Huge change to FaceBook Groups – Now hitting your NewsFeed

As posted today on the FaceBook Blog, Groups are Back! The public Fan Pages were so powerful, it was hard to justify having a group. FaceBook is in the process of rolling out an update to groups that changes this. Now when someone you are friends with in a Group posts to the wall in a Group, you will see the update in your NewsFeed. This is huge, and a major step away from Fan Pages. On Fan Pages you only see when the Admin Posts to the Wall, fans posts are visible only when people navigate to the page. This really makes a Group useful and interesting! This is a huge return to useful and Alumni Groups and specialty organizations will benefit directly from this. The really interesting stat to me was 45 Million Groups. Wow! That is what happens when you have a community of 300 million people.

I have been telling you to ignore Groups for now, in fact if you had a Group I suggested you start a Fan Page. Now, each organization needs to look at which tool best meets the needs and goals of the organizations. The big bonus of Fan Pages is still a nice public address that is easy to share and FaceBook Insights (Statistics about the activity within your Fan Page). Or, simply start both and reserve you name.