Fan Page vs. Group Page on Facebook

Hi Amybeth,

I recently did a webinar that covered this topic for our career center clients. I advised career centers (and the same holds true for any institution) to get a fan page, or even a profile, before a group.

I think a fan page is better than a group, for the exact reasons you described. To interact with members in a group you have to a) rely on them to check the group and/or b) send messages and event invites, which come through your members' e-mail inboxes, not their news feeds. You're absolutely right that too many messages would get annoying to students, while an occasional announcement in the news feed may pique their interest without being intrusive.

Plus, having a fan page enables you to better gage their reactions to and interests in certain things because of the features like status "comments" and "likes". Your fan page can become a great research as well as communication tool.

You can find the presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/OptimalResume/10minuteaday-social-media-strategy-1807901

Hope that helps!

-Kelly Giles
Social Media Strategist
OptimalResume.com

I like the fan page personally - you can post status updates as well as doing invites to events (if you want).  The downside of the group is that most of the communication is through messaging.  In my extremely unscientific survey, I've found that students are inundated with messages and rarely read them.
Hope this helps!

Hi Amybeth,

Great question.  I'm a big supporter of the Facebook Fan Page for your student activities office because of its ability to publish to your "fan's" newsfeed and its easily "brand-able" so you can have a dedicated URL for it.  If you have an organization or club that wants to create a "group" to communicate with each other directly, then that's a reason to use a "group" function.

For example:  I have a Fan Page for our Campus Center that sends out all sorts of information, asks poll questions, and gives away prizes.  This is our main page that lets us interact with those who care about what we have to say!  We also have a Campus Center Employees Group for our student employees to share announcements, training opportunities, challenges/victories on the job, etc. which is private and only goes to those students.  Once they are no longer working for us, we remove them.from the group.

Anything that helps expand your community both online and in person is always on my radar!

I hope this helps, best wishes!

- Ed Cabellon
@edcabellon

You can check out my post about the differences and my recommendation:
http://www.marketingshindig.com/2009/10/06/facebook-fan-page-vs-facebook-group-which-one-do-i-choose/

Nick (@shinng)

I'd also go with a Fan Page.  Facebook intends that Fan pages be the "official" facebook presence of a brand, company, organization, celebrity, etc.  If someone else is impersonating your office, it can be taken down.  The same is definitely not true for groups.

Also, the admins of a Fan Page are not listed among the members.  This allows you to have a personal/professional use for the same profile, if you wish.

Finally, the Facebook Insights available with Fan Pages is a great assessment tool to use when examining your Facebook presence.

I'm also doing a presentation on this topic at a conference later this week.  I'd be happy to share my slides after the presentation.