Facebook Viral Marketing FREE stuff

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.

“Should
I create a group or launch a Page?” It’s the eternal question that
gets asked as often as, “What is Twitter ()?”
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.

What
is a Page on Facebook?

In
their own words, “Facebook 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…Not 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.”

So, 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 “Info” tab on their profile.

To
create a fan page, one simply has to go to facebook.com/pages/create.php
and create a new page. (I chose the categories “public figure” and
“other public figure” and made one for myself at facebook.com/pages/Howard-Greenstein/70939380803.)

Of
course, a single fan doesn’t make a fan page very valuable.

Value
of Fan Pages

Facebook Pages can be thought of in much the
same way as normal profiles on the site – 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 “updates” which show on the
update tab or a person’s wall if they’re a fan and have allowed the page
to show updates. Pages can have applications as well.

Here, for
example, is the Mashable Page on Facebook: facebook.com/mashable

Pages
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.

What’s a Group?

Groups
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 “officers” who are nominally in charge –
however, being an officer doesn’t mean the person has the ability to
administer the group.

Because 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.

Pages vs.
Groups: How to know which to use

There are a number of
factors you need to consider when choosing which is right for your
project, a Page or a group.

Personal vs. Corporate:

Due
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’t list
the names of administrators, and are thought of as a person, almost like
a corporate entity is considered a ‘person’ under the law.

Facebook
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.

Update: 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.

Email vs.
Updates:

As 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.

User Control:

Groups
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.

Applications

Pages
can host applications, so a Page can essentially be more personalized
and show more content. Groups can’t do this.

Moderation

Neither
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’s 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.

Ability to create
events

Both
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.

Advertise

Ads 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.

The bottom line

Groups 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.

More Facebook resources from
Mashable:

- 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