Groups VS Pages on Facebook:
3 reasons why Facebook Groups are better than Pages for your business
Let’s face it: Facebook Pages are not what they used to be.
Facebook has also been prioritizing personal connections and interactions, which honestly just makes it super difficult for businesses to achieve any kind of organic reach on their Facebook Pages.
I mean, the average engagement rate for a post on a Facebook Page is literally only 0.07%. That means that you’d need 142 857 followers to have one like on your post. Unless you’re planning to do ads, honestly, a Facebook Page is not going to do much for you.
In comparison, the average engagement rate in Facebook Groups was estimated at 80% – and in some groups it was recorded at over 200%.
When it comes to the Groups VS Pages debate, with those statistics alone, you can probably already tell that Facebook Groups are the winner.
Nevertheless, I want to talk about 3 solid reasons why Facebook Groups are better than Facebook Pages for your business, other than the engagement rates (though that one alone is a good enough reason to switch from pages to a group!)
Let’s dive in.
Groups VS Pages on Facebook:
With groups, you can easily do some market research
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: market research is an essential tool in a successful marketing strategy.
I know that creating a market research form can be tedious, especially if your audience gives you only one to two word answers that don’t provide a lot of information, or if you end up having to schedule a lot of time-consuming calls. Although I highly recommend doing one or the other at least every six months, it’s not always feasible to do as much in depth market research as we’d like to.
Thankfully, there are other options that are quicker, which you can do year-round without having to do much aside from data collection.
Groups allow you to do that in multiple ways that Facebook Pages don’t.
Entry questions
Entry questions are a very valuable market research tool if used correctly. Too often, I see facebook group entry questions that would require me to either copy/paste a link (often to book a call) or write a very long answer, and neither of those are things I want to be doing when I join a group (do you?).
Unless I know the group owner personally, I will not feel very inclined to go in depth about my struggles and challenges with a stranger, much less in an entry group questionnaire.
The alternative? Provide multiple choices or checkboxes with pre-written answers so you make it easier for your future group members.
Here’s an example of what I mean:
Let’s say you’re a mindset coach and your group is going to be about mindset tips for ADHD entrepreneurs. Before new members join your group, it would be interesting to know what their challenges are as this would give you great info on what type of content to focus on.
Here are the two ways you could go about it:
- Not recommended: The open-ended question, aka something along the lines of “What do you struggle with as an ADHD entrepreneur?”
This question can be overwhelming, and frankly, even if there are a lot of things I do struggle with as an ADHD entrepreneur, my mind will usually go blank at these questions and you wouldn’t get valuable information from my answer, as I would either rush it or leave it blank. - Recommended: Checkboxes. Think of what are the main 3 to 5 struggles your audience face (for which you have a solution), and give them as options they can simply check off if it applies to them. It could look something like:
“What do you struggle with as an ADHD entrepreneur?”
Checkbox choices:
Finishing my to-do list
Being consistent in my business
Having the motivation to focus on one project
The reason why I suggest checkboxes instead of multiple choice is because your new member might want to choose more than one. Multiple choices can feel overwhelming if two options look equally good. With checkboxes, you eliminate this overwhelm.
The goal is to make it easy from a customer experience perspective. You are creating this group to build a community: the first step to join said group should be an easy, smooth experience. If your entry questions are too open-ended or require too many steps (e.g. copy/paste a link to opt-in to a freebie or to book a call with you), you are making it more difficult for your new members.
Keep your questions easy to answer, and add those options later in your group where they can easily click it if they are interested.
Engagement posts
If you choose the right engagement questions that are relevant for your niche, the answers you get on those threads can be a goldmine for market research.
For example, let’s say you are wondering what topic to do your next LIVE on in your facebook group for mompreneurs. An easy engagement question could be “Did you get a lot of rest this weekend?” or “Do you wish you could have gotten more rest this weekend?”.
If a lot of moms comment something along the lines of wanting to have more rest, then you can plan your next LIVE to be about how to establish better work-life boundaries to foster rest and self-care, or simply how to prioritize rest as a mompreneur.
Polls
Polls are an EXCELLENT way to get some market research answers within your own group – or even in someone else’s! They’re easy to answer because it’s just one click, which means you have a better chance of getting high engagement.
Polls should be used when you have a specific question in mind and specific answers too. Always give members the option to write their own if they wish, but the goal here is to make it easy for them. The easier and clearer it is, the higher the chances of them answering.
I personally love answering polls because of how easy it is – no matter how tired I am, one click is something I can always easily do.
Groups VS Pages on Facebook:
With groups, you have more flexibility
Groups are way more flexible than pages. They’re like a chameleon, adapting to the needs of the group members.
Want to keep your group private? Done. Want to make it public? Easy peasy. Want to make it secret like a spy club? Sure thing!
No matter the privacy settings (something that isn’t flexible at all for Facebook Pages, btw), groups are way more dynamic and interactive than pages.
Honestly, it’s like the difference between watching a movie and being in the movie. Pages are a one-way street where the page owner does all the talking, whereas in a group, everyone has a voice.
Even the content YOU post as the group owner has more flexibility, because there’s more features in Facebook Groups than there are for Facebook Pages. For example, you can utilize polls, Q&A’s, welcome posts, video & audio rooms, community chats, guides, and more features you can choose to add.
No matter what type of content you’re creating in your group, chances that it will be seen are higher than your page. Facebook sends notifications to your members (unless your members have removed those notifications, of course) with post highlights, events, and there’s the possibility to use the “@everyone” feature to send a notification to everyone in your group, something you cannot do with a page.
That being said, I always advise to use the @everyone feature sparingly, because it can get spammy and annoying really quickly for your members who receive a ton of notifications daily.
Groups VS Pages on Facebook:
With a page, you’re building a storefront.
With a group, you’re building a community.
In the fourth episode of my podcast, The Power of Community: Leveraging Facebook Groups for Business Growth (with Hope Long), we talked a lot about how Facebook Groups foster community and connection.
Let me back this up with more numbers for you: 98% of members who are in Facebook Groups report a sense of belonging. That’s a crazy high number, but I’m not surprised.
Social media exists for us to be social, so if there’s a space where we can be social with like-minded individuals who share similar interests and goals, we’ll often connect much quicker and on a much deeper level.
After all, even if we’re the ones who are creating the group, it’s not only about us. Group members can (and usually do) interact with each other and share their own content. Of course, that’s when they’re allowed to post in the group, which I highly recommend because if you don’t really allow your members to ever post in your group, is it really a Facebook Group or is it a decorated Facebook Page?
At the end of the day, Facebook Groups are all about building a supportive community (or at least, they were intended to be used as such), so encouraging people to engage with each other’s content, ask questions, and post their insights is a win-win situation. Your group members get to connect with you (and each other) on a deeper level, and you get an engaged community.
With that engaged community, you can provide quick and personalized support to group members about what they’re struggling with (which you help solve), and about your offers. Not only does this build the know-like-trust factor effectively, but it majorly boosts your audience’s satisfaction and loyalty.
Think about it this way: if you’re looking to hire a mindset coach to work 1:1, are you more likely to choose someone you’ve never interacted with because you saw a quick ad for a freebie they’re offering, or are you more likely to choose a mindset coach who you’ve known for a while, has answered many of your questions in their group, and has consistently shared their knowledge and expertise with their community?
Facebook Groups give you an easy way to nurture long-term relationships with group members over time, and it truly does pay off. And I don’t just mean financially. It never gets old when I have someone in my private community message or email me to thank me for how much I’ve helped them. Knowing you’re making a difference truly can make your day.
Groups VS Pages on Facebook:
The Winner
I don’t know about you, but there’s a clear winner for me. Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a Facebook Page (it’s always good to have one if anyone searches for it), but if you want to invest your time in marketing on Facebook organically, Facebook Groups are going to be far more beneficial for you AND for your audience.
Let me do a quick recap on why:
- Facebook Groups have a MUCH higher engagement rate
- Facebook Groups allow you to naturally do a ton of easy market research with entry questions, polls, Q&A’s and engagement posts
- Facebook Groups give you much more flexibility, in privacy settings, in the type of content you (and your group members!) can post, and in notifications
- Facebook Groups allow you to build a COMMUNITY instead of a simple storefront
So what's next?
If this blog resonated with you and you’re looking for a tool to guide you on your own Facebook Group journey, I’ve got a FREE playbook for you!
Hope Long (my guest on Episode 4 of the Podcast) & I collaborated on a freebie that’s going to take you step-by-step towards creating, marketing, and monetizing your very own profitable Facebook Group.
Free download:
✅ How to set up your Facebook Group + CHECKLIST
✅ 6 ways to MARKET your group
✅ 6 ways to MONETIZE your group
Opt-in below & get your free Facebook Group Playbook delivered straight to your inbox!
Have fun with this. It’s absolutely worth it.
Share this blog post:
