Facebook: Sponsored Groups No Longer Available

After my previous post comparing the benefits for brand engagement of the different options on Facebook - Groups, Sponsored Groups, Pages and Widgets, I decided to email Facebook to get some verification on the costs of the Sponsored Groups. This was the reply I got:

Hi Joshua,

Unfortunately at this time we longer provide sponsored groups as an advertising opportunity on Facebook.

We do, however, offer Facebook Pages and Social Ads.

* Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages give brands and businesses an opportunity to create a presence on Facebook. Brands and businesses can customize their Facebook Page to maximize user interaction and interest. A Facebook Page will allow brands and businesses to deepen connections with users and give the ability to maximize viral promotion through Social Ads. To create a Page, please visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php or simply click on the 'Create a page for your business' link at the bottom of any Page.

* Social Ads

Social Ads leverage the power and viral nature of Facebook News Feed by serving relevant stories when users' friends take actions with a Facebook Page or Application. In addition to providing a more relevant advertising experience for users, Social Ads help brands and businesses maximize reach to a greater percentage of the Facebook audience. To learn more about Social Ads and start creating your campaign, please visit http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/index.php?.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

[name removed]

User Operations

Facebook

So, if you want to create a Page with the benefits of a Sponsored Group, some tweaking is required. As Jeremiah pointed out in a comment to my article on Facebook Pages, Pages have discussion forums, and it is possible to install application boxes into the profile. 

Therefore to add the group media upload functionality, it would be necessary to build applications that essentially mimic group photo/video galleries, so that they can be used by Fans of pages, instead of just the creators. 

I'm not aware of any applications that allow this at the moment, but they should be relatively simple to create. If you know of any, or have any other ideas on this, let me know.