Why would you start a Facebook group instead of a Facebook page? Are there any benefits?
Very good questions.
Basically there are none.
You get all the benfits of a group with a page, with the added benefit of being able to send fan updates to all the page fans. With a group you can’t send out messages if there are more than 1000 5000 members.
The only large difference is that a persons groups appear in a large mush of blue text on their info tab, which a persons pages appear nicely separated below that.
So if you are wondering if you should start a group or a page, always go for a page. If you can’t think of a category to add it under, always add it to ‘Brand or Product’ -> ‘Non-profit’.
If you already have a group, with enough members for you to want to keep them then I suggest you request to transfer them over to a page of the same name.
You can so that by selecting ‘Pages’ from the dropdown menu on this page:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact_generic.php
and sending them your details.
Facebook will want the address of your current group, the name you would like for your new page and the category you would like your page to appear in.
So as long as your group meets certain minimum requirements to become a page you should be sorted and able to contact all your members by using a page update.