Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. You can define it as a reference book or electronic directory made up of individuals’ photographs and names, but that would be seriously limiting it’s function and use. Originally intended as a college network for university students to get to know each other better, Facebook has evolved into a social networking site that allows for third-party developers to contribute applications that interact with Facebook features offering it’s users value that over shadows anything that even behemoths like Compuserve and AOL had once upon a time aimed to be. Today you can add Facebook to your mobile apps and integrate it within your own website to allow and encourage an intimate and interactive experience to your users using Open Source technologies.
Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages allows you to create a special Page on Facebook for your Local Business, Company, Organization, or Institution, Brand or Product, Artist, Band or Public Figure, Entertainment, Cause or Community. While this is intended to be a complement to your existing website and blog, many users use it as a single web presence. These pages allow one to publish text, images and videos to their audience who can choose to interact either with a simple ‘Like’ button or comment eloquently. Content published on this platform can easily be shared on the viewer’s personal networks on Facebook and thus allowing for a true social media experience. For the publisher or administrator of such a page, you have access to Insights that provide detailed analytics of the content being distributed allowing one to cater to growing trends to further improve performances in this highly volatile environment.
Facebook Groups
Facebook allows for two networking tools; the Facebook Page and the Facebook Group. Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed. Groups on the other hand allow you to send out “bulk invite” (you can easily invite all your friends to join the group while with pages you will be forced to drop some invites manually). Groups are thus better for viral marketing, meaning that any group member can also send bulk invites to friends of his. Groups also don’t allow for vanity URLs like Pages do i.e. http://facebook.com/mypage and in essence, Pages are generally better for a long-term relationships with your fans, readers or customers while Groups are much better for hosting a (quick) active discussion and attracting quick attention.