Why Facebook should quickly improve business Pages
Social media is radically changing the way we relate with our environment, at large. People, brands, companies all want to communicate with their ecosystems. Amongst social media platforms, Facebook is the heavyweight, whether for individuals, brands and companies.
Facebook has been initially developed for individuals and business pages have been created in 2008. Now that brands and companies are flocking onto the social network, they must adapt the platform to their business needs.
A recent article from Jeffrey Cohen detailing why Facebook is doing it wrong for B2B businesses makes me want to extend the thought and say that they are doing it wrong for all businesses.
I have identified three major areas that would need improvement as businesses Pages need to be flexible enough to evolve with the company’s need and business purpose.
The first area that needs major fixing is in Page creation. Most businesses Pages have been created through the personal account of the staff that created the Page. As a business, you have to think about what happens when that staff member moves on or changes company? When I come onto a project, most social media assets have already been created and the page creator is the owner of the Page forever – at least until Facebook decides to change that feature.
Facebook Page admin rights
The second major improvement I would like to see is that Profile Pages cannot be converted into business Pages. I started a Profile Page a few years ago, and now as a business consultant, I need to use the equity of my Profile Page towards my business practice. Creating a new Page does not make sense for now, as I am a solopreneur and I do not want to have to redirect my contacts towards yet, another page. I work with entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who run into the same challenge; they are using their personal brands for business and need to be able to convert their personal Profiles, if they choose to do so, towards a Business Page, where they would get more visibility and business features.
In the meantime, I can always use professional applications sucha as Linkedin, Professional, and News to leverage your personal profile towards business purposes.
Finally, the third major flaw is that once a business has chosen a Page name, it cannot modify it. Facebook states in its help page:
Facebook Help for Pages
As this may not be dramatic, it would be useful if for example, the company wishes to change name in an effort to rebrand. Ealier this year, Comcast pushed Xfinity for its cable, Internet and phone services. As you can see on the screen shot below, Comcast is still Comcast. Not Xfinity.
Comcast Facebook page as of April 26, 2010
For now, One option, for a business who rebrands its name, is to delete the Page and recreate a new one. Thus, losing all the equity of the current company Page. The other option, is to keep the old name, thus, running the risk to confuse and frustrate even more its fans.
What do you think? Are there other features you wish to find on the Facebook business Pages? Let me know.
Tags: social media
As a social media practitioner, I advise companies and entrepreneurs on how to integrate social media in their overall business strategy.
I define, implement and monitor social media programs in order to achieve business.
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I’m having my first expedition on to your blog following our tweets today. Great piece. You do well to question Facebook’s competence for all business. They better get a lot better quick, I think.
More later.
Thanks
Thanks Paul for stopping by. This Facebook issues are relevant to my business practice, as a consultant but also in the recommendations I give my clients.
KC
I agree full heartedly! I hate that a Facebook business page is always tied to a personal account and that a person is only allowed one Facebook account. It makes it very difficult to keep ones professional life separate from business and makes it tricky to post and respond to “likers” formerly known as “fans.” I also dislike the change from “Become a Fan” to “Like” and hope enough others feel the same that it goes back to “Become a Fan.”
Cam, I agree with your point about the value of “Like” against “Fan”. I’d got used to the word “fan”. I’d grown to appreciate “fan” because it resonated with “feel passionate about” – I could use “fan” to show the few companies I rated that high.
In this culture, in Ireland, like is a wishy-washy term – I like so many things that “like” tell nothing important about me.
So I’ve held back from committing myself to Facebook use for business purposes.
Great article. I’d also like to see a feature that allows one business page to “like” another business page. I know that you can add a page to your “Favorites” but you can’t get a Feed to your Wall so you can share with your fans info from other pages. Maybe you can do it, but I haven’t figured it out yet.
Also, on assigning Admins, there is another way. From your Wall page, click on your “Likes” and you will get a list of your followers. You can then select “Make Admin” for anyone who “likes” you (doesn’t have to be a Friend). But, you’re correct that you can’t get rid of the Admin that created the page. Definitely a limitation for businesses.
Hello Leslie,
Thank you for stopping by. I hooe Facebook recognizes the limitations and improve the process for business pages quickly.
Hope to see you soon.
Leslie,
The more I think about what you point out and the complexity of it all, the more I wish for simplicity.
It looks to me as if Facebook lost its way for a while – got confused and passed its confusion on to its users.
I agree with your assessment. Those are my concerns as well. If businesses are going to be a future revenue stream for Facebook then these options need to available.
This is a post aimed at anyone involved in really trying to help business understand social media. More than that it will help those who actively engage in trying to help those very businesses.
I’ve been analysing for some time the pro’s and con’s of each social network and the one many people close to them all often struggle with is Facebook. This has helped me create some clearer thinking and ways to adapt the work I do.
I’m sure even greater change is coming for Facebook, with a particular focus on how business will REALLY benefit from it, but for now thanks for your guidance and thoughts.
Chris,
Perhaps we should not assume Facebook will recover? So much depends on the quality of thinking among the leaders there. Haven’t they made a real pig’s ear of recent changes?
I think it is possible to image Facebook declining in importance slowly over the next few years as new more coherent players get their act together.
Remember the IBM story, how they seemed to have it all wrapped up?