Fan page vs Application page

I'm writing a mobile app where I intend to allow facebook posts. Now, I'm a bit confused with what I want to do.

• For authentication I need an actual app page.
• Fan page has analytics and in general seems more friendly for users

So I'm debating what to do:

• Just use an application page. That's what Zynga seems to be doing
• Have both application page and fan page. This seems to be what some other apps (Doodle Jump) do, but I worry that it may confuse users / dilute presence by fragmenting user likes, as if you click on the link of a post ('posted by app'), you go to the application page.

The main goal of our page is communicating with users / create a sense of commun开发者_开发技巧ity.

Since choosing a custom name is a permanent decision, I would like to hear your thoughts on pro/cons of each approach.

I've gone down the route of using the appplication page as the 'fan' page, and not end up with 2 versions - because you are correct in saying you'll end up dilluting your presence. You don't want you app to produce great newsfeed stories only for them to link to a dead quiet page where as you might have a busy fan page else where.

Use an app page if you are prepared to accept its current limitations, such as:

• You can't 'use' it as a page like fan pages. So you can't write comments etc using the pages identity.
• Although intermitant, some autocomplete drop downs only show fan pages and not app pages. For example, if you had a app page for Acme Corp; and you wanted to update your personal profile to say you work there. When it asks 'where you work' the autocomplete searches only regular fan pages, and not the app pages.

That said, I believe these limitations will be solved eventually as Facebook align their pages. (They made it possible to merge place and fan pages for example).