Now that Facebook has again changed the game and you can add groups to your Facebook page, we thought it was time to give our .02 on this topic. Facebook pages or a group? What is the right choice for your small biz?
As you know, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms with 2.32 billion monthly users recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018. Since 2013 the number of Facebook users have reached one billion, and it has emerged as one of the biggest marketing platforms around the globe. So, it goes without saying that it is also one of the biggest marketing opportunities for any business.
Marketing is all about delivering your message to as many potential customers as you can and the potential of pages and groups to send your message to your intended audience is powerful. But which one or both will benefit you the most? That is what we will discuss here.
Facebook Pages – You Get to Manage Your Message
Facebook pages are designed for individuals, organizations, NGOs, and businesses to create an authentic representation on this particular platform and who want to manage its brand. This is the biggest benefit to the page versus the group. As the manager of the page, you are in control of the content delivered and it’s a one-way conversation with the hope of engagement. Engagement happens when you post great graphics, surveys, contests or whatever is needed to get your followers to like, share, comment or click on your post.
With a page, you can have a chance of connecting with more people and sharing updates, but it can be more difficult to start a useful, lead generating conversation.
And once people, follow your page they receive notifications about what’s posted. To me, it’s the ability to manage the message that is more important.
Facebook Groups – Create Brand Loyalty through A Community
We like Facebook groups because its more it allows you to target customers who have an interest in your product or service. You have the opportunity to create or simply, interact, with a community of people who believe in the same ideals as your brand. Sometimes it is an intimate passionate group and sometimes it is a large one. But if you create one you can really earn dedicated followers. Followers rule!
The disadvantage is the group can take over your brand and change the mission of the group. This is when the message can get confused and you, as the brand, may lose control. However, the group is great for engagement as other members can see the posts in the group on their timeline.
Here are few more items to consider for your new group:
- Decide whether your group will be a secret group or public one
- Create an insiders Facebook group by including significant people in it,
- Set permissions and rules immediately and
- Assign someone in social media to monitor this group
What’s the Right Choice for You?
For us, we believe that marketing has one goal and that is to create leads for the business. So, when we considered adding another social media tactic to manage, we asked, “How will it provide us with new customers?” As a growing entrepreneur, you may have other goals, brand awareness, up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, increase customer satisfaction, increase web traffic or if you are launching a new product or service. Regardless of which you choose, social media can be an effective driver of any one of those goals.
Time is an Also A Consideration
Yes, to make the Facebook group ve page decision you should determine the goals of your business but for small businesses and startups, your time is also a BIG consideration. Think about it, there are pages with thousands of likes, but no active content and management, and there are active groups with thousands of users on board with no engagement. So if you’re not ready to hire a consultant you have to ask yourself, how much time do you have to spend on a group or page?. We recommend at least 5-10 hours a week on the actual page. But, this doesn’t take into account creating content, graphics, and any other materials needed for a professional page or group to stand out on a series of pages. And if you get a passionate following, then more time will be spent on engagement.
A Social Media Plan is Needed
Regardless of whether you choose a Facebook group or page, to be really effective you need a proper social media marketing plan. A plan will identify the content you’re going to post and make sure your content aligns with your company’s goals. Content is king on social media so having a well thought out plan is crucial to your social media success.
Creating a page or a group isn’t difficult but running a page or group without a proper plan can be a waste of resources.
Our .02! We Like the Hybrid Option
Since you can link a group to your Facebook page and since at Customer 1st Marketing we are always working towards understanding the needs of our clients so we started our private Facebook group, 30 Days of Growth. This is for those that paid for our sales and marketing program. We consider these entrepreneurs as business owners that are really serious about their business. Plus, with the group we are able to deliver more personalized attention to them, answer their questions, share content from our Facebook page to them and still sell our services.
Bottom Line
Yes, every decision a small business owner makes is either intuitive or through careful consideration. So deciding to create a new page or group is no exception but if you start with a strategy and a goal in mind, you are already ahead of the game.
