Having a business Facebook page vs group

Being on social media these days is almost required for businesses, but now it’s not just whether you should be on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, but it’s what kind of account you should have on these platforms. Today I want to talk about having a Facebook page vs group.

First, let’s talk about the three main types of Facebook accounts. First of all, if you’re on Facebook, you probably have a profile. That’s your personal account where you add your friends, see your friends updates, and share pictures of your kids and pets. Here’s a screenshot of what my profile looks like. Don’t friend me, I only accept people I know in real life and never clients. 🙂

For most cases, you need a personal Facebook profile in order to manage/run a Facebook page and/or group. If you don’t have one, then you’ll probably want to set one up. This is for you personally, not for your business. Use your name, not your business name.

What if you don’t want to be on Facebook, personally?

That’s a good point, and I understand why you may not want to. Here’s what I recommend. First, create your profile and immediately go to your privacy settings. Under How People Can Find and Contact You, change those settings to prevent your profile being found so that your profile won’t be shown or found in searches. Then, don’t add any friends.

What is a Facebook page?

A Facebook page is similar to a profile, except it’s always public. Your page is available to for anyone to see, whether they are on Facebook or not. They are typically used to represent public figures, online personas (think authors, celebrities), and for businesses. The benefits of a page is that people don’t have to be on Facebook to view it, it can be indexed by search engines, and it allows you to share information with your clients and potential customers.

While a Facebook page can, you can announce events, specials, sales, or other interesting tidbits that you want to share. It’s typically more of a one-sided space, although people can comment and/or post.

Here’s a screencap of our business Facebook page. Please feel free to go like it.

Typically, most of our clients set up a Facebook page for their businesses. It’s essentially your online Facebook profile for your business. You can manage it from your personal profile. (I managed a lot of pages from mine!)

What is a Facebook group?

A Facebook group is essentially an online community. Instead of being a page about your business, this is a place where people with similar interests would go to share ideas and communicate. I’m in a lot of Facebook groups. Most of them are WordPress related groups. Groups tend to be specific to topics, for example I’m in groups related to specific WordPress plugins, themes, and other WordPress related topics. My podcast, Women in WP, has its own group for the community of Women who work in WordPress can hop in and discuss different topics. I’m also in a book club group, a couple of running groups, etc.

Groups are a great place to build a community for your business or brand.So what should you have? A Facebook page or a group?

Facebook page vs group

When it’s time to decide whether you want to have a Facebook page or a group, first you need to decide how hands-on you want to be with that platform. A group is going to require more of your time because you’ll need to manage memberships and moderate the group. A page can be more hand-off, where you can post your status updates and leave it there, but a group requires interaction between you and members, and other members with each other.

With a group, you’ll want to have some guidelines for participation to make sure it stays on topic and friendly for everyone. You’ll need to make decisions about whether the group will be public or private, what membership rules apply, and who is going to manage it.

Which should your business do?

It really boils down to whether you want a place to market yourself alone, or if you want a place for people interested in your business to share and communicate, and if you’re willing to foster that community, then it’s a really great opportunity.

Need help figuring it out? Contact us today to request a quote and learn more about what we can do for you.