How to Use Facebook for Clubs

Depending on your club and its needs, you have the choice to create a Facebook Page or a group. While Facebook limits Pages to "official representatives" of "official" organizations, anyone with a Facebook account can start a group. Students also have the option to create a school group. Of course, personal Facebook profiles are appropriate only for individuals, not clubs.

A Facebook Page is a public space that anyone can "like" and follow for updates, whether they are members of your club or not. A Page can be an appropriate option for your club if you want to create public awareness for it; however, it's not appropriate for club-only communications. Groups, on the other hand, can be restricted only to members. You can make a group public, private or secret. Members can chat with each other, upload pictures to shared albums, work together on documents and invite group friends to events. While updates from a Page aren't always visible in follower's news feeds, group updates always go to everyone in the group by default.

To set up a Facebook Page, click "Pages" in the left menu of your Facebook home page and then click the "Create a Page" button. After you select a category for your club Page, such as "Company, Organization or Institution" or "Cause or Community," the onscreen prompts show you how to create the page with your club's name. Once your Page is created, you can add other club members from the Page's Settings menu to be administrators, like yourself, with full control of the Page. You can also make club members moderators or editors. Moderators can delete and respond to posts and comments, as well as send messages on behalf of the Page. Editors can edit the Page, add posts as the Page and moderate.

To start a new group for your club, click the "Create Group" option in the left menu of your Facebook home page, then click the "Create Group" button. Enter a group name, and select friends to invite to the group. There are three privacy options for Groups: public, private and secret. Anyone can join a public Group simply by clicking the "Join" button. For secret and closed groups, people can join only if they've been invited or accepted by an administrator. Only members can see posts in a closed or secret Group. A secret Group also makes the member names invisible to the public.

High school and college students with a school-based club can create a school group. To create a new school group, go to your school's main group in Facebook and click the "Create Group" button. Select your school, enter a name for your group and invite your friends to be members. Only friends who go to the same school can join a school group. You can also select your group's privacy settings just like any other group, such as "Public," "Private" or "Secret," before clicking the "Create" button.