Facebook pages were soon introduced after the Facebook team identified that most businesses were using personal profiles for their business pages. Not only did Facebook want to reduce the number of businesses asking people for friend requests, but Facebook also wanted to provide businesses with the tools and analytical data required to market a business effectively.
When someone likes a business, record label or sport star Facebook page they will be updated on a regular basis with what that business posts and shares with the world.

There is very little value to your business on Facebook unless it has good quality fans of your page. Once these fans have liked your Facebook page, they will receive updates on posts and updates from your page. This is a great way to communicate with a vast audience in one swoop.

Updating your web page regularly will increase engagement with your audience. Adding good quality content to your Facebook page is essential because no one wants to engage with a poor quality Facebook page.

Your Facebook page also enables you to uncover key characteristics of your audience. Through the Facebook page management system you will be able to see and identify the age, location, interests and sex of your audience, plus much more. This data will set the tone for all your future marketing efforts, but most importantly enable you to market your business effectively on and offline.

A Facebook group is very different from a Facebook page and should not be mistaken for the same thing.

Whereas a Facebook page is a public environment where everything can be shared amongst all of your fans, a Facebook group has the option to be either open or closed. A Facebook group is designed to enable people / businesses / brands to share information with only a selective audience. Group owners can set a certain criteria for people that wish to join the group.

Your Facebook page should be your outlet to share your business with the world. Your Facebook group comes along later and can be used in a number of ways:

VIP Members
You could create a Facebook group for your best customers; this will be reward for their loyalty towards your brand. Customers love to feel special and VIP groups can be a very cost effective way to add value to memberships, high price tag products or experiences.

Staff
Many companies also use Facebook groups as an internal communication tool, especially when it comes to staff events, corporate occasions, public relations, special offers, new services or products and store to store updates. A Facebook group can be a great way for you and your team to communicate as most people will know how to use it and it is a central location that everyone can communicate through. Whilst there are many benefits to using Facebook, there are obvious limitations and negatives associated, such as leaked information, inappropriate sharing of contents and information being misunderstood.

Networks
Some networking groups and business professionals use Facebook as a hub to communicate with each other. This is accepted, as the professionals involved tend to either know each other or have little to no interest in selling to people included within that group. Whilst Facebook is yet again a great method of communication in this scenario, there is no doubt that LinkedIn would be a more suitable communication means.

Whilst Facebook groups have their uses, it is un-doubtable that a Facebook page is far more useful. Pages are far less restrictive and offer you the opportunity to communicate with your target audience effectively.

Facebook groups do have their benefits as we have outlined above, and these advantages maybe useful for your business in one respect or another, but it is certainly more useful to own a business page if you had to pick.

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