a community of people passionate about your niche.
What is a Facebook Page?
A Facebook Page is the personal profile of the business, person or organization. It’s designed for promoting and selling, but it’s more professional than a Facebook group. People are more likely to take you seriously if you have a Facebook page rather than a group.
A page is your independent website on Facebook that you can use to engage with your customers, share your content, and talk about your brand. It’s more of a one-way conversation because you can’t interact with page members directly in the same way you can within a group.
Differences Between Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages
Facebook groups are all about conversation and the back and forth between members. You can create a conversation around any topic and invite people to join the discussion. You can also set up closed groups, which means that only invited people can join the group and participate in the conversation.
A Facebook page is more about branding and putting your best foot forward. You can certainly add conversations and content to your page you should. But your page is also the place where people go to learn who you are and what you do. You can set up your page so that people can find you without having to be friends with you. You have more control over who sees your content as a page administrator — and you can easily edit or delete posts if you want to update them or take them down entirely.
Here is more detailed information about the difference between a Facebook page vs Facebook group:
Commitment
The first difference between a Facebook group and a page is commitment. Creating a Facebook group is easy: you simply type a name and create a closed group. You can leave the group whenever you want, or end the group completely if you no longer want it.
A Facebook page requires a lot more commitment as you have to create original content and keep it updated. It’s easy to create a Facebook page, but it’s a lot more difficult to grow a large following.
Reach
The second difference between a Facebook group and a page is reach. A group’s posts are visible to the group members and a page’s posts are only visible to Facebook users who have liked your page.
This means that a group has a much smaller reach than a group. In general, Facebook business pages have a much larger reach than pages, which means that you can connect with more people by using a group.
Conversion Rates
The third difference between a Facebook group and a page is conversion rates. Facebook groups have higher conversion rates than pages because you can directly interact with group members.
Although there are many similarities between the two, there are also some key differences. Which one is better suited for your needs? It depends on what you want to achieve.
Generally, pages are great for selling products, while groups are better for connecting with your customers and building your community. If you’re just starting out, a group is a great way to get your name out there, start conversations, and bring new people to your page.
Which is better for your business: Facebook Group or Facebook Business Page?
Both are effective and have their merits, but Facebook pages tend to be a better fit for many businesses. This can be particularly true if your business doesn’t thrive in closed groups (like the modeling or fashion industries). If you have a product or service and you want to build a solid foundation for your business and Facebook brand, building a page and engaging with your followers is the best way to go.
You might also want to consider a page if you want to reach a wider target audience that you can’t reach with a group. Groups are limited to your Facebook friend base (and in the case of closed groups, people who you approve to join the group), but anyone can follow your page. You can boost posts so that they appear on the feeds of users who have never interacted with the page before.
Secret Strategy
The Facebook platform has been changing its algorithms and introducing various vehicles to broadcast. However, the secret I am about to share with you is evergreen and will work for any social platform. I would like to give credit for this marketing secret to Russel Brunson (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2qUDKqTsz00csykCYgdLuA).
You should use your Facebook personal profile to educate, entertain and create affinity with yourself and your brand. Ensure your personal Facebook profile’s bio shares the link to your Facebook Group or Facebook Page. The Facebook Group is an excellent tool for growth and learning about your community following, and it is where you can start mentioning your offer. Treat your Facebook Page as your website, and Russel recommends using paid ads and driving traffic to your Facebook Page. So the content you should have on your Facebook Page must be worth someone’s attention. Facebook Page is perfect for driving interested users to your sales funnel or website.
So, to sum up, educate and entertain with your personal Facebook account to attract attention to your brand, then direct the traffic from your page to the Group. You can run paid ads with lookalike audiences for people who are engaged with your Group or page.
Bottom line
It’s important to note that Facebook pages used to be the only way you could promote your business on the platform. Groups weren’t introduced until 2010 — and they’ve continued to evolve since then. So while the two social media tools have plenty of similarities, they also have some key differences.
If you’re just starting out and you’re not sure which one would be best suited for you, it is recommended going with a Facebook page. It’s easier to create and maintain than a group, and your followers can engage with your brand any time they want — not just when you’re online.
