We get this question a lot so it’s worth getting things cleared up straight away.  What exactly is the difference between a Facebook Fan Page (also known as a Business Page) versus a Facebook Group?

I’ve put together the following table that hopefully makes it crystal clear what you get (or don’t) in each option.

Feature	Facebook Fan Page	Facebook Group
Is available and indexed by search engines?	YES	NO
Is linked to you personally and updates show only from you?	NO	YES
Allows you to send bulk email to all ‘followers’?	NO	YES (if group less than 5,000)
Allows control over who is able to become a ‘follower’?	NO	YES
Allows you to install ‘applications’ for additional functionality or content?	YES	NO
Ability to remove specific ‘followers’ or remove spam postings?	YES	YES
Can be promoted via Facebook ads?	YES	YES

In almost all cases, my vote goes for fan pages, if for no other reason than they’re indexed by the search engines (e.g. Google reads them).  Groups give you more control but at higher admin costs – and if the features in a Facebook Group is what you want, you’d be well placed to look elsewhere, like Ning, to be honest.

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Photo by jaycameron