Difference between groups and fans on facebook?

[vampireheart]

Whats the difference between joining a group and becoming a fan on facebook? What are they for? Im fairly new and hopelessly clueless.
Thanks!

[Toughstew444]

There is not much of a difference. Joining a group is to express a thought, feeling, and from people from certain places to unite. Fan pages are more of people, things, games, and events that you like. However, they are very interchangable and these differences that i provided are not really strict.

[kaire]

There's not a major difference, except probably in appearance. Groups tend to be started by anyone about any topic and allow members to post stuff about the group like Wall posts or pics, etc. Also, when you join a group it shows up as a link on the Info tab of your profile.

About Fans -- you become fans of Pages. Pages are more official than groups -- they tend to be started by official representatives of a celebrity, band, artist, etc. They also tend to be more ornate and have more widgets, pics, etc to interact with Fans of the Page. When you become a Fan of a Page, the Page's icon will show in the Info tab of your profile.

I like Pages when it comes to a person, band, or something like that. I like Groups when they're about random topics. Just depends on your preference!