Facebook: Fan Page or Group?
 

Hello everyone. :)

I was on Facebook today when I noticed something... a lot of chapters/colonies from different organizations has a fan page or group on facebook. It's usually used to promote their respective chapter/colony and their events, etc. But.... what made them choose to make a fan page instead of a group, or vice versa?

So, I thought this would be an interesting discussion... what are the pros and cons of a fan page and a group? Why pick one over the other? Why not have both? And now there's "community pages." How does that play into the mix?

I would love to read your thoughts about this. ^_^

I was testing it today and I noticed that Fan Pages has the "statistics." As in, the admins of that page can tell how many people visit their pages, etc... I don't know how that would be useful exactly except that I guess it would be nice knowing that your organization is generating a lot of interest. But it would suck if it shows only 1 person visited the page in a week. lol xD

I agree with KSUViolet, but I would imagine that most chapters don't do official business via Facebook. I'm more a fan of the Fan page to use as a promotion tool. You can let friends, family, classmates know about upcoming events or past events.
It can also serve as an unofficial archive with photos & flyers from events over the years.

True... plus you don't have to be a member of Facebook to see a fan page. Whereas you need to be a member to see a group. And I think a fan page is "googable." But I haven't tested that out yet.

Fan Pages - best for external communication

Groups - best for internal communication

IMHO

We have a fan page, as do many of my friends chapters at my school and other schools.
We also have a few group.
The groups are closed. We don't really use them now, except for the occasional, "anyone want another t-shirt?" message, but they're helpful during new member periods. It's a place they can all get to know each other and share bid day pictures, etc.

We use our fan page for PR. It has links for girls to register for formal recruitment, pictures from events, I believe some contact info, and both Pi Phi and chapter facts.

^^^ This

Our chapter has both a group and fan page.

Group page for Internal communication. (Only members need to know, outsiders don't need to be privy to internal conversations)


Fan page external communication for our fans.

Don't ever say anything the least bit private on a fan page.

I personally think all the Greek communication on FB should be under groups that you have to be approved to join. Too many people don't realize how open FB can be and say things that are completely inappropriate. If you want to know something about a national org or a chapter, go to their national or chapter website. "If it doesn't show...you don't need to know."

Also, people frequently use sorority fanpages for spamming or pyramid schemes. This is what killed the inCircle groups IMO. Now everyone's taken the communication they were using there to FB, not realizing everyone and their llama can read it.

facebook is da debul.

It really is. lol.

Once, I was perusing NPC sorority fan pages, and saw that Kelly PNM had posted "Hi I'm Kelly and I can't wait to get to Large SEC school and be an ABC!!!!!!"

I LOLed when the comment underneath it was like

Anna ABC (Large SEC University): Um, yeah...

I was done with FB. Reason #kabillion why I'd like our fan pages to be members only at some point.

Sidenote: I wonder if the NPHC orgs have that level of LOL going on on their fanpages.

Exactly.

Yes.

facebook is da debul.

I think the fan pages are fine as long as they're properly moderated. My chapter has a group and fan page, and to be honest no one really uses the group... they're just in it. Everyone is on the fan page though, along with their parents, boyfriends, friends, etc. It's nice for alums and friends of the chapter to be able to offer congratulations, encouragement, etc. or see pictures and updates of what the chapter's doing - especially since they wouldn't be able to access those if they were posted in our private group. PNMs also check out the JHU sorority fan pages, so they're very useful for PR. And it's a lot easier to update than a webpage, so posting bid day news, for example, can be done quickly for those waiting anxiously to hear!

However, I could definitely see problems if something inappropriate was posted by a member or non-member, since anyone has access. Since it's an "official" Kappa page, if some idiot posted something awful there and took a screenshot it could look bad for the chapter. So.. careful daily moderation is important. And I think there may be an option to allow only the page mods to post, which would be a safer option.

The other thing that really gets me is the spam - both on the national page and our chapter page. Most of it has been Kappa-related, but I can only take so much crappy jewelry and "my niece's best friend's cousin is in a contest on WXYZ local radio station so sisters plzzz vote so she can win and be famou$$$!"