Social media has always changed our culture. It puts us in touch with people faster than ever before, irrespective of where they are. It also offered people and businesses a previously unimaginable way of connecting.
Personal feedback, interaction with clients, appreciation, complaints, comments–social media provides a way to get it all. And everything is pretty easy.
Yet accurately and efficiently using social media apps is much different than just using social media.
We know that it is no longer a mystery whether companies should be on Facebook or not (and other social media platforms that they find useful). Together with other sites like this, the quality the social media heavyweight offers is something you can not overlook.
The incentives would certainly work in favor of a company if the right way is done.
But, with all the features of Facebook–and constantly emerging new ones–it can be challenging to decide exactly what tools to adopt for your brand.
Differences between groups and product pages on Facebook.
Facebook offers a variety of apps and resources that are useful for advertisers as well as just looking for information from everyday people.
Facebook has come to deliver a variety of resources to ease and/or entertain the lives of everyone who uses it.
But it’s one of its first features–communities–and what it may have helped spawn indirectly–sites–that really propelled the platform’s growth and success. These features have helped build the popularity of many of the brands that took advantage of them.
The disparity between Groups and Pages is more linked to whom product investors seek to interact with them.
A team leader for an organization trying to communicate with his or her peers will have much more success in interacting through a Facebook group than they would on a product page.
On the other hand, if those stakeholders wanted to communicate with the brand’s current, past, and potential customers, doing so through a page would get the most value.
The biggest reason for this — and the biggest difference between the two choices — was built up within the messaging’s intended audience, as well as the brand’s goals to accomplish.
Reasons for using a company brand page on Facebook.
Like Teams, Facebook pages did not launch until 2007. Pages give brands and celebrities a more robust version of the social media software that was once only intended to communicate with individuals.
Pages have grown like much of the web (i.e. first named “Facebook Pages for Business”) and have been the lifeblood of the whole social network behind the marketing environment.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, when they launched in November 2007, Pages reflected “a completely new way of online advertising.”
And he was not mistaken.
The larger story created within the Pages section was the release of Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads became a reality–then a success–as so many corporations accepted the product page concept and used it and its ad material to exploit it.
But, unlike anything else on the web, the whole movement created an advertising platform, closely resembling Google’s paid search ads, but with more defined targeting of the audience and a lower price.
Even without using the ad platform, a brand page gives businesses the ability to speak directly to their followers–and hopefully to some of those people who want to become part of it.
Brands have the opportunity to send specific messages to the most important people: their clients.
Add the power (and affordability, at least for most markets in its current state) of paid advertising to drive engagement and raise brand awareness, and it’s easy to see that boosting page content helps businesses of all sizes.
And today, to build far-reaching Facebook success, more and more brands are using this hybrid strategy of paid and organic social media marketing.
The key to the success of a messaging Facebook page is, once again, the intended audience.
So why would a company need a Facebook group, and how is it different from a page?
Reasons for Using a Facebook Group Group, which has existed since 2006, was developed as a means of communicating and sharing in an atmosphere that was meant to be only for the public.
That’s why there have been different types of communities since their creation.
Facebook has been offering open, closed, and secret groups for over a decade.
Open Groups allow anyone to join and invite, and the posted and discussed content is public.
For new people to be introduced, closed groups need permission, and the content is not available.
And Secret Groups are completely hidden (and conventional search) from Facebook search, and people need to be invited to be included.
Nonetheless, Facebook recently announced that it would upgrade its Teams.
It will drop the privacy setting of the Open, Hidden, and Public Community to just be:
- Public and visible in search (formerly Open/Public)
- Private and visible in search (formerly Closed)
- Private and hidden in search (formerly Secret)
Despite the changes in naming, the use of groups does not change, nor is the purpose of the group(s) intended.
Each of these team privacy settings provides something different for the same purpose: simple interaction collaboration.
Groups have been very common (and useful) since cell phones let us group chat as easily as we do today.
But that doesn’t mean the groups still aren’t useful.
They give companies the opportunity to communicate directly to their team members, staff, partners, and, yes, even customers–but the message will always be somewhat different (at least if it’s done correctly).
Also, keeping in mind the intended goals and target market, groups are a great way not only to connect internally, but also to allow organizations to demonstrate expertise and further promote a brand.
For example, starting and managing a Facebook Group for brand loyalists where they can communicate product and service information is a great way to enhance brand loyalty and general education.
Starting or entering a non-branded community group in which people can share ideas and feedback is a good way to support the brand as well as building authority and awareness while highlighting expertise.
Groups certainly have a role in the brands ‘ overall social media strategy. Just use them correctly and stop being an annoying human billboard that floods (and ruins) communities and communication power inside them.
Deciding that Facebook tool is right for your company
Most often, a business will want a Facebook page reflecting its product.
It is becoming an amazing part of the identity of an organization–a kind of 1A of its website–and often the first place a customer or potential customer looks for information, feedback, guidance, and even sales.
Yet Groups definitely also have a position. Using them both correctly and not diluting either of their messages by being too salesy is just important.
Note, the No. 1 goal for brands should be to inform their consumers and potential customers throughout the internet.
And with both Facebook Pages and Teams, companies can and should do so.
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