Tag: comparison

Comparing Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages

 

Facebook  Pages vs Facebook Groups

Should you have a Facebook Page or a Facebook Group?  What are the pros and cons, similarities and differences?

To determine this we need to know your objectives as a business or organization and how you plan to be using Facebook.

Compare Facebook Pages and Groups

Feature FB Page FB Group
Who can join Anyone can LIKE a Facebook Page You can request to JOIN a group.  The administrator must authorize it or you can be INVITED to join a group. A group can also be private.
Purpose Usually the page owner wants to promote and get as many LIKES as possible. A Group may be for communications within the group.  It is not necessarily the intention to broadcast to the general public.
Branding You can upload 2 images – a header and a profile image.  These can brand your page, There is no branding on your Facebook group.  The header image is photos of members of the group.
Files You can upload photos or video but not word documents or PDF files.  No WYSIWIG editing or create a file. You can upload files in different formats for your group and members can upload in a Post.  Also “Create a file” with editing functions.
Photos and Videos Can post photos and video Can post photos and video
Posts A post by the Administrator appears with the name of the page.  You do have the option as Admin to post, like and share under your own name as well.  Posts by people who “Like” the page show up on the right column.  Not as prominent. Security levels to allow administrator to review and authorize posts before they appear on the group.   Once a post is authorized it appears on the main news timeline for the group.   Posts are made under the name of the person (including administrators).
Members People who LIKE a page have limited access to other people who like the page. A group is MEMBER oriented.   Option to allow all members to invite new members.   People can request to join the group and must be authorized by an administrator. There are various levels available.  Members can view other members with photo and profile text.
Integration with Website You can integrate a Facebook PAGE into your website to display activity, posts and likes. A Facebook GROUP cannot be integrated into a website or blog. You can link to it.

Create a Facebook Page

  • To raise awareness about a cause, organization
  • To build an audience
  • To promote your business or organization
  • To create a fan base
  • To build a brand

Create a Facebook Group

  • To communicate with members of the group
  • To build a group of people with similar interests
  • To share files with members of the group

Sample Facebook Group Header

Facebook Group header area
Facebook Group header area

The Facebook Group can display an image, group name and type of group.  Members, Discussion, Events, Photos and Files are featured as the links below the header.

Sample Facebook PAGE header

Facebook Page Sample
Facebook Page Sample

Brand your Facebook page with a logo or other profile image (small square) and a Header image that reflects your business or organization. Below the header appears a brief ABOUT statement and your choice of Icons for photos, likes, notes or other apps.

Possibly you will want to create a Facebook Page AND a Facebook Group to achieve different objectives.  If you decide to do this, make your Facebook Group Members aware that you also have a Facebook Page and invite them to LIKE the page in order to see your posts.

It is not possible to migrate or move a Facebook Group and change it to a Facebook Page – so you may decide to have both or notify members of your Group that you now also have a Facebook Page and ask them to LIKE it.

More information

There are other similarities and differences. Do you have BOTH a Facebook Page and a Group? Or why did you choose one over the other? Are you satisfied with your choice?    Please feel free to leave your comments below.

 

If I Have a Facebook Page Do I Need a Website?

 

The WEB of website + Social Media

No doubt there are many people using Facebook – as of October 2011 Facebook reported 800 million users with over 50% logging in daily.

With Facebook having a Business Page is an excellent idea – it gives a method to update fans and those who have “Liked” your page quick updates.  Also if your Facebook fans comment or share your postings – this gets multiplied out to their friends.

However a business does require one central location to have their basic product and service information.  This might be your product catalog for a business, menus for a restaurant, and services offered by a consultant.   These should be readily available to anyone who is searching on the Internet by using search optimized web pages.   In addition on a regular basis in Facebook you should have your POSTS link back to your website for more information.  This helps to build your website traffic and integrate your Facebook page activity with your website.

Pros and Cons

Comparison Facebook Business Page Website
Pros

Lots of people using it

Easy to make postings

Can link back to your website

Can setup individual pages – but people don’t often browse the additional tabs

Easy to setup

Can create a branded professional look

Can create organized and easy to use navigation

More control on layout and how the message is presented

Can integrate your FaceBook page
Cons

Need to build up your fan base

Information on your wall shows most recent posts – but people may not scroll down to see previous posts

No obvious hierarchy and way to organize your information

Need to post regularly

May require technical expertise to update your information (depends on type of website)

May have to pay for hosting and domain name

May take time to build the website

Need to check that pages are found on search engines

Conclusion

There are advantages to having a Facebook Business Page – but to really benefit from having a presence on the Internet a business should still have a well designed website.

 

Comparing WordPress .COM and .ORG

Comparing features and use of WordPress.COM and WordPress.ORG . Experience with moving a blog from .COM to .ORG with hosting on BlueHost

I have been blogging on WordPress.com for several years and have setup several blogs for myself and for clients.  I was happy with WordPress.com until I tried to add some functions that would not work in the free version.

Here is a comparison of some of the key features in the 2 versions of WordPress, and a few things that I found when I moved a small blog from WordPress.COM to WordPress.ORG

Feature WordPress.org WordPress.com
Cost WordPress software is free but you pay for hosting from some 3rd party hosting company that provides WordPress as an installable option Free.  Hosted by wordpress.com no charge for hosting or setting up and running blog
Ease of use Having some experience with wordpress.com is helpful.  Many of the widgets and plugins have to be installed to get the same functionality as on wordpress.com Comes with the most commonly used widgets and themes.  Easy to learn to use and administer.
Widgets These widgets need to be installed and setup – askismet, subscribe, RSS Subscribe, and others.  Not all widgets that I was using on WordPress.com were initially available and had to be added individually and reinput coding and settings Text widgets are not able to include iframe or java script. This limits the coding you can include from other websites. E.g. if you have a book on blurb, lulu, photo widgets etc they will not run on wordpress.com
Hosting BlueHost has WordPress available in features. You click and install a new version of WordPress for each blog you want to host.  Each one sets up an individual database.  You can have up to 100 different blogs hosted under the 1 account. There are video tutorials. WordPress.com is the host.  There are some limitations on what you can link and install on the site.
Monetizing You can sell items on your WordPress.ORG blog You cannot sell affiliate products or monetize your WordPress.COM blog.   This is a primary consideration in deciding the move.

Moving a blog from .COM to .ORG

Feature WordPress.org WordPress.com
Hosting Setup your hosting account on a server that supports and provides WordPress.  I used BlueHost but there are others.  On research they are giving good value and I tested their customer service and online video tutorials.   You will need to setup a DOMAIN NAME for the blog. You don’t need to setup any hosting.  Just register your blog at wordpress.COM and begin.
Setup Setup the WordPress installation for the blog you will be importing. On BlueHost there is a tutorial video on this step.
Import / Export Step 2 – Tools – IMPORT – upload from your computer Step 1 – Tools – EXPORT – save on your computer
Themes In my transfer of a small blog from .ORG to .COM the following items occurred:Photos in the blog did not transfer fully and had to be reloaded to show up in all browsers 

photos in galleries that I was using the shortcode did not transfer

Had to upload the photos again

Added a plugin for slideshow

Setup the necessary slideshows in individual postings
Widgets Widget not included for “Subscribe” – setup a feedburner account and use widget in text block RSS Subscribe is built in
Plugins Do the “Add Plugins” and search and add plugins to add functionality.  (another blog on this later)
Photos In my transfer of a small blog from .ORG to .COM the following items occurred:Added a plugin for slideshow 

Setup the necessary slideshows in individual postings
Shortcodes The shortcodes that you used in WordPress.com do not work in WordPress.org.  You may need to search for plugins that will accomplish a similar functionality.   The new comment form functionality doesn’t work in wordpress.org Shortcodes are easily used for functions such as and the new comment form
Links Links reverted to inline links – to open in 2nd browser window have to edit the code in the HTML window or re-insert the links. Links set to open in 2nd browser window.

Before and After

This is an example of the same blog on 2 different platforms.

http://traveloutandabout.wordpress.com/ – on WordPress.COM (free wordpress hosting)

  • Initial blog development using the Twenty-Ten Theme
  • Wrote three postings and did basic organization and concept development
  • Used the built in Widgets of RSS links, email subscription to blog, Categories drop down, Tag Cloud, Links, and RSS import from imagekind RSS
  • The postings include photos and photo galleries using the shortcode slidesho
  • The CONTACT page uses the inbuilt “Contact Form” editor that is available on the edit menu
  • I wanted to add more affiliate links, amazon books, and google adsense.  I also wanted to be able to easily use widgets from my other Imagekind gallery where I have my photography.  None of this was possible on WordPress.com
  • I researched and selected BlueHost; setup the blog
  • Exported the content from this blog
  • I had not made this WordPress.COM blog public and was using it for initial development so there were no subscribers or any need to inform people of the move.  If it HAD been public there are some other steps. (will address in another blog post)

http://www.outandaboutns.com/ – on WordPress.ORG  (on paid hosting)

  • I setup hosting on BlueHost
  • Installed WordPress and registered the domain name   www.outandaboutns.com – I decided that this blog would be specifically for travel writing and photography about Nova Scotia
  • Tools – Imported blog
  • The Postings and Pages did import but I had to find new ways of doing many of the widgets as they are not inbuilt.  There is a learning curve and you should know something (or be willing to learn) about FTP and actually doing some work directly on the server from time to time.
  • The www.outandaboutns.com website now has
    • Using the available built in widgets: Search box, Recent posts, categories, archives, links, recent comments, pages
    • Widgets and Plugs that I added:  Google AdSense, Amazon affiliate, Amazon book carousel, Imagekind widgets for displaying photography, contact form, google maps, slideshow, Share (for social networking)
  • Some of the images inserted in the posts that were imported did display on my computer – but in testing some other people were not seeing these so did a re-upload and insert of images that weren’t displaying.

Denise Davies is an Internet and media consultant.  She works with nonprofit organizations and small businesses to maximize their effective use of the Internet to build their organization and achieve their objectives.  If you have questions or would like to learn more contact through the contact form