The biggest question I am asked as a social media coach has been “what should I use to promote my business? A page or a group?”
Well now we have something new to consider: Facebook Community Pages
What it looks like and why have one?
A Community Page looks and feels exactly like a normal Facebook page but it has a slightly different purpose. The page is meant to be used for all the unofficial band, brand and business pages that are out there. Facebook seems to be trying to bring a more official status to a Page by letting the unofficial pages have their own platform.
What’s so different about it?
Basically the biggest difference is that when these pages gain popularity they have the potential to be handed over to the Facebook community. This will mean that the community page will start to look like a wiki about the page topic.
Why not just use a group?
My personal opinion is that Facebook is trying to phase out groups but there is no proof for that other than my gut feel. Another thought would be SEO. Groups on Facebook are not indexed by Google. So if you would like to start a community of people and wish that community had a search engine presence then a Community Page is they way forward.
The other thing to remember is that pages provide user statistics. So your community page could provide some interesting insight into its users.
Allfacebook makes a very interesting observation:
“As Facebook has come to realize that the users want to use Pages as a general “community platform” to socialize ideas and causes, they’ve decided to enable users to essentially create their own “Unofficial Pages”. Users can then meet other users who have similar ideas and interests. One strange distinction is the difference between Pages and groups. Facebook states that groups are for “professional interests or hobbies” whereas community Pages are for “causes and topics”. I’m not sure users will understand (or even care) about this distinction.”
The success of the Community Page concept will completely depend on the users taking to it the way the Facebook expects them to.
The summarised version
Pages are for your ‘official’ presence on Facebook. Groups are for ‘professional interests and hobbies’ and Community pages are for the Facebook Community to express themselves.
To look at the effect this may have on marketing take a look at my post on Ideate
Interested in knowing more about Facebook?
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