Internet Marketing: Facebook Launches Community Pages for the 'Unofficial'

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Facebook Launches Community Pages for the 'Unofficial'

Facebook just released a new page creation option -- the Community Page -- specifically designed to support topics, causes and the 'unofficial' (pages created about but not by companies, brands and public figures).

Community Pages are similar to Facebook Business Pages, with the exception of their functionality. According to Facebook, if a Community Page you've created spikes in popularity, its administrative capabilitie s will be removed from you and handed over to the Facebook community, making popular Community Pages akin to a public wiki.

It seems this new page option has an obvious benefit for businesses on Facebook: Community Pages help eliminate previous discrepancy issues between officially and unofficially created Business Pages. If used correctly, businesses will no longer have to worry about unofficial Business Pages cropping up about their own brands, allowing Facebook users to more easily identify a particular Business Page as the brand's official Facebook presenc e.

The Marketing Lesson:

While the new page feature seems to have obvious benefits for Facebook in its management of distinguishing official from unofficial pages, the most important thing to note is Facebook's attempt to introduce new features based on the recognition of its users' needs. In a nutshell, Facebook paid attention to its users' activity and saw an opportunity to fulfill a need. Facebook's new addition was also another step toward building community and promoting interaction.

I think there are two major things we, as marketers, can learn from this:

Closely listen to and watch for feedback/hints from your customer base about their needs. Is there a way you can improve your product/service to fulfill these needs or create a better user experience?
Look for ways to promote interactivity and build community on your own website. I think we'll start to see a lot more customer-generated communities sprouting up on Facebook about companies and products, particularly if that company or product is not already offering a community offering of its own. Community is important. Take advantage of using the opportunity to generate traffic to your own web site rather than Facebook.