The difference between Facebook pages and Facebook groups

Pages allow real organizations, businesses, celebrities and brands to communicate broadly with people who like them. Pages may only be created and managed by official representatives.

Groups provide a closed space for small groups of people to communicate about shared interests. Groups can be created by anyone.

The Brock University Faculty of Business is a great example of using both a Facebook Page and Group. They use a Group for their alumni [1] and a Page for their students [2]

Other differences include:

Facebook Pages

Privacy:

• Page information and posts are public and generally available to everyone on Facebook
• The Page is indexed by external search engines
• By using a Page, you can only control who can join based on age and location

Audience:

• Anyone can like a Page to become connected with it and get news feed updates
• There is no limit to how many people can like a Page

Communication:

• Page admins can share posts under the Page’s name (administrators appear as organization when posting)
• Page posts appear in the news feeds of people who like the Page
• You can target posts by language and location
• Pages allow you to create a vanity URL for marketing purposes
• Page admins can create customized apps for their Pages
• Admins can check Page Insights to track the Page’s growth and activity (analytical data)

Facebook Groups

Privacy:

• Groups offer more control over who gets to participate, settings, and approvals
• In addition to an open setting, more privacy settings are available for groups
• In secret and closed groups, posts are only visible to group members

Audience:

• Administrators appear as themselves when posting
• Group members must be approved or added by other members
• When a group reaches a certain size, some features are limited
• Membership is capped at 5,000 members
• The most useful groups tend to be the ones you create with small groups of people you know

Communication:

• In groups, members receive notifications by default when any member posts in the group
• Group members can participate in chats, upload photos to shared albums, collaborate on group documents and invite members who are friends to group events