Learn from Coke's 3 Facebook Best Practices

Recently, Coca-Cola edged out Hyundai as the most popular brand on Facebook, according to a study by Covario, thesearch engine marketing agency. Coke has more than 34 million Facebook fans; each comment the beverage producer posts on its page generates over 200 comments! "What is Coke doing right on Facebook? At least three things. Best Practice #1: Coke's Default Setting Is "Talk To Us." User-generated content gets posted automatically (as opposed to being filtered or edited first). Yes, lots of brands are skittish about this. On Coke's page, inappropriate messaging is removed, but only after it has been posted. Coke's relationship with its fans is solid enough to make this work. Best Practice #2: Coke Wants You To Upload Images to Its Photo Album. This makes perfect sense, given the iconic, collectible status of the brand. Many users want to show off branded Coke images they have acquired (or created), and many others want to show off as they consume the product! Coke supports both groups. Best Practice #3: Coke's Driving Facebook Principle Is "Collaborate." The page itself was founded by two Coke fans ... and later embraced by the company! It is truly a shared undertaking with Coke fans who spend time on Facebook, not something imposed upon them from the outside. The Takeaways for Marketers: Conduct a comprehensive review of your branding and social media strategies. Develop strategies which enable you to answer "yes" to these questions: Do you trust your brand enough to: * trust your customers? * give Facebook users an open forum? * encourage and facilitate collaboration with your customers?