Facebook Pages& Facebook Groups

A lot of people confuse a facebook page with a facebook group. This drives me nuttier than any grammar or spelling mistakes (which I can be oblivious to, sorry :P ). The difference between groups and pages is significant and needs to be clarified as I can no longer smile and nod :) while screaming at my screen here in RL.

A facebook page is a little like a publication. It is one voice speaking to fans, customers or those interested in the topic:

• The page posts a comment or picture etc and "likers" can see the posts on their wall -so if you like the page their posts should show up on your feed and you are a "liker". 
• You cannot make someone else a "liker" though you can invite them to like any page. 
• "Likers" can comment on posts and these comments are seen publicly. 
• If a "liker" posts to a page it shows up in a small little box on the page and has to be reposted by the page owner to be seen on the wall of other "likers". Anyone can see these posts if they look at the page. 
• It is possible to have a number of different people posting as a page. Posts will appear to come from the organisation and  the individual "admin member" posting to the page is only identified if they sign their post. A "Private Message" can be sent to a page.

A page is ideal for an organisation to communicate with members, for a business to communicate with customers, for a blogger to notify readers of new blog posts. It's not ideal for chat or building n online community. I have a few pages you might be interested in. Each has an entirely different purpose:

Cloth Nappy Library Ireland: (431 likes) 

This PAGE allows Nappy news and events to be communicated to people with an interest and also directs people to the chat group and can be a point of contact for those using FB to contact the library. A few of us look after this page so news of nationwide events or sales are spread easily. We also share anything funny or cute that we come across that relates to nappies. The chat group fills a completely different purpose to the page.

Odd Mam Out:  (7 likes). 

This PAGE allows me to keep all my blog followers up to date about every new post. It appears that only 7 of you have any interest in keeping in touch. I wonder if I should be insulted. Some would offer a prize to those who "like and share" but I'm not going to resort to that. It's not that I'm not convinced that this is not a good marketing tool, a good way to get the word out about things...I'm just not so sure that I want lots of likes, unless they have a genuine interest in reading my blog. Also, I don't have any prizes to give away.

Extended Rearfacing Car Seats in Ireland : (210 likes) 

This PAGE is the public face of a group of mums who wish to promote the use of rearfacing car seats. There is also a chat group for questions and chit chat on this topic but the more public page helps get the word out that these seats are much safer (I've mentioned that before here. It allows us to share sales or new seats to the Irish market with our likers. The "likers" also indicate some level of interest in these seats too, you might otherwise never know that a friend uses RFing seats and not think to ask about it. 

Ikea for Cork: (4000+ likes and growing fast). 

This PAGE is a campaign to get Ikea to Cork. I have little news to share on any campaign progress just yet as it's a little over  24 hours old....but I do hope we will have updates. The main purpose of this page is to have as many likes as possible indicating the level of support for a Cork based Ikea store. It would be amazing for the south of the country. Watch this space -we may change the world -or perhaps just Cork! I think this one just goes to show that the number of likes has little to do with marketing or strategies (since there have been none) 

A Closed Group on Facebook is an entirely different thing.

And that differs again form an open group and a secret group (which I won't get into but you can read about here)

• If you ask to join a closed group and your application is approved -you will be added to the membership list for the world to see. Sometimes a group is aimed at members of a real life group and you may need to join in real life first. Sometimes Admin will contact you about your interest in the group before adding you: spam can be a problem so it's good to verify a genuine interest.
• Friends who are not members will not be able to read your posts/comments.
• You will be able to post in the group and it will show up on the FB feed of all members -but only for them to see, their non-member friends will not see your post.
• Similarly posts by other members to the group will show up on your timeline but only for you to see.
• You have access to group files and other documents
• Admin can create an event for the group and invite you.
• Admin can remove your posts or comments in the group or remove you from the group entirely.
• You can add friends directly to the group, without their consent.

Facebook Groups are useful for building a community, connecting members to each other in an environment where they can chat freely. From a business perspective it may be a good way to build an interest in a topic or a customer base for your area of business. The privacy means that members can ask questions, give feedback and explore options in a way that they couldn't on a more public Facebook page.

I don't object entirely to the term "forum" being used instead of group -it's far closer than "page". However a forum usually has a moderator and a facebook group may not. Admin may not necessarily encompass that additional role and there should not be an expectation that it necessarily would. A second important difference to note is the lack of anonymity that comes with the screen name used on many online forums. Most Facebook users will be using their real names and hence disagreements or other problems online can spill over into RL (I'll giggle if you ask me what that is!!).



I've given some examples of FB groups previously. You will find some here.

Just don't call the group a "page":

or I may eventually explode!!!