I’m not a fan of Facebook. That’s ok, plenty of you are fans. The business world is obsessed with Facebook. I’d imagine most major corporations have a Facebook page by now. Why? Facebook is not your brand. Why should you promote another companies brand by using them as your main page? Why not use your corporate website for that? Sure, you can have a Facebook page, and advertise there, just don’t make that your brands main site. Doesn’t it seem counter to what you’re trying to achieve? Don’t you want the focus to be your brand, not the fact it’s hosted on Facebook?
Here’s a quote from an article in Fortune that left me thinking, you’re doing it wrong.
The Timeline redesign changed all of that. Tabs have been minimized and — more importantly — companies can no longer set a default landing page. For brands, a critical chance to make a first impression is gone. The first thing users now see on Pages is a fluid, ever-shifting Timeline of recent posts and comments
Emphasis is mine. Why in the world would a company rely on something completely out of their control to make a first impression?
Host your content on your website. It’s your brand, it belongs to you. Link to your important content from your Facebook and Twitter account. That’s what the Internet is all about. Links. Facebook is a walled garden. Why trap your content behind those drab blue walls?
Here’s a great example, at least for me it’s a great example. Peter Jackson has been posting updates about the progress on The Hobbit via his Facebook page. I don’t have a Facebook account, so I can’t get behind the wall to see his updates. Why would you make those posts private? Wouldn’t you like 100% of the people who have access to the Internet to have access to those updates? I guess not. Maybe Peter Jackson’s company is being paid handsomely for his Facebook updates?
The big question is, where does that content go when Facebook disappears as a company?
As my brother is fond of pointing out, in the end I guess we’re all just a bunch of sheep, some choose to follow Facebook.
2 replies on “Facebook Is Not Your Brand”
Interesting, isn’t it. Ultimately I think it’s about trying to capture as big an audience as possible, and like it or not, Facebook has a really big audience.
I’m not a fan of using Facebook for corporate goals, but as a friend of my pointed out he goes where the customers are. In this case it led him to Facebook.
The example of Peter Jackson is a weird one to be sure. Like you I would think you’d want those to be available to every one.
Jay,
The funny thing is it looks like those posts of Peter Jackson’s are now viewable by everyone. Back when he posted his first, http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150223186041807, I was not happy I couldn’t see it without a Facebook account.