Facebook has become one of the hottest trends in Internet marketing. It has a lot of potential as a marketing platform, if you use it carefully. Among the numerous opportunities to advertise, groups and pages stand out as two of the most effective and easiest methods of brand promotion.
Facebook has become one of the hottest trends in Internet marketing. It has a lot of potential as a marketing platform,
if you use it carefully. Among the numerous opportunities to advertise, groups and pages stand out as two of the most effective and easiest methods of brand promotion.
Creating a Group is the original method of community-building marketing. It is still popular and with good reason. A Group can serve as a center for everything related to your brand. It encourages people to participate in discussions and share it with others. A Group also serves as a great way to communicate with your potential and current customers.
Groups also have a few disadvantages. If you have over 1,000-1,500 members you can't send messages to your entire group (this restriction is slated for removal). This limits your communication ability with your group members. Groups also attract more spammers, and you might find your time being wasted by dealing with this spam.
If you want to use applications and nifty widgets that make your page more functional, you may want to use Facebook Page.
Facebook Page is similar to Groups, but with some crucial differences. Pages are fairly new and specifically designed to help businesses advertise their brand and engage Facebook users. Pages have similar advantages to groups in that Pages allow you to promote your brand and engage potential and current customers.
The first major advantages that Pages have over Groups are the customization and communication potential. Flash, HTML, and Facebook applications can all be added to Pages, whereas Groups have relatively few options for customization. While Groups promote your brand on the profile pages of your group members, Pages stand out more. You can message your entire membership, regardless of how many fans your Page has.
Pages are also visible to people who aren't registered Facebook members, so they will be indexed in Google and other major search engines. This is crucial if you're trying to manage your brand and get it showing up in search engines.
Another great feature of Pages is that the URL of your Page is customizable. Having a domain with your keywords and little else can be invaluable for SEO purposes, and simply to make the Page address easier for people to remember.
You can even see visitor stats, create events and invite members, and promote Pages with social ads.
Pages seem to have the upper hand for long-term brand promotion, whereas Groups are better for attracting attention quickly and for a short period of time. It's faster to spread the word and invite new members to Groups.
So which is better? Each method of Facebook marketing has its own advantages and disadvantages. There is no real answer to the question of which method is better for brand promotion. It all depends on how exactly you're planning to use Facebook.
Groups and Pages are just two of the many opportunities to advertise on Facebook, so consider starting one or both to promote your brand.
