Why Facebook’s Community Pages Could Give Brands a Headache
by davefleet on 05/10/2010 08:15
A couple of weeks ago I received a worried call from a friend working in PR for a large company. Her opening question went something like:
“What the heck are Community Pages on Facebook, and why is there one for my company?”
Community Pages 101
Facebook’s Community Pages are an initiative from Facebook to create “the best collection of shared knowledge” on a wide variety topics. Right now the content from the pages is pulled from Wikipedia (if available) and from your friends’ updates, so they’re often pretty bare but apparently Facebook plans to enable users to add content in the future. The social network launched roughly 6.5 million of these when they first launched.
In theory these pages should be a good thing for companies. The intent, according to All Facebook, was to take generic topics that aren’t necessarily brand-focused and to create Community Pages for them. Facebook states:
“Generate support for your favorite cause or topic by creating a Community Page. If it become very popular (attracting thousands of fans), it will be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.”
So, if your Facebook Page falls into “owned media” in our social media ecosystem, Community Pages would fit more into “earned media.”
Over time, Community Pages would reduce the number of errant brand-related pages set up by individuals – a good move from a brand’s perspective. As Christopher Heine at ClickZ wrote, “Big brands that have seen their official Facebook fan numbers hindered by third-party fan pages will likely welcome the move.” The piece also noted that “community pages will indeed help make official brand pages more distinct from third-party pages and groups on the site.”
Causing Headaches for Brands
Here’s the problem, though – alongside generic causes and topics, Facebook has also created Community Pages for many well-known brands. As my friend put it:
“But we already have a Facebook page! What do we do with this?”
Right now, she can’t do anything.
As Facebook states in its FAQs:
“At this time, there is no way for people who choose to connect with a Community Page to add their own pictures or edit the information.”
Many companies have spent time and money building sizeable communities on Facebook through their curated fan pages. Now they’re seeing Facebook roll out yet another form of pages which undermine their efforts. As it it weren’t confusing enough already, we now have:
- Pages – representing an organization or person
- Groups – for communities of interest
- Community pages – theoretically about topics, causes or experiences but seemingly also about brands
These Community Pages also create an additional challenge for companies – they’re a monitoring nightmare. Community Pages are pretty much impossible to monitor effectively, as right now each user only seems to see content posted from their own network. That means everyone sees a unique page driven by their friends.
As if there isn’t enough noise on Facebook already, companies now have to deal with a third wave of pages about their brands – and this time they have absolutely no control over them. Continue reading “Why Facebook’s Community Pages Could Give Brands a Headache” »
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