DISQUS

rlewis1686 · 1 year ago

I think the fan pages are way underutilized by companies. I have seen a lot of success with the tools they provide. It's very unintrusive and effective if you stay on it.

jacobmorgan · 1 year ago

i agree, i dont think a lot of companies know what to do with their fan pages once they are created.

Dana Theus · 1 year ago

Jacob:

I totally agree with you on this. I've been thinking lately that "fandom" is a totally misunderstood asset because it is essentially a very high quality opt-in list. Not only have these people volunteered to receive your communications, but they've begged to interact with you on some level. And I really don't think companies are leveraging that well, as you point out. I've seen some organizations manage it well around event promotion, but they tend to be event promoters so they're just doing what they do rather than leveraging a new fangled asset.

In addition to your suggestions (which are great), I think the company can promote both virtual and real events (e.g., Starbucks Red AIDS day promo on Facebook and Twitter) as well as run contests, promote causes etc.

Perhaps it is the word "fan" which is part of the problem. For so long fans were noisy sideshows and with the advent of the social web, they are becoming forces until themselves. Most organizations seem pretty blind to this even though it's much of the force of the "Groundswell" power.

Thanks for bringing this up. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one noodling on it lately.

Dana

jacobmorgan · 1 year ago

hey dana, great ideas as well. there is definitely a lot of potential for companies to utilize their fan base. It's a bit weird to think that nearly 1 million people are telling these companies "we love you" and the companies are just saying "eh, so does everyone else."

you're definitely not the only one noodling on this :)

Dave Kerpen · 1 year ago

I completely agree with you Jacob- in fact I just blogged about this topic a few days ago, linked below. I just don't get it either. Just today McDonalds paid for a sponsored gift on Facebook - spent six figures- and yet still doesn't own or enter their own Fan pages with a combined 1.2 million fans. Bizzarro World.

http://www.buzzmarketingdaily.com/2008/12/ny-ti...

jacobmorgan · 1 year ago

wow 6 figs hmm? that's quite a lot of change to be throwing around. what can you do, some companies just don't understand what they should be doing. it'll come around one day :)

The Lovable Rogue · 1 year ago

Hey, Jacob,
I think one of the other benefits of these fan pages, funnily enough, is the number of people who join with the sole intention of detracting from the brand. I have looked at the Coca-Cola page in the past, and the majority of comments therein were negative. Essentially, the majority of the content provided therein was clearly misinformed, whether this was intentional or not. By having a forum through which to appropriately address these comments and rectifiy misinformation about their brands, the organisation can essentially take the fight to the detractors whilst simultaneously energising already loyal customers.

TLR

jacobmorgan · 1 year ago

yep, great point there. it's always an advantage when you can reach to 1 million people in the same place, in this case Coke could have done some serious fixing. i still think brands are trying to understand how to leverage their loyal customers, especially when it comes to social media.