Social Media and Web Marketing Coaching

I get a lot of questions from clients about Facebook Fan Page vs. Facebook Groups. It can be overwhelming to know which one to choose, but here’s a breakdown for you:

Facebook Groups are best used for non-profits, fundraiser groups, and friend gatherings such as a bowling group. The group is very oriented around events and doesn’t possess the same amount of features that the Fan page has. Facebook considers groups to be an extension of your personal actions. When you post something as a group administrator, it looks like it’s coming from you and is attached to your personal profile.

Facebook Fan Pages allow for businesses, organization, and brands to have a place to talk to their customers and clients. Unlike groups, fan pages are visible to people who aren’t logged into Facebook and are thus indexed by search engines. Pages communicate by “updates” which show on the news feed of a fan. Pages can have applications as well. A Fan Page can create content that doesn’t linked to you personally.

You do need a personal profile in order to use either one of these features, but one advantage of a Fan Page is ability to assign other people as admins of the Fan Page, this is especially nice if you are delegating the updates to an employee or an assistant.

Overall, Groups and Fan Pages are powerful and if used properly, can help promote a great cause or a business.

If you are active on BizNik in the Portland area, you’ve probably seen some good articles and activity from Kaya Singer. Kaya has a very unique background, she’s owned a pottery business, been a family therapist and is now a small business coach. She has recently launched her book, The Entrepreneur’s Handbook to Money & Freedom.

It’s impressive how active Kaya is in communicating with businesses through Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Read below and learn how powerful online communication can be for a business coach.

What’s your business?

Awakening Business Solutions - I offer tools, process and coaching programs to solo business owners to help them overcome obstacles and develop a business mind-set.

When did you start using social media? What made you decide to try it?

I began social media as soon as it was available. I was on e-mail before most people. Communication is my focus and I loved the immediacy and the ability to create community with people world-wide.

How has social media affected your business?

It has allowed me to market to people world-wide and develop strong communities and relationships with people I would never have met. It has allowed me to put articles all over the world and make a huge difference in people’s lives.

What is one tool that you use the most?

Not just one. My LinkedIn group - Awakening Women in Business, my blog, Facebook, Twitter, BizNik, EZine articles and I am getting ready to move forward developing a membership site.

Have a social media story you’d like to share?

I was part of an e-mail group called “Powerful Women Entrepreneurs“. There were hundreds of women and it ran as a Yahoo group. The woman who facilitated it decided to suddenly quit so there was no place for all these women to go.  On a whim- one morning when I was on LinkedIn, I began “Awake Women in Business” and I invited all the women from the other group. Many of them came and then I also invited  other women I knew and posted it on Facebook and Twitter. It was active and involved almost immediately!  I love it as I am a natural facilitator, and it is a way to build community with women in business. It is also giving me some training for my new membership site that is coming soon.  I love working with women too so this also fulfills that need.