Facebook is attempting to clear up the often confusing line between official fan pages and the anything-goes third-party ones.

In his recent article, “Brands Hope ‘Community Pages’ Make Facebook Presence Clearer,” Christopher Heine from clickz.com breaks down what should be a win-win initiative for companies and individuals on Facebook. While big brands like Coca-Cola have healthy followings (5.3 million fans), the more than 500 third-party Coca-Cola fan pages surely siphon off a good deal of traffic from the soft drink maker. For example, the fan page, “Coca-Cola In a Glass Bottle Is Better Than Plastic,” created by a third-party fan, has collected about 400,000 Facebookers. This activity is a big reason why Facebook is on the verge of replacing “fan pages” with “community pages.” The move benefits companies by more clearly delineating their official brand page, while leaving individual Facebookers less confused about the term “fan.”

The SSN Take: Take advantage of the upcoming move from “fan” to “community” pages by making sure your organization’s Facebook site screams “official.” Special note: Facebook is advising marketers to replace phrases that currently use “fan,” with “find us on Facebook” or “like us on Facebook.”

David Hardt, April 19, 2010

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