I’ll admit I am not the biggest fan of facebook. I really liked it before everyone started making fake farms and sending virtual fish to eachothers fish tanks. As much as I don’t like facebook I do realize that it has lots of potential as a kids ministry tool.
The problem I have is not understanding the difference between a fan page and a group. I looked lots of places on the internet most people don’t really know the difference so finding good information is not an easy task. Then translating that information to how it could be helpful for Children’s ministry also proved to be tricky. So here is my attempt to break it down.
Fan pages –
Pros –
- Fan pages are a lot like a regular facebook page except pages have two walls, one of what the page owner writes, and one just for fans to write their own messages.
- Fan pages can be customized group pages can’t be.
Cons –
- Fan pages can not mass email it’s fans but rather communicates through updates to your fans stream.
Bottom line –
- Fans pages are more for to allow people to follow and interact you don’t have as much control over who joins.
Groups –
Pros –
You can send emails to everyone in your group at one time (as long as you have less than 5,000) people in your group.
You have more control over who joins your group and you can make your group secret and it won’t even show up in the search section of Facebook. It can only be found by personal invitation.
You can give rights to other people to help administer the group.
Cons –
- Can easily be forgotten about.
- Can’t customize a group page
Bottom Line –
Group are more for smaller niche group interaction.
Conclusion –
I am by no means the expert on facebook. But from what I understand for our kids ministry we are going to stick with a profile page and a fan page. Unless you have a very specific purpose in mind I think you as a kids worker will want to create a fan page for you kids ministry over a group page.
*For a comparison of Facebook Pages and Groups check out my friend Kenny’s blog post about them.