The Difference Between FB Groups and Pages & How to Optimize Them

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Are you one of those people who know you should be using Facebook for your business, but get a bit overwhelmed when trying to understand how to best use it and what the real difference is between a business page and a group?

Does it really matter if you know it the difference?

If that’s you, I’ll tell you right now, yes, it matters! Stick around and I’ll tell you even more about the differences between FB groups and pages and how to best utilize them for your business.

Welcome to the next episode of the BizMagic Podcast, sharing expertise and solopreneur journeys to help business owners find the magic in their businesses by being more productive, focused, and successful.

I’m Patti Meyer, founder of BizMagic, where I help entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small business owners clear their plate so they can get back to doing what they love - running their business.

You’ve heard time and again how important it is to be on Facebook and have a stellar, interactive FB Page.

But when you’ve gone through the effort to put it up there, you get so little interaction that you may feel like you’re failing at Facebook. And then you click over to a group you belong to and see tons of people interacting and you KNOW there are people on Facebook that are liking and sharing and commenting, but why aren’t they doing that on YOUR page??

Well, what you heard is true, it is important to have a presence on Facebook, but in doing so, it’s also important that you understand how best to optimize your presence there so you get traction and interaction.

And one of the best ways to do that is to utilize both FB Groups and Business Pages for your business. So today, we’re going to talk about just that!

Now, before we dive, I want to make it clear that I am not a highly trained social media strategist. I am an entrepreneur, like you, who has spent a lot of time working on Facebook for my business and those of my clients’ and has had extensive conversations with some great social media strategists that taught me TONS about this medium.

So what I’m sharing today is what I’ve learned through those conversations and my own experience. If you want to really dive in deep and blow up your social media, I highly recommend you get with a strategist to do that for your specific business.

Ok, now that that disclaimer is out of the way, let’s jump in.

You’ve built a Facebook business page because that’s what you’re supposed to do, but you are seeing little engagement. Why?

Well, that is because unless you’re sponsoring your content (at a rate of quite a bit more than $20/month), only about 3% of the people who like your page actually see its content in their newsfeed.

That’s right, 3%!

You can do the math...if 100 people like your page, 3 of them will see your stuff and obviously not all 3 are going to interact. Thus, you have low interaction.

So it’s not that you’re failing at Facebook. You just have to learn to play it better. Facebook pages are so monetized that they can feel useless to put content on.

BUT there are a few reasons to continue doing so.

First and foremost, a lot of people hav turned to Facebook business pages to establish a business’ credibility. While a lot of people obviously still Google your business to find its website or maybe look you up on Yelp, a LOT of people pop right over to FB and look at your business profile. If they see that you are actively posting content, they know you are current and a live and active business.

So that is to say that even if you don’t see direct engagement on your page, it doesn’t necessarily mean that people aren’t looking at it.

Even better is if you can get some ratings on your page. That way not only do potential clients or customers see you’re active, but they ideally see good reviews right there without having to go to Yelp or look at the testimonials on your website.

Another reason you want to keep posting is because you CAN get that 3% to rise if you are sharing really good content.

If you share content that is interactive (meaning, you are posting things that encourage your audience to participate in the conversation) and can get that 3% to regularly interact, your posts become visible to more of your audience because the FB algorithms deem your content valuable.

That’s called organic reach and growth! So that means don’t just throw stuff on your page just to have it there, make sure it’s content that really resonates with your target audience.

But what if you’re just not happy with knowing people are viewing your page and you want more engagement and community. That’s where a group can come into play.

A group is much different than a FB page because it can be more exclusive and the content you post in your group shows up much more readily in your group members’ newsfeeds.

AND they even get notifications when you or other people post in the group.

Groups are especially great if you are offering services or products that would benefit from people connecting with each other - something people can’t really do on your page. People like feeling a part of something - feeling included. We are social beings (we’re pack animals!) so we love place to connect.

But that doesn’t mean that if you just start a random group, people will flock to it. Like a page, for it to be successful, it takes a lot of work, thought and intention.

You want to have a theme and a purpose to your group so that it really draws the people you want there - people who will interact with your content.

Speaking of content in your group, you really want that to be interesting and scream for participation.

Create polls, ask questions, ask your members to post images and videos and things about themselves or their businesses in your group. Utilize FB Live in your group and encourage your group members to do the same.

A successful and active group is a willing and active audience for your business!

If you have a group specifically in the hopes of selling products or services to your members, do it in a way that is genuinely trying to solve their problems and don’t try to sell regularly. People are not joining a group to buy from you, they are joining the group for community.

Give them that first, THEN you have a much more willing audience!

So that’s my fairly quick gist of FB business pages and groups. While groups are great to run, you have to have a real purpose for having a group outside of just selling. If you have that, the success you can get with group is incredible.

And whether or not you choose to have a group, I highly recommend that no matter what, you have a business page. If you can’t put tons of time and effort into creating engaging posts to grow your organic reach, then at least put some content up there regularly so that anyone seeking you out online, sees you’re an active business.

And now I want to hear from you. Do you still have questions about groups or pages on Facebook? Or do you have a tip to grow engagement and reach for pages and groups? Share in the comments below or you can always email me at questions@bizmagic.co.

And if you have any topics or questions that you would like to see me talk about in future episodes of the podcast, please scroll down and click on Ask a Question!

If you’d like to be a guest on the show and share an area of expertise or talk about your solopreneur journey in all its ups, downs, and sideways, you can also do that in the same place by clicking on Be A Guest!

Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you found some value and feel ready to dive in and navigate Facebook Pages and Groups!

If so, then join me next time when I talk with Rhodesia Jackson, Founder & Creative Director of Rhodesia J Designs, specializing in supercharging websites and branding with looks, personality, and a marketing mindset. You don’t want to miss it!

Till then, keep the magic in your biz!