If your knowledge and use of Facebook goes beyond stalking ex-lovers, you will no doubt be somewhat familiar with Facebook Group and Fan pages.

Contrary to popular belief though, they are not one and the same, although their differences are rather subtle, a bit like Pepsi and Coke, or the comedian Barry Hilton and a bucket of dry paint.

 Let’s cast our beady eyes on the two options, and see if we can make sense of it all:

Group Pages:

Facebook Groups are probably more widely known out of the two, as they have been around longer, and are generally easier to set up.

Creation
When creating a Group page, you begin by choosing a name for your Group. For best results, something snappy or clever will do. As an example I created the group “Cats Are Evil” (which they are).

Thereafter, it’s a matter of choosing the Category Type (ie: Business, Common Interest, Just For Fun etc) as well as a more detailed Sub-Category (Beauty, History etc). Then simply add a brief description of your Group and the setup is basically done.

Messaging
Messages sent to Group members will appear in their Facebook Inbox. This means potentially greater reach, although if you overdo the Group Messages, members will eventually make a point of ignoring you.

Accessibility
Groups are not publically accessible via conventional search, and can only be accessed through Facebook itself. So, even though your “Kurt Darren is a Legend” Facebook Group has a million members, no one outside of Facebook will be able to view the page.

Recruiting
With Groups, you are allowed to send bulk messages to friends inviting them to join. This means that numbers can quickly be built up.

Content
The major weak point with Facebook Groups would have to lie in the creation of content. If you would like to post regular pics, stories, or video, this has to be done manually. If you have a blog and would like its content displayed here, the Group will unfortunately not be able to pull the feed.

Fan Pages:

Facebook Fan pages could perhaps be best described as the hot-yet-high-maintenance younger sibling of the two, offering more options in some instances, but also more inconveniences in others.

Creation
When creating a Fan page, you begin by selecting your category, choosing from either Local Business, a Brand or Product, or a Public Figure / Celebrity.

Thereafter, the detailed information you add will depend on your earlier selection. Eg: If you chose Brand or Product, you would be asked to fill in a Mission Statement.

Messaging
Messages sent to Fan members will not appear in your Inbox, but rather in your notification bar on the right hand side of your profile. As I’m sure you will agree, that’s not really ideal, as it could easily be overlooked or lost within all the Werewolf invitations you keep receiving.

Accessibility
Unlike Groups, Facebook Fan pages can be indexed on the SERPs, and are thus publically accessible. Facebook sporadically displays Fan pages that your friends are a part of, and they are also added as links to the public profiles of your Facebook account.

Recruiting
With Fan pages, you cannot send bulk messages using your friend list, inviting people to join. Well, in theory you can, but not through the Fan page dashboard. Fan page recruitment can be generated through more passive means, through external marketing (posting the URL on your blog) as well as through personal message invitations.

Content
Here you have more freedom in terms of content generation than you would have with Group pages. With Fan pages, you have the usual wall, discussion board, video and photo uploads that the Groups have. In addition, however, you can also import a blog feed, meaning automatic content can be generated on the page, making it look “busy” and “fresh”. There are also numerous other applications you can add to your Fan Page, such as StumbleUpon, Quizzes etc.

Conclusion
Although there are pros and cons for both types of pages, corporates, celebrities and large businesses do seem to be making use of the Facebook Fan Page option, as it seems to be the meatier of the two. Nevertheless, Group pages remain popular and easy to set up, so whichever choice you make, be sure to dive in with both feet.

You can check out our Facebook Fan page here, and our Facebook Group here.