If you have a podcast, would you use a Facebook group or would you use a Facebook page?
—Javiera, 1133podcast
Whether you have a Facebook page or group really depends on what you want to accomplish with it.
Facebook pages are great for creating an official presence of your podcast on Facebook. There's even a “podcast” page type now! It's easy to post to pages and it's a good way to continue sharing your content. Facebook pages can also have special features, such as built-in opt-in forms, customization, and live video (someday).
Facebook groups are great for community. It's very easy for members to start and participate in conversations in a group. Plus, group posts and notifications are more prominent than those from pages. But groups don't have the special features that a page can have.
Thus, I recommend you make a page for your podcast, and consider a group if you want to create a community and don't mind it being on a platform you don't own (Facebook).
We did a Facebook Page as well as a group by the same name as the podcast several years ago. I could probably do more with the page, but the group grew to over 29,000 members that are quite active. Its a great marketing tool for our podcast and our books.
Great! Thank you so much for answering this question!
Do you recommend creating a page from your personal page? I started to create a new profile, but had to use my name and several friends reached out concerned that I got hacked! I’m not sure what to do now.
Yes, I recommend that you have one Facebook account and use that to manage your pages. Facebook’s terms actually forbid having multiple accounts.
Good to know! Thanks ????
Daniel, where is the “podcast” page type?
Go to your page, then click “About,” and you should see “Category” under “Page Info.” That’s where you can change the page type.
What category should should you select on the first screen when starting a facebook page for a podcast?
Hi, Byron!
Select “other.”
If you have a FB page is it also worth having a dedicated website as well?
Yes. You should always have your own website. That’s your property. You own it, control it, and you’re building your own platform, not someone else’s.
Thanks for the reply, your webpage has been a real help getting our podcast off the ground. We just celebrated our 50th one and are heading into a retreat to review it and work on building it, so will be going through your website with great interest. I think one thing that we need to do is unify all the elements. FB, website, blog, soundcloud, itunes. At the moment the soundcloud page is the primary home, with a FB page being the secondary one.
“… your webpage has been a real help getting our podcast off the ground.” Imagine if I didn’t have a website. 🙂
The beauty of your own website is that’s your platform. You tell people to go there for your podcast, instead of relying on your findability with search, or complicated URLs.
I created a page over a year ago and podcast wasn’t an option so it’s currently under radio station. When I look about changing it i don’t have an option for to change it to podcast… any ideas? I submitted this to fb, but their response was bland and utterly useless.
I just went to create a new page to see if i can get the option and i can create a new one labeled as a podcast so this is just getting depressing. Any help of suggestions would be very appreicieated! Thanks for your time.
Huh. We used to be able to change to the “Podcast” type, but I guess we can’t. I don’t think that’s an important enough change to start over.
If I create a page, would listeners or fans be able to see my personal profile information?
No. You can hide that information.
If I create a page will fans be able to see my personal profile? I want everything to remain separate from my personal. I use a different name on podcast to maintain privacy .
So I run multiple pages that all kind of lead back to the same or similar thing.
I have my company Lead The Team which is listed as a “website” (this is accurate) – I also on that website run a video podcast (primarily designed for YouTube). Started a second page for the podcast alone… and now am considering, I should probably just merge the pages, drop all of the podcast content into a playlist off of the website Facebook page.
I have two other podcasts which I may import – but they are all housed on the same website separated by Title/Date/etc – so I am thinking the method as to just have one page – is to import them all into just that one spot, then administer by playlist or section from there for the additional ones as well.
Upcoming I also have a group that I may release which will be run primarily by the website admin – so I am thinking use the website page as a sort of umbrella to house and distribute all the other content.
(Certainly then, if one blew up, maybe it would need it’s own stand alone page/brand)
Any opinions or thoughts on this?
If each “product” has a different audience, then separate pages would be good. Look at how Apple has a page for Apple Music, a page for Apple Podcasts, and so on.
To use my former TV-show-fan podcast as an example, all the content was for the same audience, simply published in different formats. So we had a single page—not one for the podcast, one for the forums, one for the blog, etc.
But it sounds like your gut is leading you in the right direction.
I echo David’s question above (dated Dec 14 2018) and not answered – do you have advice on this?
Hi Daniel,
If I start a FB Page am I able to upload PDF files to share with followers and store them under files in the bar at the top of the page. I have just started a podcast and started a FB Group as I was not sure which was the best Page or Group – I am noticing that everything I do on the group is in the timeline ..(such a bother and not sure how to get rid of that) anyhow I want to have a page or group where I can continue the conversation from my podcast but also share files.
FB Group or Page which is better in this case. I have 26 followers on my group so far…..
Thanks in advance
Actually, I think having your group’s activity in the timeline is exactly what you want for your audience.
Groups are where communities grow and helps you build relationships with your audience. Pages are where you can more easily broadcast information and leverage Facebook’s page-based tools for marketing your podcast.