Sebbie on the Webbie

Posts Tagged ‘social media’

I think a lot of us are a bit confused about the differences between a group and a page. Even though I administer both types, I couldn’t answer that off the top of my hat.

Official or casual?

The most obvious difference between the two is that groups are primarily intended for a more casual use while pages are intended for businesses, brands, products, organisations, artists, bands or public figures. Groups can be pretty much about anything, and there is a category “just for fun” which is probably the most used classification for groups, I would imagine. So definitely, if you are promoting a business, or other “serious” entity, page is your first option.

Pages are for authorised personnel only.

This means, that you can’t add a fan page for someone you really admire, even though they were an official public figure unless you are authorised to do that by that person or entity. However, you can start a fan group for that person without restriction. Say you love J.K. Rowling (who doesn’t?), you could start a group titled “J.K. Rowling fans” but you couldn’t do the same with pages.

Pages are easier to relocate

I don’t know about you, but I do think the navigation on Facebook is an absolute nightmare when you have to travel beyond your own profile. I don’t care much if they change the look of the site every 3 weeks, but the fact remains the navigation hasn’t improved – and the latest “simplified” one took away the bookmark-toolbar from the bottom which was the only saviour this far… Anyway, pages are easier to find again (ads and pages, one easy link on top of all the adverts on the right and one on the home page on the left), which is why I kind of prefer them more than groups… The path you’ll have to travel to find your groups again is:

- Go to your profile
- Select the info -tab.
- Scroll down to your groups -list and click the small link “see all”
- Then select from the drop down menu: “Groups you admin”.

(Was it REALLY necessary to make it a 6-step process, Facebook?)

Facebook Page to support your Website or Blog

A popular use for a page is to support / promote your website or your blog. Pretty much everyone who is online at all these days are on Facebook, so it’s a very handy place to remind people that your site is still out there. It works better than an email list for a lot of smaller sites, because it’s easier to fan a page than enter an email to an email list. Basically you’ll still get the same advantages – you can contact all your fans at the same time, but don’t do that too often or they’ll drop you like a hot potato. Use “message all members” -function very sparingly and with a thought!

It is worth while to have a fan box for Facebook Page on your blog or website if you have one… (Mind you I haven’t created one for this blog yet, I’m still considering some things, but I’m definitely adding it asap.)

Promoting a Group is more difficoult than promoting a page

For a reason or another, the most obvious difference between a group and a page is that you can add a fan box or “-badge” of a page to your website by just copying a piece of code. This option isn’t available for groups, and the only half-automated method for promoting a group is paid Facebook ads.

Page has more options

Groups are fairly limited when it comes to adding functionality to them. Pages will theoretically take any application that your profile takes, but I find adding them equally nightmarish as the navigation on Facebook. However, there are a handy set of default apps that you can easily add to the pages such as events and reviews, to name a few. These are not available in Groups.

Special Tip for Mafia Wars- type game group admins

If you are administrating one of these game groups for adding clan or mafia members or similar to games that require big teams, and you have these mass email lists, it is a good idea to sometimes clean up the discussion board a bit. This is because people will lose track on which groups they belong to and they might have stopped playing the game months ago, and still get invitations to join teams. What you want to do is shorten the message threads that list email addresses so that you only leave the first message explaining how it works and the last one, with the latest list of addresses. Also add these instructions; “If  you want to be removed from the list, simply copy the last email list and remove your address off it and repost it. (Reverse the process of adding your email.)” That way, you won’t be the reason for your members having to change their email addresses on their Facebook account for being too popular!

If you can, select a page.

Unless the limitations set by Facebook TOS of creating a page prevent you from creating one, I would recommend selecting a page if you’re half serious about it. If you just want to collect people under the same sentence, do pick a group.

A fan page of a doll

Even though pages are intended for more serious use, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t create a page for an art project or something a bit more humorous. Take a look at Elphie, the world travelling green Barbie doll.

Do they have other differences that I missed? Do share if you can think of something else.

KNPB3BWCDKA3

I find it funny. In a short time I’ve found several blog posts about some guy or gal who became famous for getting fired or told off at work because of something they said on Twitter or Facebook or some other place. The content is always the same. Screenshots proving this appalling behaviour followed by advice on what not to say publicly or publish online. Good heavens. If I would drag every flame war I’ve ever seen online, or every drinking party photo I’ve seen on Facebook onto my blog I could probably run a blog on just that topic alone. In fact, I think the first Internet term I learned was probably “flame war”. Who cares about them, seriously?

When social media expands, our humanity becomes more and more evident all the time. A lot of us don’t exist in two modes any more; the work persona and the leisure time persona, but these two merge together – and I find it nothing less than fantastic. We are all people, but the old business model has pretty much denied that. If we’re in business, we have to turn into Cylons or something. Ever smiling, ever patient, ever wise…

Hands up: Who can say they’ve never been involved in a flame fight online? I sure have. I always try to maintain my cool, but that is not to say I haven’t said things I probably shouldn’t have, but I’m only a human. If I was a famous or even remotely respected business human, I’d be posted about on numerous blogs with the caption line: “What not to say on Facebook”.

I am expecting that as the younger generations start taking over the businesses, we’ll all become more and more accepting of each others little failures of self control. I think all people, business or not, should be allowed to react to rudeness with a bit of anger and not be expected to maintain the clean exterior 24/7. Most of us get drunk every now and then. Most of us have said something we shouldn’t have, fucked someone we shouldn’t have and made the wrong people aware of those mistakes either by accident or knowingly. Just losen up people. It doesn’t matter.

If you are setting up or running a forum, one of the most important things with creating a relaxed atmosphere is to select the right emotioncs for your boards. That may sound funny, but on every forum I’ve ever run, I have had a set of carefully selected emoticons, and people LOVE them. On one board, they came such a part of the community, that I felt compelled to give them a week off from work. (This was to rearrange them really, but I informed people that they have been working so hard that I’m giving them a week off.) The response was hilarious. People didn’t want to see them go, but understood their need for rest and requested post cards from their holiday resort. (And indeed got a photo with all those emoticons in front of an European church.)

When ever I’m a member of a discussion board that only allows the basic set of yellow faces, I feel kind of depressed. It tells me that this board is SERIOUS, and the guy running it doesn’t really care about the members. The set of emoticons that are available on a board, also tell me about the sense of humour on the board, and topics that area allowed. (You can get rather naughty little emoticons if you look for them!) There is a wonderful world of emoticons out there, let me tell you! They make you laughThey make you cry.. and when you’re feeling low, they give you a hug.

To help you to get started, I have collected a basic set of smileys for you to use instead of those awful yellow ones. It still comes with Mr. Green though, as there’s nothing better than Mr. Green! (What? You didn’t know he had a name?!)

Download the groovy basic smiley set

As far as I know all these emoticons have been published in the public domain. I have mainly downloaded them at Deviant Art, which has a great section for emoticons!

One word of advice though: Don’t put all the icons into the post form, but set most of them into the pop-up window, as having a lot of them clickable will slow down your forum. Put the most used icons on the form and the rest of them behind the “more” screen. Also when selecting post forum icons, stick with the standard sized icons, that won’t stretch the rows too much, or it’ll look quite messy.

Then wait to see the reactions when you put up more smileys! I quarantee your members will be stoked!