Facebook Page vs. Group: Which Should I Use?

I recently responded to a question regarding the differences between Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups. I use both extensively and thought I would share some of my preferences when making the decision whether to start a Page or a Group.

When to Use a Facebook Page

When we first started developing for the web back in the 90s, most referred to a website as a "web page." In truth, a web page was usually little more than a personal home page that was under the umbrella of a larger domain. For example, your "home page" might have a url like http://www.myisp.com/publicweb/~myaccountname. 

Ahh. The good old days. Try saying that url to a friend or family member in hopes they will find your website!

Like a "web page," a Facebook Page is a single entity that is part of a much bigger community on Facebook. Your Facebook Page is essentially open to anyone who wants to view the page, and by liking it, they can join the community and begin posting pictures, links, articles, or comments. There's some control from an admin perspective, but essentially, you must think of a Facebook Page as an open community focused on a topic, person, or organization.

Examples of Facebook Pages include:

• Churches & Nonprofits
• Schools, Colleges & Universities
• Businesses
• Causes (save the whales, etc.)
• Political campaigns
• Celebrities (actors, musicians, etc.)
• Media (CNN, NBC, KCCI-TV)
• Blogs (ThePioneerWoman.com, MichaelHyatt.com)

Facebook Pages may have a few "likes" or fans, or may have several hundred thousand (or millions).

The key question to ask when making a decision between a Page or Group is what kind of control do I want to have over my audience? If your open to having everyone and their friend be a part of your community, then a Page is the correct choice. Secondly, is the focus of your Page an idea, organization, person, etc., or is the purpose to facilitate communication to a select group.

When to Use a Facebook Group

Facebook Groups are an excellent choice for someone who wants to use Facebook as a means of communicating to a select group of people. 

For example, if you are on a college faculty, your college will likely have a Facebook Page for the college, but you would need to use a Facebook Group for your individual classes. Moreover, the only people part of your Facebook Group would be your current students. You may choose, therefore, to create a Facebook Group for each section of a class you teach for each term you teach the class. Your Facebook Group may only have a handful of members.

Here are the advantages of a Facebook Group:

• Complete control over membership by the Group admin
• The ability to post documents
• The ability to control what the public can see (open, closed, secret)

Most Facebook Groups will have a small number of members.

Recommended Instructional Applications for a Facebook Group

As stated above, Facebook Groups work very well with a blended or flipped classroom situation, in which you want to push a portion of your teaching onto the web. Here's how I use a Facebook Group for instruction:

• Link to articles of interest and request comment
• Create simple polls and surveys
• Link to videos or other media
• Upload documents or other classroom support material
• Link to Google Docs for reference or collaboration
• Respond to questions or comments
• Maintain a calendar of events
• Post announcements and updated class information

How do you use a Facebook Page or Group in your setting?

See a 200% Increase in Response to Your Twitter Stream

A week ago I was reading a blog post by Michael Hyatt on his daily reading list. Scanning the list, I saw a new service mentioned – Buffer. This is a simple-to-use little app that allows you to create tweets on the fly as you read RSS feeds, your Twitter stream, or just about anything else that may enter through your web browser.

Old news, right? Well, Buffer adds a new twist in that it allows you to spread your tweets throughout the day without preplanning your release schedule. Moreover, as I read the some of the articles on Buffer’s blog, I saw how using Buffer could increase my Twitter clicks by 200 percent.

 

How Buffer Works

Buffer installs as an extension within Chrome. The developers also provide extensions for most other popular browsers and platforms.

When you come across something of interest and you want to add it to your Twitter stream, simply click on the Buffer extension and it opens a familiar Twitter message box.

You are given two options: Tweet now or Add to Buffer. Buffer provides the initial text and link, or you can edit the text to add your own flair. When you are finished, simply click the Add to Buffer button and a little ball bounces for a second or two before Buffer gives you a little affirmation: “Awesome! One more Tweet in your Buffer. Keep it topped up!” (Wow, I’ve never felt so good about Tweeting!)

Take a look at your Buffer, and you will see all of your Tweets lined up and ready to go.

The Killer Feature

Now, for the killer feature as far as I am concerned: the schedule.

Buffer let’s you automatically create a simple schedule, instructing the app when to send your Tweets. On Buffer’s official blog, the developers recommend Tweeting between 1-4 times per hour.

Finally, to help you measure your success and make adjustments as necessary, Buffer provides you with basic analytical statistics showing the number of retweets, clicks, and reads your Tweets are receiving.

Setting up your account is free. With the free account you can buffer a maximum of 10 tweets. Also, with a free account you are limited in your scheduling ability. In order to give the app a true test, I upgraded to the “Pro” account, which allows me to buffer up to 50 Tweets and to customize my schedule.

How does it work? We’ll find out. Currently, I have 140 followers on Twitter. I am going to use Buffer for a month and see if I can track any improvement in my clicks or in the number of followers.

 

What do I like so far?

1. Tweet, schedule, and forget it. I love it.
2. Simple interface.
3. Positive “atta-boy” affirmations after each Tweet.
4. Simple analytics to help track your Twitter efforts.

Are there any negatives? Sure, the price ($10 per month) seems high for what Buffer offers. (You can save a little by purchasing an annual plan.) Consider, for comparison, that HootSuite is only $5.99 per month, and it provides a broader selection of tools.

So, watch my Twitter feed and you should see a lot more activity courtesy of Buffer.

Twitter and the Church

Jeff Wilson over at imageForth.com has some feedback on his experience using Twitter to stay connected with his church. While he points out several advantages, there is one big disadvantage that can be difficult to overcome:

Twitter is a great way to keep those who “twitter” informed, but one of the problems that we have encountered is that there are not very many who use Twitter.  So, a question comes to mind how do you inform both those that do have a Twitter account and those that don’t that Henderson Hills has a Twitter account?

I will be curious to see how many (if any) of Grace Church's friends and members start following the church on Twitter.

Read more: ImageForth » Twitter and the Church

New Social Network Launched

After quite a few days of tweaking, I have officially launched my first social network using Ning. This is a social network for users of Logos Bible Software, the primary software I use for Bible study, teaching preparation, research, and anything else to do with biblical studies.

I have been a Logos user for 10 or 12 years. My first install of Logos came on floppy disks (a lot of floppy disks)! In the years that followed, I have continued to add to my electronic library to the point that I seldom crack open a paper commentary, Bible dictionary, etc. In fact, I have started donating a lot of my duplicate paper books (books that are in both my analog library and digital library) to our church library.

This will be a test project for me. I am interested to see how long it takes to begin to see a community develop. I am interested to see if the users of this social network contribute content that goes beyond simple back-and-forth communication. For example, will users begin contributing their own works created with Personal Book Builder, a tool Logos developed giving Logos users the ability to create content from any word or html document.

If you are a Logos user, please stop by the network and join us. If you are not a Logos user and are interested in Bible study, you should consider becoming a Logos user. If you are a student of social networking, I will continue to update you on the progress of this network and the lessons I am learning from its development.

You can find the network at http://libronix.ning.com/.