Last week, I wrote about Facebook Pages. This week, I’m highlighting Facebook Groups, which on the surface seems to be very similar to Pages. But its purpose is slightly different.

Pages is a place for companies or individuals to promote themselves for branding purposes. Groups, on the other hand, is a place where like-minded people, with similar interests, gather together online to share photos, videos, discussions and so on.

Ok, now I’m going to explain how to set up your own Group, assuming you are already a Facebook member. Click on “Profile”, then on “Info” and scroll down until you see the Groups section. Click on “See All”. Then click on “Create Group”. Alternatively, type in this web address: http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php.

First step: Give your Group a name. Then, choose a network that your Group will be made available to. If you want your Group to be accessible to everyone, which is the best option, click on “Global”.

Describe the nature of your group in the “Description” area. Be creative in choosing your words. Think of them as advertising copy for your Group. It’s what other Facebook members will read when searching for groups to join.

Next up, you have to decide which “type” of group yours belongs to. The categories are Business, Common Interest, Entertainment & Arts, Geography, Internet & Technology, Just for Fun, Music, Organisations, Sports & Recreation and Student Groups.

There’s a section after that called “Recent News”, which you, as the administrator can fill up with latest developments regarding your Group.
You’ll also get to fill up details of officers of the group, as well as contact details like email address, street and city/town.

Once, you’ve done that, click on the “Create Group” button right at the end. Your Group is created, but there’s more to do before it’s ready for prime time. You should customise your Group.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Thus, you should upload a picture. You can and should also indicate your official website address.
Next up, decide on some options. If you wish, you can show related Groups; enable Discussion Board (yes, turn this one on); enable the Wall (turn this one on too) and enable Photos (also yes).

Note that by default, all members of your Group can upload photos. My advice is to allow only administrators to upload photos. You can also enable videos. As with photos, the default option is to let anyone post videos. Again, you might want to limit it to administrators. The same goes for Posted Items (sort of like a notice board) — it’s probably a good idea to give access only to administrators. If you don’t put in some controls, it becomes a free-for-all, with a lot of chaos and little quality content.

Next up are privacy options. Do you want to open it to everybody, keep it closed (open only to approved members) or keep the group a secret (the group will not appear in search results and membership is by invitation only)? If you are using Groups for promotion and publicity purposes, opt for the first option — open it to everybody.

Lastly, there is the “Publicize” option that allows your Group to show up on the Networks page and in search results. Click on this. Otherwise, people will have difficulty finding your Groups.
The natural question you might ask is what’s the difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group?

For one thing, Groups are generally considered to be more personal while Pages are considered more professional. This is reflected in the way content is presented. When you post something on your Group, it appears to be coming directly from you and is associated with your personal profile. In contrast, when you post something on your Page, it appears to be from the Page itself and not necessarily from you as a person.

This is how Facebook describes the differences: “Keep in mind that while Groups and Pages now look the same, they serve different purposes. Groups are for fostering member-to-member collaboration, while Pages remain the best way to broadcast messages to your fans if you are a business, organisation, public figure or other entity.”

There is a big difference when it comes to getting your messages across. A group that has fewer than 5,000 members can send mass emails (if you have more than that, mass emails are not allowed, I guess to avoid obvious spammers). A Page cannot send emails but can send updates to fans. There is no limit to the number of fans a Page can have.

In summary, Groups are ideal for people to congregate online around a common interest. Pages are good for organisations or individuals to have a branding presence. Both require interactivity with members. After all, that is what social media is all about.

Oon Yeoh is editor for New Media at The Edge. You can become his fan at www.facebook.com/oonyeohpage and follow him at www.twitter.com/oonyeoh.

This article appeared in netv@lue2.0, the technology section of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 783 Nov 30 - Dec 6 2009