How much do you trust your fans?  Do you trust them enough to manage your Facebook fan page?  Do you trust them to converse with other fans that might have customer service-related questions or complaints?  A job like this should not be left in the hand of a customer.

Facebook Fan Pages are now thought of as the Brand Community or the Brand Hub.  Facebook users are accustomed to asking customer service questions and reaching out to the brand on these platforms.  If there is another fan behind the driver’s seat, how can the brand be sure they are being represented well?  Because these fans are not trained brand employees, the brand may not not be represented properly.  Why do some brands still allow this fraud to happen when there is a vast amount of knowledge about Facebook all over the internet?

There are many potential Brand Identity Disasters that can occur from misrepresentation on Facebook.  For example, 7Eleven is a very popular franchise, with their 24-7 Slurpees and delicious coffee drinks.  The Official 7Eleven Facebook page is really well done — it has over 185K fans that actively engage with the brand.  However, the brand name is commonly misspelled.  What about when the average consumer searches for “711″ on Facebook?

Here is what they will find:

Problems:

  • Over 35 thousand fans have joined a fan page that never updates content and displays a poor image of the brand
  • The fan page insults competitor brands with harsh language
  • People who misspell the brand name have no option to find the official page

Sometimes the brands who are not participating within social media are subject to letting their fans take over completely.  For example; CVS is currently not participating in Facebook.  The CVS fan page is completely taken over by fans in a negative way.

Problems:

  • Over 6 thousand people became fans of an imposter brand page
  • The fan page has no brand information
  • The fan page lacks any fan engagement on the Wall
  • The photos that are uploaded by fans hurt the brand tremendously

Fan photos include an image of a letter from a CVS employee who is upset with the store and how it operates, images of a man who scams people outside of a CVS parking lot, and a faulty flu shot done at a CVS pharmacy.  These images have the potential to turn many customers away from CVS.  When choosing not to participate in social media, brands like CVS should look at competitors like Walgreens, who are extremely active and powerful on Facebook.

Facebook fan pages have the ability to serve as a Community hub where consumers can come and show their appreciation to other fans.  But fans can also actively show their complaints and aggravations with the brand.  Facebook users have become familiar with this practice.

When your customer comes to your Facebook fan page, asking questions about products, complaining, and looking for more information, who do you want behind the driver’s seat?  There are many resources out there to learn about implementing great Facebook fan pages.

Here are some tips on how to better control your brand on Facebook:

1. Search: Look for your brand terms and misspellings of your brand name on Facebook.  Make a list of how many impostor fan pages are out there and tally up the total number of fans that are engaging on these pages.  This is your audience!

2. Prepare: Are you ready to take over these fan pages?  Do you have the right content?  You will need photos, oodles of brand information, witty status updates, and a strategy to implement in order to engage and stimulate the fan base.

3. Create: You will need to create an official Facebook fan page and build it as if it is your website.  You should build tools and “Tabs” that are brand specific.  For example, if you are a movie theater, you’d want a unique way to show movie times.

4. Control: Taking control of the impostor pan pages is easy.  People at digital agencies have frequently dealt with this issue and work hand in hand with Facebook to take control.  It is extremely important to make sure that fans of the brand are getting the correct information.