A Facebook Page or a Facebook Group for your business? How about linking both!

Are you scratching your head wondering what to opt for between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Group for your business? Well, you do not necessarily have to make that choice. This is because Facebook allows you to link a Facebook page to a Facebook group thereby getting the best of both worlds. Linking the two is actually recommended from a digital marketing perspective and am going to explain why below.

Facebook pages and groups have different functionalities. For instance, a page owner has greater control of their page than a group admin. This is because a page owner has control over when to post and the main ways in which fans interact with a page is via direct messaging, page reviews and posts, or comments to page updates. The posts that page followers post to a page get a relatively low mileage in terms of visibility.

In many cases, if the post does not attract the attention of other users through comments and likes then only a few people and the page admins get to learn about the post. Facebook groups, on the other hand, give a lot of leeway for group members to post and initiate discussions on a variety of topics. The posts by group members are given prominence in the main tab of the group where they can be seen by anybody in the group.

Any digital marketer will tell you that any platform that stimulates regular discussions by a group of people is a rich mining field for lead generation. A Facebook group brings people with similar interests together. This allows you as a professional to keep learning new things about your profession as group members hold discussions and share information about, for instance, the latest trends in your industry.

For example, if you own a car, being a member in a group about that vehicle model can enable you to learn how best to take care of your vehicle or to quickly diagnose potential car problems. This is because other group members who have encountered similar problems with their vehicles in the past are likely to share the remedies they took.

Now imagine you own an auto-garage and have linked your Facebook Page with a Facebook Group where all manner of discussions about vehicle problems are going down? That is an entire market for you to tap for your business. If you have established yourself as an authority in your field through posts on your Facebook page, then participating in the group discussions and offering your expert opinion using your page is a great lead generation and lead conversion tactic.   

To link a Facebook page to a group, one has to be an admin of both. From your page, you can see a ‘groups’ tab on the menu list of tabs on the left. Click on the 'groups' tab, choose to create a group, and follow prompts to link a Facebook page to a group.  

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