Posting an article from our Social Media Management News June Newsletter. Enjoy and subscribe!

---

Marketing Communications

Facebook's Community Pages, launched in April, are causing big headaches for brands, user controversy, and general anger and confusion.  Follow the "read more" link for some management suggestions.

In a nutshell, Facebook is creating automated "fan pages"  (Community Pages) based on what individuals enter into their profile.  Facebook populates the pages with Wikipedia content, including company logo, and automatically aggregates Facebook posts that contain related words on the pages, along with the comments and "likes" that accompany any post.  If they become popular enough, the administration of the page will be handed over to the Facebook community, in "wiki" fashion.

Your profile describes you as a "harassed slave at My_Company"?  Yep, there's now a Community Page for that.

Even users who have configured their privacy settings so that "only friends" can see their Facebook posts are not immune from posts being displayed on Community pages, however, in that case only friends will see other friends' posts among the aggregated posts there.

Community Pages are listed in Facebook search as an "Interest" page, to distinguish it from a "Company" or "Organization" page.  They may appear ahead of your official Facebook presence.  Community Pages appear prominently in Google, Bing and other search engine results when searching on a brand or company name.

Brands are reacting in a myriad of way, from requesting community pages be migrated to the brand's official page to requesting removal of logos or other trademarks from community pages.  Some are reevaluating their investment in Facebook all together.
 
The purpose of Community Pages is to increase Facebook's advertising inventory, so they aren't likely to be going away any time soon.

There may be no control - but there is management:

• These pages are, in actually, just another kind of search engine results page. Use them as a very visible illustration in your organization of the key position social media brand reputation management has (or ought to have) in your organizational strategies and in marketing outcomes.  Get your marketing, PR, HR and customer service teams aligned and working together on reputation management.

• Watch and evaluate the effect of these pages on your official Facebook presence before acting (i.e., to migrate them or to alter your Facebook strategies).

• These pages can augment your word of mouth marketing or recruiting (people that "like" these pages are seeing the aggregated posts in their personal Facebook news feeds), so consider how they can be built into your strategies.

• Make your official Facebook presence obvious. 

• Use content and engagement strategies that make your own Facebook presence alive and breathing. There isn't much in the way of interactivity for now on these automated pages to drive conversation.

• Do take advantage and monitor these pages for product or service insights.

•  Check in on your Wikipedia entry.  If it needs attention use Wikipedia's discussion pages as a vehicle to update your pages, engaging with the editors to make the updates.

• Your search engine strategies just keep getting more and more essential.  Make sure your SEO, SEM, social media, and overall web presences are working together toward your specific strategies.

• Include the pages into your social media or marketing metrics and analytics.

• If you are in a regulated industry, be sure relevant employees are aware of the implications of "liking" a page which may impact them or you.

• Review, update (or create) your social media policies, and most importantly communicate them clearly and systematically to your employees and outsourced teams.  No matter how savvy you may think your Facebook touting employees are, vast numbers of  Facebook users are completely unaware of how public their comments and profile entries are, or how Facebook is populating Community Pages with them.  A little training goes a long way.

• If you are a Facebook advertiser, you have a loud voice with Facebook.  Contact Facebook about your specific issues.  

• Stay focused on using your social media strategies to drive value to your business and consider Community Pages through that lens. 

[ Resources for you ]

Facebook's Description of Community Pages

| Read about Facebook Community Pages |

Example: Automated Community Page for Lipton Tea

| Visit a Facebook Community Page |