“What’s the difference between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page?” When we’re talking social media marketing, this question is practically inevitable, and it’s almost always followed by “Why would I choose one over the other?” and/or “Do I need both?” These are all perfectly sensible inquiries, as anyone who’s seen examples of both knows that they’re almost identical:

(Click to enlarge.)

So, “What’s the difference?”
The Tabs: By default, Groups and Pages have the exact same tabs: Wall, Info, Photos, Videos, Events, and Discussion. Page owners, however, can take it a step farther by adding Notes, third-party, and custom tabs (as Diet Coke has done in our example) if they want to communicate with fans in a different way.

The Administrator: Both Groups and Pages have admins who update the tabs and monitor the activity of members and fans. When a Group administrator posts something to the Group’s wall, the post is labeled with the administrator’s name (EX: Sarah Norman I love Diet Coke!). When a Page administrator posts something to the Page’s wall, on the other hand, the post is labeled with the Page’s name (EX: Diet Coke Beware of Mentos!).

The Control: When you create a Group, you have the power to customize how members can interact within it. If you don’t want Group members to post pictures, videos, or comments on the wall, you can check the Admin Only boxes. Pages don’t give you the power to limit interaction, which means once someone’s a fan of the Page, they can pretty much do whatever they want.

The Updates: When an administrator posts something new within a Group, the only people who see it are the people who visit the Group. Some perspective: I’ve been a member of the same 16 Groups for about four years. I haven’t checked a single one of them in about three and a half. When administrators post something to a Page, every single fan sees it on his or her news feed (home page) almost immediately. More perspective: When I logged into Facebook this morning, the first thing I saw on my news feed was an April Fool’s Day prank from RecipeZaar.

The Point: Groups are to Pages as NESs are to Wiis—great in their time, but more or less obsolete now that the other, more functional model is available. When Facebook began, Groups were places people could go to discuss their interests with like-minded Facebook users. Then and now, people started Groups, other people joined, discussed the Group topic for a few days, and then more or less forgot about it. Pages are essentially Groups 2.0—not only can like-minded fans discuss the Page topic with each other, they can also receive updates about it from the Page administrator.
 
“Why would I choose one over the other?”
Social media marketing is all about maintaining open communication between a brand and its customers. The best way to facilitate that communication is by letting your customers know you want to talk to them, which means putting your name on a message and getting it in front of their faces. The second best way to facilitate communication is by making all sorts of communication channels available to your customers, which means adding appropriate new tabs and encouraging customers to interact with the brand. With this in mind, the question really becomes “why in the world would anyone choose a Group over a Page?”

“Do I need both?”
While it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have both, it really wouldn’t help much either: everything Groups can do, Pages can do better. You should hang on to a Group if you already have one, but save the updates for you Page so more people will see them.