Okay so I have a regular face book profile, but I want a seperate page for my students. I'm a WMI and I think it could be a good way to update students on what classes are going on at the store I teach.

I know I could just invite them to my regular page, but I like to keep some things private. My students don't need to know every move I make. Plus I sometimes have minors in my class and my facebook friend's aren't always PG.

I'd also like to start a Cake Group in my area in the near future and figure I could use it for that as well. My question is, do I create a Group page or a Facebook Page?

What is the biggest differences in the two and does anyone know what would be the best application for what I am wanting to use it for?

A main difference between a Group Page and a Fan Page is that you approve who can and can't see a GROUP page, but a FAN page is accessable to everyone on Facebook, they only need to search for you. I'm sure there are more differences that others can chime in on, but that is a major one.

If I were you and wanted something just for class members, I'd start a second facebook page--it just takes a second e-mail addy. Then you could control who joins, what is seen, etc.

Groups vs Pages:

PROS:
1. You can message ALL group members - up to 5000 members - and your message lands right in their inbox.
2. All group activities go out into the feeds: wall posts, links, discussion threads, photos uploaded, and videos uploaded. This provides tremendous viral visibility, as I call it. Youll want to highly encourage your group members to interact with all the features.
3. Groups tend to be more informal and based around interests, so you can create better stickiness (members keep coming back) especially with regular email messages (I recommend keeping email content short, concise and max 2-3 times per week though - otherwise people will leave your group).
4. Anyone can start a Facebook group around any topic. (Mostly this is a good thing, but um, sometimes not! )
5. You can take advantage of any of the three different types of Groups for different purposes: Open (anyone can join), Closed (the group owner/admins have to approve all members), Secret (only the members and invitees know the group even exists).
6. Groups are great ways to segment Facebook members and find your target demographic to expand your network. (I recommend participating in your top 2-3 favorite groups regularly, get to know some of the members and take some conversations private. Make friend requests when appropriate. Dont go crazy with your links on other peoples groups).

CONS:
1. Once you reach the 5000 emailing threshold, youll no longer be able to message everyone in your group.
2. Theres minimal customization in groups and you cant add apps.
3. If you no longer want your group to be live, it can be tricky to delete. However, good news - you can migrate all Group members into your Page.

I'm not worried about people out side those I know finding the page, because if they do it could generate more people in my classes or into the cake club if I can get one started.

Ren, on Group pages, is there the live feed from other's pages like there is on the regular pages? Meaning, if I or anyone else in the group posts anything on the regular profile does it show up on the group wall or is that only things that are posted with in the group?

Did that make sense?