Facebook Brand Tagging: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A little over two months ago, there was a mini popup that appeared on the Facebook welcome page, which announced that you were now allowed to tag pages in your pictures. This was exciting news for brands. Within a matter of days we saw most brands updating their statuses, asking users to tag images of products with page names. How wonderful for brand exposure and user experience! Most brands recognized that this new user ability would result in an increase in time management for brand pages; other brand pages still don’t understand the idea of managing their pages.

For those of you who do not know how to tag pages in new or existing images, it is simple. It works the same way as tagging a friend on Facebook. You can now tag inanimate objects, too! Here is where it is important to increase page management: by tagging a brand in an image, you instantly create a “friendly” connection to their page, and their brand.

Example: The Huffy Bicycle that was tagged in the image shows the user is proud to be a Huffy rider. He or she has made it known that they ride this bicycle, and display it proudly in their photos, and on the wall of the Huffy Bicycle page.

As you can see, it is easy for a brand on Facebook to encourage their audience to tag the brand in users’ pictures. The benefits are clear, and the opportunity for exposure is great. Each brand needs to be careful when opening the photo page to its users.  Here are examples of when it works, and when it doesn’t.

If it needs to be stated a million times, it shall be. It is incredibly important to manage a brand page regularly to optimize chances of success. As you can see in the examples above, Victoria Secret’s Pink Fanpage shows images that are tagged, which clearly have no connection to the brand. This is a result of the brand not managing the user engagement on their photo page actively.

Why Is It Harmful?

• Users could tag vulgar or inappropriate pictures to the brand.
• Users could tag images of competitors, and promote the other brands.
• Low brand quality, or faulty products, could be tagged by angry consumers (without response from the brand or customer service).
• The control is in the hands of the users for brand image. (A brand can opt-out of brand-image tagging, but this option is often neglected).

Why Is It Helpful:

• Users can tag images that make the brand and it’s products look enticing to other Facebook users.
• Users can tag images of how they use the brand, taking a spin on traditional views of the brand.
• Brand supporters and enthusiasts can tag and share images about how much they love the brand.
• Asking the audience to tag their new and existing images gives the users a reason to engage with the brand.
• More tagged images means more content the brand has access to share and promote.
• It subtly solicits consumer feedback.

Like anything else, there are pros and cons to allowing users to tag brands within their images. If you already have an in-depth Facebook fan page strategy in motion, this is something you might like to add on. Again; it is very important to remember to boost management efforts  in order to catch any tagged images that are not deemed fit for display on the brand’s fan page.

Integrate a strategy that asks your audience to join in and show their enthusiasm, and find out how dedicated your fan base actually is to your brand!