What are the differences between various types of Facebook pages and profiles?

People using Facebook for business often ask, “Should I have a fan page, a personal profile, or create a group?” While it may be beneficial to do all three, it is probably a good idea to choose one to start if you have a limited amount of time to be on Facebook.  Knowing what the options are between personal profiles, fan pages, and groups will allow you to make an informed decision.  Understanding the differences will help you to effectively implement your Facebook marketing plan.


Personal Profile
A personal profile is linked to an individual person. This is the profile you get to by logging in with your email and password. Even if the primary reason you are joining Facebook is to gain visibility for your company, it is important to keep an updated personal profile. This allows you to build relationships with fellow executives and potential clients. Keep your brand in mind as you add pictures, post comments, and interact with people through Facebook.  Also, it is important to know that your personal profile is not the place to sell products or services and company promotion should be limited. If selling occurs frequently, your profile may be shut down by Facebook, and reactivation is a difficult process. All selling should be done through Facebook fan pages or groups. One BIG warning: creating a personal profile in the name of a business is risky. Facebook could very easily delete it in the future because personal profiles are set up to be actual names of people.  This option would best be used in conjunction with a fan page.  The one benefit of your personal page is to invite friends to your fan page.

Fan Page
Fan pages are indexed by Google; groups are not. Moreover, but if someone finds your Facebook fan page from outside of Facebook, they can see the full page and all the information regardless of whether they are logged in or not.  In contrast,  with a group page, somebody must already be inside Facebook to see them. Still, it's far more important to have your primary website found first on Google rather than your Facebook fan page.  Anyone can find the page, and anyone can join.  As a creator of a page, you are severely limited in your ability to keep people away.
The biggest plus sides from a business perspective of fan pages is the ability to customize the page.  Many more options as far as applications can be added to a fan page, such as custom backgrounds, adding an opt in box, selling from your site, and more. Some of these customizations do require a certain amount of technical skill, or access to a tech person who can do it for you. However, it does make fan pages more flexible for business professionals. FBML or custom tabs, (you may already have on your fan pages if Higher Images set up your page) are also very popular.

Groups
Groups are linked to your personal profile. This has pluses and minuses. On the plus side, you can easily invite all your personal connections to join a group you create. On the downside, because a group is always connected to your personal profile, separating your personal Facebook use from your professional Facebook groups is not as simple and effective.  Groups do offer the creator more control over who can join. Groups can be completely open, where anyone can join; or members must first be approved by the administrator; or groups can be secret with only those specifically invited even knowing the group exists.

Though groups are less customizable than pages, they tend to have a more personal feel and seem less corporate. Executed correctly, groups encourage more interaction with members.  Keep in mind, because a group is directly connected to your personal profile, any activities by group members could potentially reflect on your reputation.  If people behave badly within the group, this could cause problems for you.

Both groups and pages allow you to use advertising as promotional tools. Facebook ads, a paid feature, can be very useful for attracting membership.  The biggest advantage of pages is when you run an advertising campaign, it becomes a social ad. This means when your ad appears on someone’s page and a friend is a fan of the page, their name will appear underneath the ad stating, "Jane Smith is a fan."  This social proof may encourage viewers who would otherwise ignore the ad to click the link.

Communicating with group members or fans must be done differently. If your group has fewer than 5,000 members, you can send messages to all members at once, and it will appear in their Facebook inbox. From your fan page, you can update all of your fans regardless how many have.  The update will appear in their update section, not as an email in their inbox.  This could be a concern for some businesses trying to communicate to their clients.  It depends on how frequently the messaging feature and inbox is utilized by both the customer and the company.

In conclusion, if you are looking for more professional feel, and desire more customization, a fan page may be the best choice for you and your business. If you’re looking to connect with smaller numbers of people, want a more personal feel, and want more control over who can be a part of your community, a group may be the better choice for you.