Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day.

(^101) ■
wEE
k 1: lE
arn a
bout p
ag
Es and g
roups
after you have added this information, you will then be able to control settings
related to your group’s privacy and add a group picture. You can change these settings
at any time by clicking Edit group on the group’s main page.
Thursday: Decide Between a Fan Page or a Group
so, how do you decide whether you need a Facebook group or a fan page, or maybe
even both? although at first glance they appear to be similar to one another, fan pages
and groups contain some key differences that you need to keep in mind when you are
setting them up. in a nutshell, groups are easy to set up but have limited functionality.
pages provide a rich set of features that are not currently available on Facebook groups.
Fan pages allow the same type of interaction as groups but with many more
options for customization and personalization. like Facebook groups, a Facebook fan
page has a wall and can have a discussion board, but it can also have much more, such
as Facebook applications, Flash, and htMl code. because of the flexibility of using
htMl code, fan pages can be customized to look similar to a website. although fan
pages often are pages devoted to a popular musician, sports star, actor/actress, or poli-
tician, they are quickly becoming much more than that, with pages for marketers, real-
tors, magazines, and writers, according to Facebook.
Facebook fan pages are for real entities to broadcast great information to fans in
an official, public manner. like profiles, they can be enhanced with applications that
help the entity communicate with and engage their fans and that capture new audi-
ences virally through their fans’ recommendations to their friends.
a musical artist, business, or brand can create Facebook pages to share infor-
mation, interact with their fans, and create a highly engaging presence plugged into
Facebook’s social graph. these pages are distinct presences, separate from users’
profiles, and optimized for these presences’ needs to communicate, distribute informa-
tion/content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fans’
recommendations to their friends. Facebook pages are designed to be a media-rich,
valuable presence solution for any artist, business, or brand that can be integrated
seamlessly into the user experience with socially relevant applications.
although the primary differences between pages and groups become evident
only after you try them, let’s look at what’s been created to promote geekbrieftV:
• geekbrieftV group
• geekbrieftV fan page
why would geekbrieftV create both a group and a fan page? probably because
of the differences between the two. Fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are
indexed by search engines. this makes pages an important element for reputation man-
agement and search engine optimization campaigns. additionally, pages allow for the
inclusion of Facebook applications, give you the ability to create event listings, and give
you access to user/visitor statistics. these features are not available in Facebook groups.