For years, marketing experts have been touting to business owners that creating a Facebook page will increase
awareness and help build up the brand of the company. However, that view has started to change considerably
with the introduction of Facebook groups. What was once seen as a nifty way for people with a shared interest to
get together and converse is now viewed as a nifty marketing tool that a Facebook group manager can use to
propel their business upwards in social media.

Many Facebook groups are designed for employees of a company, but using them to pull in potential customers is
a relatively new concept. While Facebook pages are open to the public, a group page offers a little more privacy
with excellent communication options that may really help your marketing efforts.

Here are four fantastic advantages to choosing groups over pages when it comes to Facebook.

Communicate

Groups offer better communication options as compared to pages. Members can see who else is in the group and
message each other depending on their privacy settings. The same cannot be said for Facebook pages as they can
comment on what the administrator posts, but cannot see who else liked it. This essentially makes communicating
between members impossible on Facebook pages, but not for their group counterparts.

Private Discussions

Groups offer an excellent way for people to conduct private discussions depending on the settings. Facebook
groups come in open, closed, and secret. Open groups are not only for everyone, but all of the content is also
visible to anyone as well. A closed group will still have the visible names of members, but the conversations or
posts inside are kept secret from anyone outside the group. A secret group is not visible to anyone even if they
make a search. Facebook pages, however, are open to the public and not built to promote any type of discussion.

Content Contribution

One of the best aspects of a Facebook group manager is that the members often provide most of the content for
the group page. Anyone in the group can post video, text, images, polls, or documents for everyone to look at and
comment. When you consider business pages where administrators can post content that goes to the news feed of
people that like the page, the users can comment on the administrator’s post, but they cannot collaborate
together like you can with a group page. Plus, whatever the user posts to the page often goes unnoticed by
everyone else which limits the potential discussion.

Specific Audience

Groups really work for smaller audiences that can pull together for team projects inside a company. But they also
work for potential customers because they have a place to gather and discuss subjects that hold their interest in
terms of what the company offers. For the Facebook group manager who is promoting what the company has to
its customers, the group page offers considerable advantages that mean a higher level of interest and response
which translates into repeat customers.