I’ve been getting a lot of requests lately that stem from confusion about the Facebook Fan Pages (“Like Page”) and Facebook Groups. It seems many people are confused as to what the differences are and which one they should use. So, after responding to many of these requests, I thought it would be a good blog topic.
Which do I Need (Facebook Fan Page or Facebook Group page)?
You should create both a FB Fan Page (Like Page) and a Group. The difference between the two is detailed below;
Facebook Fan Page
Facebook Fan Pages or “Like” pages as sometime referred, to are meant to provide a mechanism for Facebook members to promote their commercial business venture to their customers. When you create a Facebook Fan Page you have many options for providing additional Fan Page Tabs such as Twitter Posts, Capture Pages, Promotion Pages, Store Pages, and more…
There are many applications that have been written and are available on Facebook that work exclusively with Facebook Fan pages. An example of an application is the “Selective Tweets” application. This application allows you to post your Twitter posts back to your Facebook Fan Page, with the added convenience of selectively choosing which post you want sent to Facebook simply by suffixing your post with “#fb”.
When you create a Facebook Fan page a new account is created so that you can access Facebook as your Fan Page. Switching back and forth to this account is provided by an option to “Use Facebook as Page” which will now be available in the settings dropdown list. You can also visit other Facebook pages and “Like” them as your Fan Page User, this provides some link juice for your fan page and attracts Facebook users back to your Fan Page. However, you can’t like or comment on individual profiles on Facebook using your Facebook Fan Page account.
Facebook Fan Pages are allowed to create events, discussions, notes, documents, and send out invites to your friends to join your Fan Page. Unlike Facebook Groups however, invited guest have to actually accept your invitation by clicking on “Like” before they are added to your Facebook Fan Page.
You can administer your Facebook Fan page by switching to your Fan Page administrator or as your personal Facebook account.
A Facebook Fan Page is the proper way to promote your business on Facebook as per the Facebook Terms of Service. By using Facebook Fan Pages you can be assured that you will not get yourself booted off of Facebook while promoting your business opportunity.
To see a sample of a Facebook Fan Page visit my Facebook Fan Page for Network CEO at http://www.facebook.com/NetworkCEO.
Facebook Group Page
A Facebook Group Page is meant as a tool for individuals to form groups based on a common interest. Facebook does not allow for the creation of a group for the sole purpose of promoting a commercial business. However, as the owner of a Facebook Fan Page you can create a Facebook Group that consists of your customers and you group can be used as a mechanism for providing support, discussion groups, product information, or what’s happening discussions.
Facebook Groups are allowed to create events, discussions, notes, documents, and send out invites to your friends to join your group. Your invited friends are added to the group and actually have to click to leave the group if they don’t want to be in it. This is a little known feature that allows you to add all your friends to the group and email them about your products or services. If your friends get tired of your posts they can always choose to “leave” the group.
Summary
As you can see, both pages are an effective method for using the Social Media Power of Facebook for promoting your business opportunity. I highly recommend that you start with a Facebook Fan Page, then as you advance in what you can do with these pages and want to get the word out begin creating Facebook Group Pages to get your friends introduced to you Fan Pages and build your “Likes”.
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