The world largest fan page on Facebook: Coca-Cola
11,292,354 fans and increasing
Pages and Groups both have their own individual functions, but one shines over the other for several different reasons (I’m talking about Pages, if you hadn’t guessed!)
* Pages Get Internal Promotion on Facebook.com
Facebook Page updates will show up on your fans’ page feed – Facebook Group updates will not. I’ve found Facebook Pages to get more internal promotion on Facebook than groups do. Page additions appear on all fans’ live feeds (unless a fan hides them). They are promoted on the right hand “suggestion” column when your friends join them – Facebook Groups don’t get this treatment.
* Pages Have More Options for Customization
Groups are just that – strictly groups. It’s basically a mini message board, with a single area where you can post a message that shows at the top of the group. Pages, however, are fully customizable – show or hide whatever you want, or add applications or modules to your Page. This really makes it become more of a mini website than anything else.
* The Survival of a Facebook Group
Facebook Groups require constant interaction to survive, much like a message board. Like Pages, they have many of the same options, except the focus of a Group is the community; whereas the focus of a Page is whatever you post to it. Groups are more difficult to maintain, because they tend to get “buried” without constant activity.
* Search Engine Visibility
When it comes to getting visibility off of Facebook: Pages can be seen by non-Facebook users, and can be spidered by search engines. Facebook Groups cannot! It’s also important to mention that Facebook Pages can have a “vanity URL” (Facebook.com/MyPage), where as Groups do not have this feature.
* Anonymity
The creator of a group is forever immortalized on the group itself, with your linked Facebook avatar, stating that you are the group’s admin. There is no way to remove this, which is bad news for those who wish to remain anonymous. Pages, on the other hand, are completely anonymous – nobody will know that you own it, unless you make a public statement!