What is the difference between a public page and an open group? Everything you need to know about public VKontakte

Have you decided to create your own community, but can’t decide whether you need a group or a public page? They are so similar, but I don’t recommend pointing your finger at the sky, so that later you don’t have to create a community again. That’s why I’ve prepared for you a selection of the main differences and functions of the group and the public page. Before making a choice, let's look at how they differ and why they are needed.

1. You can see which group a particular user is in by looking at his page, namely the list of groups.

But if the user has indicated in the privacy settings that only those in the category can see the list of groups (this may be a setting that only the page owner can see the list) - then we will not be able to see the list of groups the user is a member of. In other words, the visibility of a group on a user’s page can be hidden using privacy settings.

The public page is visible to everyone, it is shown below under the photo, under the list of friends in the interesting pages section. Thus, we see the pages that the user visits most often.

When you click on the “Interesting Pages” section, a window will appear where you can see all the pages to which the user is subscribed, incl. and personal pages of other people.

Group or public page - what else is the difference?

2. The difference between a public page and a group is that the group can be made open, closed or private. The public page is visible to everyone, and the information that is published there is also visible to everyone. Therefore, if you want to make the content closed, only for certain people, or limit access to published materials, then it is better to create a closed group or a private one. A private group cannot be found through search; a person can only join it by invitation.

3. You can invite friends to the group; there is no such option on a public page.

4. Sections in a group can be made:

open - materials and publications can be added by all community members,

limited - only editors and group administrators can add materials and publications,

The section can be turned off altogether - it will not be visible to anyone on the main page.

Sections on a public page can be either enabled or disabled. Then, (for example, in the photo albums section) you can make settings and select those who can add photos to this album. Although there is such a function in the group))

5. You can accept news on a public page. Those. You may be offered news for publication for the public.

There is no such option in the group

6. The public page has an information tab where you can add the founding date. And in the settings section you can choose from whom to receive the proposed news - from all users or only from subscribers, and you can also turn off this function and no one will bother you)))

Now it doesn’t matter if you have a group or a public page (due to recent changes) and you can set the location here and there, even down to the physical address. Previously, this opportunity was only available in groups.

To do this, go to community management-addresses. Turn on the address and select the show on map checkbox if you want your address to be displayed on the map, or uncheck the box.

In order to add an address, click “Add address” (Fig. 1 on the left), a window appears (Fig. 2 on the right), in which we need to enter our address or the name of the institution that we want to add.

We are transferred to another window in which we need to fill in the fields, we can even indicate the metro station. And click save. If we have checked the box for the map to be shown, then at this stage we rotate the roller in the map area until we are satisfied with how exactly the address will be displayed on the map.

After saving the address, we are asked to add a phone number and opening hours. You can also add more addresses.

This is what the location looks like after adding all the fields when we go to the group. Below the information is the address, how we work and the location on the map. If we click on the address (Fig. 1 on the left), a window will appear where all added addresses, metro and opening hours will be shown.

And this is what the location looks like if we unchecked the “Show map” checkbox

7. The group has the ability to create menus and wiki pages. This can also be done on a public page, but you need to do it in a roundabout way, creating each page separately and then connecting it to each other.

And don’t forget that design for both groups and public pages is very important. We wrote more about this earlier.

8. In the group and public page, the arrangement of some sections is organized differently:

In the group, immediately below the pinned post there is a block of discussions, products, photo albums and audio recordings.

It is now almost impossible to imagine the Internet without social networks. A person who is not on VKontakte, Facebook or Twitter can be listed in the Red Book as a very rare endangered species. An account on a popular social network allows you not only to maintain constant online communication with friends and acquaintances, but also to earn money.

Today, many users of the social network VKontakte relegate communication to the background. A person can log into VK only to see the latest news from the communities to which he has subscribed. This article will discuss this type of community as a public:

What is public

By creating a VKontakte profile, you provide information about yourself, upload photos and videos, and then begin adding friends. As statistics show, on average, a user of the leading Russian social network has 100-200 people as friends. Some particularly sociable and popular personalities gather 1000-5000 friends.

Real stars (and “stars”) gain 10 thousand friends and here... information about what a VKontakte public is will come in handy.

Since the very inception of the leading Russian social network, there has been such a type of community as a group. Users united by common interests wrote messages on the walls, posted pictures and videos, and participated in polls and discussions. It cannot be said that public pages replaced groups: they only added diversity to the communities opened within the leading domestic social network.

Giving a definition, we can say that publics ( from the English word “public” – public, public, open) are representations of the popular ( or dreaming of becoming popular) person, organization or brand on a social network. Such pages are designed to interest many users ( while a regular VK page can only be used to communicate with friends).

However, in order to better understand the essence of a public page, it is necessary to consider it in comparison with a group.

Public or group?

Many community creators initially make the wrong choice and subsequently see no other choice but to turn the group into a public one. Fortunately, VKontakte has made this procedure simple and without harm to the community. But first, let’s compare a group and a public page on VK.

• Access. Posts posted in the public are visible to absolutely everyone. Open groups in this regard are no different from public pages, however, there is a type of community called closed groups, information in which can only be viewed by participants ( The decision to join the group is made by the administrator);
• Messages on the wall. Only the administrator can write on the public wall ( or an editor appointed by the administrator). Other users can offer their news by leaving a message in the appropriate section:

If the administrator likes your post, he will publish it ( with or without author attribution). As for the group, posting on the wall can be allowed for all participants, however, if desired, the administrator can leave the ability to fill the wall only for himself and the editors.

• Invitation of participants. If you are a group administrator, you can use the invite members option. This is a fairly convenient tool, but it is not suitable for full promotion of the community ( You can invite only 40 people per day). There is no such function for a public page ( you will have to send messages to friends on your behalf);
• Possibilities. In general, we can say that the group provides greater scope for action. Settings for confirming the entry of participants, whether the wall is open or closed, the ability to store various documents - all these are differences between a group and a public page. However, in most cases, the opportunities that the public provides are quite sufficient to achieve all the goals set for the project;
• Purpose of creation. Creating and maintaining a group is more suitable for commercial projects ( for example, an online store). However, you should not think that public spaces are not capable of making a profit. The lion's share of online business income comes from advertising, and it can be placed both in groups and on public pages. However, if we are talking about a public page to popularize an organization, brand or personality, then only information of an official nature can appear on the wall. At the same time, the public will not directly generate any income.

Another difference between a group and a public that is worth mentioning is the location of the list of communities on user pages. Public pages are located in the block " Interesting pages» ( right under Friends). In turn, the list of groups can be seen by opening the “ Detailed information».

If you decide to change the type of community, then you need to know that information on how to make a public from a group and vice versa will only be useful to the creator of the community. Even if you are made an administrator, you still will not be able to convert the group or public.

If you were the one who created the public, then transferring it to a group will not be difficult. To do this, click on the link “ Transfer to group» in the admin panel:

Please pay attention to the warnings before transferring a public page to a group:

Why do you need a public page?

Let's list the goals that the creation of a public VKontakte page can pursue.

• Self-expression. There are creative people who want to convey their brilliant ideas to the people, but do not know how. Making a public VKontakte is an excellent solution to this problem. The leading Russian social network has many original public pages. As a rule, the number of subscribers to such public pages is small, because a person who is interested in the creative process itself rarely thinks about investing money in advertising;
• Popularization of a brand or personality. A public page can be used as a source of official information, for example, for fans of an artist ( concert schedule, ticket prices). Of course, increasing the popularity of a person or organization has a positive effect on income, so this point is closely related to the following;
• Earning money from the community. Once you have a sufficient number of subscribers to your public page, you can start monetizing it. The most obvious way is advertising ( posts from other communities). A widely used advertising format is posting a post for a day, while the first hour the post is in the top of the community wall. You can also use the VKontakte advertising exchange;
• Project support tool. You don’t have to place ads in your public page, but use the community to attract people to your own website ( where will the advertising be?). Maintaining communities on social networks is one of the main ways to promote information resources.

It’s also worth noting that you don’t have to create a community yourself. You can buy a public VKontakte account and use it to achieve one of the above goals. You can make a purchase after you agree with the owner of the community. After all financial issues have been settled, you will need to take control of the account on whose behalf the public was created.

However, it is worth noting that selling and buying a community is a violation of the VKontakte rules. The leading Russian social network is fighting to ensure that the personal data of accounts corresponds to reality, and by buying a public page, you gain control over someone else’s page. In principle, an unscrupulous seller may even complain about you to technical support in order to get his account and, accordingly, the public back.

We create a public

Before you start promoting your potentially successful project on the leading Russian social network, you need to at least learn how to create a public page on VKontakte. There is nothing complicated about this, and even a first-time user will be able to intuitively understand what needs to be done.

• To begin, select the “My groups" item from the menu:

• Click on " Create a community»:

• Enter the name and check the box next to “ Public page»:

• Next, you are asked to select the type of page, as well as accept the rules for using the site:

• Click " Create a page" Process completed:

If you are tired of managing your community and you are thinking about how to delete a VKontakte public page, then the functionality that the leading Russian social network provides will upset you a little. It does not have a button Delete public page" All you can do is clear the community wall and unsubscribe all subscribers (including yourself).

How to find out who is the admin

In most cases, you don’t need to think about how to find out the admin of a VKontakte public page. Community leaders are listed in the “Contacts” section in order to maintain feedback with subscribers and consider offers from advertisers.

However, there are communities where, for some reason, managers prefer not to advertise their account and do not post any information in the “Contacts” section. In this case, the question arises: how to find out who is the admin of the public? There are many different tricks, but we will look at one of them.

• In the group where we are looking for an admin, click on the number of posts on the wall:

• Click " Go to search»:

• Type “gif” in the search and press Enter. Then click on the link “ Search posts only»:

When creating a VKontakte community, we are offered three options - a public page, a group and an event.

Without choosing the type of community, it is simply impossible to create it, therefore, before creating a community, you need to understand how a group, event and public differ from each other. Although in the future it will be possible to transfer the Group to a Public Page and vice versa, it is better to decide in advance on the type of community, because it has its own nuances and not everything is so simple.

The main difference between a group and a public page (public) is that in a group all community members can add posts, but only those group members who directly visit the group page will see them.

On a public page, only the administration can publish posts, and all subscribers of the public page will see them in their news feed, even if they do not go to the community page. Subscribers can also propose their post for publication in the “Suggest news” section, but the decision about whether the post will appear in the public must still be made by the administrator. Now let's take a closer look!

Differences between a group, event and public page on VKontakte

Group

Group - the first type of communities that has existed since the advent of the social network VKontakte itself. In the original sense, this is a club of interests, where people exchange opinions through posts and enter into discussions.

Event

Event - group dedicated to a specific event offline or online. An event always has an organizer, as well as a time and location.

Events are created to highlight an upcoming event, invite people there and stir up interest. It could be anything: opening a new retail outlet, concert, training, etc.

Public page

Public page needed (as planned by the administration) specifically for promoting brands, products, services. The purpose of the public is to post news, promotions, and useful materials.

Differences between a group and a public

And if everything is clear with events, then the differences between a group and a public page are not so obvious.

VKontakte group

Since historically a group is a community of interests, the functionality of VK groups is maximally tailored for communication between participants and even a sense of group belonging:

• By default, the group wall is open: any participant can leave a message on it. Although in the settings you can limit the ability to publish posts and comment.
• The group can be completely closed or even private, where you cannot enter only at will.
• Any VKontakte user can hide the list of their groups.
• Even if we don’t hide it, the list is located in a rather remote corner of the profile, which not everyone will get to.
• Any member of the group can invite their friends there using the appropriate function.
• A block with discussions, photographs, videos and audio recordings can be placed at the top of the page, directly above the wall.
• Ability to store documents.
• The “Latest News” block is a built-in page with wiki markup where you can place a menu or any other important information.

Public page on VKontakte

Initially, public pages were introduced to promote business. Later, their functionality came to the taste of other communities, whose goal is to publish various useful and interesting things.

• The public is always open and any VKontakte user can subscribe to news;
• The user's subscriptions are located in the “Interesting Pages” block in the left column. This list cannot be hidden;
• Only administrators can publish posts on the wall, and only on behalf of the community. Regular users can only comment on posts if comments are enabled in the settings;
• Users can suggest news using the appropriate function. Administrators will publish it on behalf of the public, and it will appear in subscribers’ feeds. Or they won’t publish it;
• All additional blocks: photos, videos, audio, discussions, contacts are located in the right column of the community under the avatar and list of participants.
• You can create events on behalf of the public. There is no such opportunity in the group.

Comparison of group and public capabilities

The differences in the functionality of a public page and a group are clearly demonstrated in this table:

Which is better - a group or a public page?

Thinking about what is better, a public or a group, is like thinking about what tastes better, ice cream or pizza. In one case, the best solution would be a group, in another, a public one. Which group to create depends on your goals.

In what cases is it better to create a public page?

• The idea of ​​the community is to publish useful and interesting content;
• The community is created with the goal of gaining more subscribers and selling advertising;
• The community must provide traffic to the company's main website;
• You are selling your service and want to highlight your expertise by publishing relevant materials;
• Do you want to blog;
• It is expected to organize events on behalf of the community;
• We need an opportunity for users to propose news that will be published on behalf of the public - anonymously or with attribution.

The group will be the best solution in the following cases:

• The main idea is to create a cozy social circle based on interests;
• There needs to be plenty of opportunities for participants to communicate;
• The community will act as an independent online store with purchases without switching to third-party resources;
• It is necessary to create a closed community;
• At the initial stages of promotion, the “Invite Friends” function will be useful;
• It is necessary that in addition to the pinned post, the group menu is also available - then the “Latest News” block will help.

There are recommendations to create a public page, because it will be displayed on the participants’ pages in the “Interesting Pages” block. But we must also take into account that not all publics are displayed in this block, but only the five most visited ones, so you still need to try to get there.

In any case, the choice “to create a public or VK group” is not fatal, since it is not final. Once a month, community owners can transfer their groups to public or vice versa. So you can test different types of communities and choose the one that suits you.

“VKontakte” is today one of the most popular sites on the Runet. This resource was created to unite people who have similar interests. Let's try to figure out how a page differs from a VKontakte group. The need for this article is ripe, because at the moment most sources already contain outdated information - the network is developing very quickly, one change follows another. So, let's go!

Definition

VKontakte pages also called business cards, where the user talks about himself and, based on the information provided, friends and acquaintances can find him. Moreover, by creating a public page “VKontakte” you can share company news, brand new products, and products, thereby attracting an audience from the social network and interacting with it.

VKontakte groups are formed on various topics and bring together like-minded people. In this case, a group can be created simply for communication. However, most of the creators of VKontakte groups have the goal of advertising a product or service and making money from it - and there’s nothing wrong with that, right? The group is the very first interesting feature of social networks. The number of groups is constantly growing, which is why the VKontakte management has introduced pages. Groups appeared much earlier than pages.

Comparison of features

The main difference is that the pages are available to everyone, including those who are not registered on the social network. The group can be closed from other users.

Design. It can only be changed for groups, for example, by creating a “News” block. Only the logo can be changed on the pages, but the design is unified. The interface of the pages is subjectively a little more convenient than that of the groups.

Main difference

Every VKontakte user can see the “Interesting Pages” menu under their profile photo. This is where the five most frequently visited pages are displayed. If the page you created is in such a Top for users with the largest number of friends, then, accordingly, there will be an opportunity to receive additional traffic to the page. Groups do not have such opportunities.

Conclusions website

1. Groups appeared earlier
2. The page is visible to everyone, but the group can be made private
3. In groups you can change individual design elements using wiki markup
4. Pages appear in the "interesting pages" menu, but groups do not.

Many people, not understanding the fundamental difference, generalize these two concepts, which is not recommended. Therefore, in most situations, you should ask yourself what the difference is between a group and a public page in order to use them to their full potential. Let's look below at the basic differences between these two types of communities.

Differences between a public and a group

Before identifying the fundamental differences between these two concepts, we should consider what they mean individually.

Group- this is an association of people with similar interests, something like real interest clubs. Here participants can easily communicate with each other, exchange opinions, knowledge, various materials and documents. Groups can be open, in which case the published information will be available not only to group members or social networks. vk network, but also to all users of the global network. In some cases, a closed type of group is used, which is joined by a select circle of users.

It is noteworthy that posts left on the group wall can be commented on by all users. Group moderation is a fairly flexible system, since it is carried out not on behalf of the entire community, but by each moderator individually. All group members have the opportunity to invite their friends to it.

Public page or public– this is another form of uniting users, and the difference with a group is significant. Publics are aimed at promoting a specific brand, company, organization or specific individual. All published information is official and dedicated to an individual, product or organization. Often the content of posts and the structure of the public do not imply dialogue with participants, but are more news or informational in nature.

Published information is available to all Internet users, and moderation is carried out by an administrator who represents this organization. However, community members can also submit their own posts for publication. Ordinary public members do not have the opportunity to invite their friends from VK.

Group or public page?

Those who understand that a group differs from a community in many ways should be guided by certain considerations and criteria when choosing. Below are some of them.

Creating a community in a group format is suitable if:

• uniting fans and like-minded people;
• creating an appropriate atmosphere for communication;
• comfortable and informative place;
• community of a specific thematic focus.

Organizing a public-type community is useful for:

• • ensuring the flow of the target audience;
  • promotion of a specific person, product or organization;
  • creating a news representation of the company on social media. networks.

Each network user, famous person or company representative, based on similar criteria, will be able to make the appropriate choice.

Conclusion

Thus, based on the assigned tasks and planned goals, a choice should be made between the considered two types of user communities on the Vkontakte social network. The correctly chosen type of community will allow you to achieve maximum ease of maintenance and promotion, as well as the greatest effectiveness in your work.