Should Your Brand Have a Facebook Page?

Facebook is on a tear, and seems to be marching double time down the path towards dominance over the interwebs. The latest segment flocking to Facebook in increasing numbers are not people, but brands. Whether the shift is due to a reaction against the trappings of traditional campaign microsites, or a lure towards the promise of particularly attentive and engaged audiences, the trend is clear. But the big question is whether it makes sense for your brand and your particular business and engagement objectives. Critics of the micro-site approach are stating that Facebook pages are the end of micro-sites and are where brands should focus their marketing dollars. At the same time, has Facebook really proven itself to be the new house of the holy for marketers? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of branded Facebook pages.

Here’s why I think Facebook pages are great!

• Community over campaign: Imagine every couple of months you completely break contact with your significant other for a few months. Then suddenly you start speaking with them again like nothing has happened. Well this essentially is the cycle in which most brands’ marketing campaigns operate. So why start all over again? Unlike a micro-site a page can keep you connected to your consumers between campaigns.

• Sticky Eyeballs: Facebook users spend a lot of time on Facebook so why not spend time with your brand on Facebook. By providing a brand experience in their preferred environment, users can interact with your brand without interrupting their time on Facebook.

• Accessible content: Tons of great videos and other great content is often created for micro-sites and more often than not they are buried in a flash file and die when the campaign ends, often missed by many. With Facebook pages, you can make your content accessible and easily shared with a huge potential audience on Facebook.

• Consistency for consumers: A Facebook page creates a consistent venue for your marketing campaigns online. Your consumers will learn and know where to go to find out what’s happening with your brand. No need to remember all those catchy URL’s their news feed will let them know what’s happening.

Why Facebook pages suck!

• Unstable and Glitchy Platform: Don’t believe me on this one? Check out the Developer forums on Facebook and you will see many mouse wheel scrolls of complaints and non responses from Facebook. Facebook is also notorious for changing code and layout without any warning. One day things look great and work well, then BOOM it’s all broken.

• Poor Tracking and Analytics: Even with the release of their new Facebook insights, their tracking and analytics are weak compared to what you can achieve with Google Analytics (let alone other paid solutions like Omniture). Brands today have spent a lot of money investing in analytics tools so tossing them aside for a page with bare bones data may not be an option.

• Strict Rules and Guidelines: So you’ve got a page with thousands of fans for your brand and you want to reward them with free product just for conversing with you, Facebook says no dice. Although, if you build a mechanism through an app that’s accompanied by a $10k / four week media buy, then sure. Facebook controls how you run promotions and has to approve your contest or giveaway. I guess this is fair, it’s their house and their users you’re just renting space after all.

• Oversaturation: Brands who adopted Facebook early saw great success, huge fan numbers and even sales growth. Now everybody’s doing it and not everyone is doing it well. Some brands have entered the arena guns blazing pushing the hard sell 24/7. In time, this will sour users on the whole experience. If the ship doesn’t right itself and we marketers don’t police our activities, the party will end sooner than you think.

• The next big thing: Technology changes daily and in today’s world, it’s a popularity contest. Facebook and Twitter are the cool kids everyone wants to hang out with but that won’t last forever (They actually probably are not cool anymore; the hip kids have already bailed and are on to the next one). Remember Myspace, remember what Facebook has done to them? Well someone will eventually trump Facebook as the defacto social network, to interact with your friends, post pictures from last night’s interweb thingy. Apparently Google is already working on it.

For me personally I feel there is still a place for micro-sites and Facebook pages won’t kill them off any time soon. Micro-sites are a necessity when the limitations (both creatively and technically) of Facebook impede the goals of the campaign or user experience, but I don’t think that will last long. Facebook consistently implements new features, and improves the experience for users and brands. The page redesigns and the introduction of open graph are testament to this. IT may seem strange to say this but not everyone is on Facebook and the platform is not the right choice for every demographic. Micro-sites remain universally accessible to anyone connected to the internet. And of course there’s that whole mobile thing. Unless users connect to Facebook through their browser they won’t be able access pages.

So there it is… a few reasons why pages both suck and are awesome sauce. What do you think about this one? Given the pros and cons, should your Brand have a presence on Facebook?