Report: Retailers Have Facebook Fan Pages. Most Are Pretty Lame!
Published by Rodney Rumford October 30th, 2008 in Branding, Facebook, business.eMarketer has released a list of Retail brands that have created a facebook page. More retailers maintain fan pages or distinct pages on facebook over every other social network. The number is up over early 2008 numbers. This is good and bad. The good news are brands are moving into social networks. The bad news is most still are doing it totally wrong.
Most of these retailers Fan Pages on facebook are pretty lame. The majority of them feel abandoned, 1 dimensional and are pretty weak. Most don’t feel like there are any conversations going on or any real comments from the brand representatives that are running them. Some even go so far as to limit user uploaded photos and videos. Why even bother to have a fan page in a social network if you won’t let the users share their experience’s with video and audio? It seems to me that brands are still trying to “control” how they are perceived. This is a mistake.
Having a Fan Page on facebook just so you can say that you have a presence on facebook is a mistake. It is only one step (and a tiny baby one at that) in an overall strategy for engagement on the social network. Allowing users to hijack/engage/evangelize/share/detract your brand and upload photos and videos around your brand is the new experience that people expect on social networks. We have seen countless press releases and have bombarded by companies telling us they are on facebook and all they have is a fan page (and weak ones at that). Bleh.
The Top 5 Reasons Most Brand Facebook Fan Pages Are Lame
1. No communication from the retail brand representatives or news updates
2. The brand owners shut off users being able to add video’s or photos
3. Limited conversation threads or updates
4. The owners don’t leverage this as a way to reach out and engage & communicate with their fans on a regular basis
5. The Pages feel abandoned
Here is a list of retailers that have hung a Fan Page shingle on facebook
Make Sure You Promote Your Brand Fan Page with Sponsorship or Advertising Spend. Do not expect “if we build it they will come”.
Candidly, after going through the above list we were not overly impressed; the majority of these brands facebook pages were pretty lacking (some were not too bad). So we thought it might be helpful to point out a few Facebook Fan Pages that we really like.
Good Example of Facebook Fan Page: NASCAR
Another Good Example of a Facebook Fan Page: Dunkin Donuts
Another Example of a fully tricked out Fan Page that really engages me: Breeders Cup World Championship
I guess the message is goof for any marketing. If it’s worth doing, do it well. Thx for annotated examples.
You can start selling products on Facebook with our widget today.
Check out our widget: http://www.radicalbuy.com/widget_landing.php
Here is a current store on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/HDNet-Fights/6201666235
Let us know if we can help.
Regards,
Darin Divinia
CEO - RadicalBuy
http://www.radicalbuy.com
Todd,
Yes if you do anything from a marketing perspective you should do it well and make sure that it is not an island. Also integrating your facebook page into an overarching social strategy is recommended.
Companies need to put some serious effort and thought into how they actually want their facebook fan page to be used and engaged with.
This is perhaps the most informative article I have read about using a Facebook page in marketing. I have been getting a lot of inquiries from clients about creating a Facebook page for recruitment purposes. There is a lot more that goes into using social media tools to make them effective. Thanks!
John,
Thanks for the kind words. Glad this articled helped you out.
No problem, I am going to pass it on to my colleagues.
Not are these great tips… you’ve also shown some great examples.
Do you have any suggestions for making applications. Some of them offered by facebook are not that great. (ie. always having problems with “poll”)
I think for my company to make an app is going to be big bucks for my clients.
Rodney, thanks for the article. I work for an educational tour company and we created a fan page to help kids engage with each other and talk about travel (http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/EF-Tours/18783176937). It’s helpful to see those successful examples.