Industry Leaders engaging their online presence through Facebook Pages

Industry Leaders

Big brands demonstrate the most sophisticated applications of Facebook by far, therefore acquiring millions of fans may not seem like a big achievement for Starbucks or Coca Cola; however, these companies managed to create fan pages that engage users on a much deeper level than by just asking them to click the “Like” button. An interesting trend seen across this category is of global companies taking Facebook to a new level, putting it at the center of their social media campaign and their entire online presence.

Starbucks
Currently with the number 2 fan page for a brand on Facebook,with almost 19 million fans (and counting), just behind Coca Cola,  Starbucks takes a innovative approach, focusing more on high-quality content and beneficial offers for its fans. Starbucks has learned how to effectively use status updates and how to share a lot of interesting, useful and engaging material aside from its product updates. The company furthermore offers a couple of interactive apps that not only are fun (e.g. the Instant Story tab) however, that offer tangible benefits (e.g. discount coupons, and functionality that allows fans to manage their Starbucks accounts right in Facebook). The fan page also has an interactive map that links to the company’s regional Facebook pages (just as BlackBerry). With no unusual visual indicators on its fan page, Starbucks demonstrates that user functionality is at least as important as aesthetics.

Red Bull
The fan page for Red Bull is by far one of the coolest on Facebook. Implementing a number of creative ideas and engaging apps, Red Bull makes the most of its Facebook presence, thereby standing out from their competitors business pages. An example of this is its Twitter stream that  assembles tweets from sponsored sports athletes and allows fans to connect with them beyond Red Bull’s domain. Live Web TV that anyone can view right on Facebook and a variety of fun games also encourage users to participate with the brand. While the welcome page is not in the default menu bar, it’s quite informative and serves as a compact graphic map of the entire Facebook page. Red Bull is also using Facebook as a recruiting tool; adding a careers board to a profile with so many fans makes sense indeed. Red Bull, not only has wings..its clearly flying on Facebook.

Skittles
Skittles’ fan page features two brightly designed, eye-catching tabs, one a graphic presentation with links, the other promoting its “Mob The Rainbow” campaign, the company has set its wall tab as the default. This is typical of popular brands that are familiar to their audience. Therefore allowing fans and visitors to the page to immediately follow the company’s updates and participate in the conversation.

Coca-Cola
Another giant with nearly twenty million-plus Facebook fans, Coca-Cola has a fan-centric Facebook page. It facilitates active user participation and interaction between the brand and its fans. The landing tab is set to the Coca-Cola introduction, which contains a dynamic box with latest updates and a “Like” button, links to other social network profiles for the brand, a fan highlights strip, and information about the product and the page’s creators (FYI, this Facebook page was created by two fans and then later supported officially by the company). Another highlight of the Coke fan page are the photo albums: in addition to some standard product shots and event photographs, many other albums are included, presenting Coca-Cola not only as a popular beverage; however, is seen as a multi-generational brand. Here is a good example of how to make use of photos on Facebook.

Twilight Saga
The default tab for the official fan page of the blockbuster series Twilight Saga is a large graphical tab promoting the latest episode, Eclipse. The custom tab incorporates elements of the movie’s website and the trailer, live Twitter updates, links to official websites and other info. Two other custom tabs are dedicated to the second film, New Moon including the official movie soundtrack. The entire page is rich in content and delivers its information clearly and concisely.

Porsche
The ColorStyler tab on the fan page for Porsche is very impressive, therefore one wonders why they did not make it the default tab? The pure FBJS tab allows users to select a Porsche model and customize its look in a live preview mode, with a nifty color and rims picker. One then can send the Porsche image to a friend or publish it on the page’s wall. This hidden gem makes the entire page shine and turns the user experience into a creative participation.

Facebook clearly has a key role in global Internet activity and the future of Web 2:0 is Facebook's future. It has become a kind of universal social network, being used for both personal and business needs. For many individuals, companies and organizations, Facebook has become an integral part of their branding strategy and therefore key to their promotional campaigns.
Facebook provides many tools for maximizing the effect of your presence on the social network, most of all by means of business pages, also known as fan pages. Using a variety of applications and Facebook API tools, one can get creative not only with the page content, but with the design, too, in order to engage the audience in a playful and creative manner.

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