Facebook - Pages or Groups?

Now that many camps are utilizing Facebook to reconnect with their alumni and other constituents, many are asking, "Should I create a Facebook Page or a Facebook Group…or both for my camp?" Lots of nonprofits are asking the same question, so you can find a lot of discussion on this topic online. In particular, I found this blog post on the Why Facebook blog to be useful. In this post, Mari Smith has broken down the pros and cons of Facebook Pages and Groups. In particular, I found these nuggets to be the most useful:

Facebook Groups:

The Good:
- All activity on a group goes into your constituents' news feeds in Facebook. This is how you stay top of mind with your existing group members and also find new people to join the group. (Edit: Facebook Pages now offer status updates that go into Fans' newsfeeds - this is much more viral than what the Groups offer.)
- Messages go to the constituents' Facebook Inboxes

The Bad:
- You cannot add any of the great applications in Facebook to a Group (more on this below)
- If for some reason you don't want the group any more, it can be tough to delete. Luckily, you can get help from Facebook in turning the group into a page. (Edit: This option is no longer available from Facebook)

Facebook Pages:

The Good:
- Pages are indexed, so search engines like Google can find the page
- You can add applications to your Page to offer additional functionality. For example, you can add the Causes application and show current fundraising campaigns. And Camp Gilboa added a Google Calendar application to show their calendar of events right in their Facebook Page.
- You can work on parts of the Page offline until they are ready to be published.

The Bad:
- Not much activity goes into your constituents' news feeds; this limits the viral marketing of your Page. (Edit: Pages now offer status updates that go directly to Fans' news feeds - this is no longer a "bad". )
- Messages sent out to your "fans" are not found in their Facebook Inboxes (as they are in Groups). Instead, they show up in a less viewed area of Facebook.

The conclusion? Unfortunately, there is no right answer for everyone. Do a little research on both. Figure out what your goals are for the community on Facebook. And then, no matter which you choose, listen to your constituents and interact. That's the power of these social media tools.

(Edit - with the recent changes on Facebook Pages, we recomend a Page for a nonprofits official presence on Facebook. However, if you have a thriving Group on Facebook, it may not be worth the effort to change. And don't forget about those grass-roots created Facebook Groups out there - continue engaging those constituents!)

Have you created a Facebook Page, Group, or both? What have you found to work well? Not so well?