{"id":3136,"date":"2010-04-30T14:19:54","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T14:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/?p=3136"},"modified":"2020-10-21T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T10:03:07","slug":"facebook-community-pages-bad-news-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/facebook-community-pages-bad-news-brands","title":{"rendered":"Why Facebook Community Pages Could be Bad News for Brands"},"content":{"rendered":"
There’s a lot of talk about Facebook’s latest changes, including their Community Pages, and a lot of confusion and upset out there.<\/p>\n
We’ve spent some time over the past couple of days researching Facebook Community Pages to learn as much as we can about them. It’s obviously a fast-moving information flow, so please do comment below and let me know if we’ve got anything wrong or you have more information. The links give a lot more detail, so do click through to the various sources (and thanks to all).<\/p>\n
Facebook launched Community Pages in late March 2010. This was what they told the public<\/a>:<\/p>\n “Community Pages are a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community Pages let you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “On each Community Page, you’ll be able to learn more about a topic or an experience\u2014whether it’s cooking or learning a new language\u2014and see what your friends and others in the Facebook community are saying about this topic. ”<\/p>\n On Facebook there are now:<\/p>\n Why create them?<\/span> Good question. According to allfacebookcom:<\/p>\n “Prior to the release of \u201cCommunity Pages\u201d, Facebook had to constantly monitor Pages that were not created on behalf of official organizations. It became a game for many individuals to come up with Pages that would instantly attract millions of users, however organizations were getting frustrated when a Facebook user created a brand page on behalf of them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It seems that this is a way for those interested in a topic (and that does include organisations or brands) to gather en masse to talk about it. The difference is that Facebook will have the admin rights.<\/p>\n What’s happening to the unofficial pages?<\/span> They are all still there, and organisations still have the right to apply to Facebook to have them taken down if they feel that their intellectual property right are being infringed.<\/p>\n How is an official page distinguished from an unofficial one?<\/span> It’s not – unless someone knows different? A few have ‘Official Page’ in the description or the URL, but by no means all. It really is difficult for a user to know when they are on a page administered by the organisation itself. Can users create Community Pages and post content to them?<\/span> Apparently ‘yes’ and ‘yes’. We tested it at http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/create.php, and took the ‘Community Page’ option. Why are there so many Community Pages?<\/span> Because Facebook automatically created them (6.5 million on launch, and climbing), from the information listed in people’s profiles. “We\u2019ve created more than six million Community Pages, but if there isn\u2019t a match for something you\u2019ve typed into your profile, we\u2019ll simply create a Community Page for that topic.” Facebook states<\/a>.<\/p>\n What does that mean for brands? <\/span> “A search on pages will bring up a mixture of the Official (‘Fan’) Page of an organisation, unofficial pages already existent – and now potentially multiple Community Pages because Facebook automatically created them. As if one searches for \u201ccoca-cola\u201d or \u201ccoca-cola company\u201d or variants without the hyphen, one can now find a number of different Pages that did not previously exist and which have the effect of diluting Coca-Cola\u2019s brand […] I presume Facebook will begin the task of removing these redundant entries, but that could prove a very resource-intensive endeavor.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n 2. Brand reputation damage.<\/span> Community pages are pulling in wall posts mentioning the topic from any publicly-available profile post. Completely un-moderated of course. Potentially, this leaves the way open for activists to swarm an official-looking brand page, and with no chance at all for a brand being attacked to defend itself, engage with its critics or even direct people towards its Official Page. Update 3 Aug 2011:\u00a0 (see article in InsiderFacebook<\/a>). Other useful links:<\/p>\n There’s a lot of talk about Facebook’s latest changes, including their Community Pages, and a lot of confusion and upset out there. We’ve spent some time over the past couple of days researching Facebook Community Pages to learn as much as we can about them. It’s obviously a fast-moving information flow, so please do comment…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"series":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Facebook-Community-Pages.jpeg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Genuine-Humans.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"amazon":{"key":"amazon","url":"https:\/\/music.amazon.com\/podcasts\/3abc34c3-ff60-4a78-b347-6119461b7ed1\/GENUINE-HUMANS","label":"Amazon","class":"amazon","icon":"amazon.png"},"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/gb\/podcast\/genuine-humans\/id1561811296","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzb2NpYWxlbGVtZW50LmFnZW5jeS9mZWVkL3BvZGNhc3Q?sa=X&ved=0CAYQrrcFahcKEwiQz-mM7dzvAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAQ","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/7jkfw0qeUlwrauhfy2pCGU","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/thesocialelement.agency\/feed\/podcast","embedCode":"\n
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\nCan you tell the difference between a Community Page and an Official Page?<\/span> Easy to tell once you’re on a Facebook-created Community Page – it will have this text at the top: “Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic. If you have a passion for XXXX<\/strong>, sign up and we’ll let you know when we’re ready for your help.”\u00a0<\/em> and it will have the triangular Community Pages logo if no image was available from Wikipedia. But Facebook have made no separate search option or distinction on your personal profile.
\n<\/a>
\nWho provides content for these pages?<\/span> Currently the pages created by Facebook are not editable. Facebook has put up information from Wikipedia where available and called for users to sign up to contribute. Content currently consists of global posts from individuals discussing the topic (from public wall posts one assumes).<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>
\nHowever, our page<\/a> appears to be indistinguishable from an Official Page (Fan Page). There are two functional differences though: as promised, our wall posts didn’t appear in a ‘fans’ news feed, and we assume that, should it reach a critical mass, it will be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community<\/a>. (The Facebook Community Council still being in Beta AFAIK?) We assume at that point it would be recognisable as a Community Page, with the Community Page logo etc, but that’s just a guess.<\/p>\n
\nThere are two serious consequences for brands we can anticipate:
\n1. Message dilution and loss of share of audience.<\/span> William Beutler (Innovation Manager at New Media Strategies) did some research into Coca-Cola:<\/p>\n
\nThe status with the ‘unofficial pages’ was that organisation could not of course object to having negative comments posted about their brands. They could only request that Facebook remove them on the on the grounds of infringement of intellectual property. However, they could post on these pages, engage with consumers and refer them to their official pages (from a Personal Profile account only, we might add). Now (one would assume) they will not be able to request their removal either.
\nPhew. Yet, this is changing daily, if not hourly, so please let us know if you have anything to add to this information.<\/p>\n
\nFacebook has added a new \u201cMerge\u201d option to the Resources tab of the Page editor. It allows Page admins to apply to roll duplicate community Pages<\/strong> into an identically named official Page they control, adding the fans and check-ins of the community Pages to the official Page. Facebook has privately done this kind of merger in the past for prominent celebrities and businesses, but the option has never before been publicly available.
\nThe merge tool will allow official Page admins to gain the ability to publish content to and target with ads users who\u2019ve accidentally Liked an unofficial version of their Page, helping some Pages instantly grow to their rightful size.
\nLearn more about how The Social Element creates a strategy<\/a> to properly manage your Facebook communities and more.<\/p>\n\n
Why Facebook Community Pages Could be Bad News for Brands<\/a><\/blockquote>