Facebook Community Pages: What Your Business Needs to Know
Facebook’s new community pages have created a lot of confusion for businesses. Many companies have been surprised (and many angry) to find their brands showing up in community pages that are fully outside of their control.
The root of the anger: Businesses have invested in Facebook pages only to find community pages appearing that seem to compete with their pages.
This article is designed to demystify Facebook community pages and provide you with important actions you can take.
What Is a Facebook Community Page?
Facebook first announced Community Pages as a feature designed to address all the fan pages set up around generic, non-business topics. For example, “I Love Sleep,” or “I Need a Vacation.”
Facebook wanted to differentiate between bona fide Official Facebook Pages (fan pages for businesses) and what they now call Community Pages. In Facebook’s words:
Community Pages are a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it. Just like Official Pages for businesses, organizations and public figures, Community Pages let you connect with others who share similar interests and experiences.
Facebook Business Pages Vs. Community Pages
On first pass, the concept of Community Pages seems like a great solution to create a clear delineation between 1) Official Pages (Facebook’s term for business fan pages)—administered and controlled by company representatives and 2) all the fan pages created around an idea or topic.
The example Facebook uses in their blog announcement is for cooking. So, the Cooking Community Page could prove to be a helpful source of information on a topic you’re passionate about (although you could just as easily find the information directly on Wikipedia!) and/or a great networking resource to identify and reach out to people who share your passion for cooking.
(Interestingly enough, when doing a search for the same Cooking Community Page Facebook profiled in their blog announcement, I couldn’t find it using their internal search facility. I waded through pages and pages of search results and in the end just went to Google and entered “facebook cooking community page” (not in quotes) and the Community Page came up second!)
This is an example of a a community page
Two Types of Community Pages
One of the many factors causing much confusion around these Community Pages is the fact that there are TWO types of Community Pages: Facebook-administered and user-administered.
I’ll go into more detail about each below, but in a nutshell, Facebook-administered are all the auto-generated Community Pages. User-administered are Community Pages you can set up yourself that essentially look identical to fan pages (Official Pages), but you create them for a topic, not your business.
Facebook-administered Community Pages
Let’s tackle Facebook-administered first, as that’s what Facebook actually announced on April 19, 2010 on their blog.
Facebook automatically created 6.5 million Community Pages in mid-April. These pages were auto-generated from users’ “Likes and Interests” and “Work and Education” sections of the personal profile Info tab.
Here’s an example of an auto-generated page
Given that these Community Pages were auto-generated, anything separated by commas produced a Community Page with those keywords/phrases as the title. So there are thousands of such pages, many of which have only one or two fans (people who Like that page).
Where Does the Content Come From?
Depending on the subject matter of each Community Page, content (including the Page photo) gets automatically pulled in from Wikipedia. All other content is auto-populated from wall posts and status updates made by any Facebook user containing the keywords of the Community Page.
This is where the nightmare begins for many businesses, schools and more. There are no administrators (yet) for Community Pages and you have zero control over what shows up on the page.
Here are the Official Fan Pages of SeaWorld Florida and SeaWorld San Diego. And, here are just three Community Pages for SeaWorld, out of hundreds. (The first two have a tab and image pulled from Wikipedia. The third has the Wikipedia tab but no image. There are many of these Community Pages without images).
By the way, community pages have a tab called “Related Posts.” In the below screen shot, the “Related Posts by Friends” includes any related updates from friends OR related fan pages you have joined (liked). Try clicking on the SeaWorld Community Page.
What About Privacy?
A user’s privacy settings DO affect how their content is viewed, even on Community Pages. For example, let’s say you had “Posts by me” set to “Friends only.” In that case, if and when any of your content happened to have keywords of a Community Page, only your friends could see that content and no-one else.
However, as Jeremiah Owyang pointed out in this tweet, the vast majority of Facebook users seem to be completely unaware of how their information is being viewed. (That is, despite the new simplified privacy settings!)
You only need to take a look at www.YourOpenBook.org and do a search for something like “I hate my job.” Yikes, such a tragedy. Lots of people unhappy at work.
Openbook allows anyone to search any and all public Facebook (status) updates. You don’t have to be logged into Facebook or even be a Facebook user to access any information on Openbook because it’s all publicly available information.
In other words, these updates appear because the users have their privacy settings wide open. (I’m actually a strong advocate for wide-open privacy settings; my rule of thumb is if you don’t want it shared, don’t share it. However, I completely understand that rule doesn’t work for everyone!)
This content is essentially the same as any content that could appear on related Community Pages, but it’s much easier to find with one central search engine such as Openbook.
To find actual Community Pages, you need to use Facebook’s search facility, which can often yield literally hundreds of results all jumbled up with regular fan pages in a variety of categories along with your Official Page. Definitely an area needing improvement!
Do Businesses Have Any Control?
Following is a forum post (used with permission) from a social media coordinator for expressing her frustration with the confusing morass of Community Pages for the college.
Much to my surprise I did a search on our College name yesterday on Facebook. Now there is a “Community Page” with the exact same name. They stole our logo without permission and are aggregating all of our posts—and other completely unrelated posts.
This page has 53 fans—our students I assume. I immediately let our students know that this was not our page, nor were we responsible for any information put on it. However, there is no way to post anything on the Community Pages. Clicking on the “Sign up” to add to this page button was a joke, as was adding an official website. “Thanks for signing up, we’ll let you know when we need your help” which to me translates—”we aren’t really sure what we are doing yet.”
When I dug further I found a dozen or more versions of our College name with “nursing” or “business” in them—WITH NO CONTENT. Isn’t creative content important in social media??? Why would Facebook push all of these blank pages?
Why in the world would Facebook create all of these pages with no content? I don’t want our students confused by these pages. Is anyone else having this problem? This just seems like the most ridiculous move ever.
Alyssa has articulated exactly why so many organizations are reacting to the confusion of Community Pages.
For clarification—any logo or image on Facebook-administered Community Pages is pulled in automatically from Wikipedia. Facebook users do become fans by clicking the “Like” button, the same as Official fan pages. However, the vast majority of fans were automatically connected because they had the Community Page name in their “Likes and Interests” section. For further explanation on how these auto-connections came about, see Facebook’s official post.
Unfortunately, at present, businesses have little to no control over any Facebook Community Pages. However, given that the “official” content is being pulled in from Wikipedia, as Jeremiah Owyang points out in his excellent post, “To be successful, brands must keep their Wikipedia pages fresh and accurate.”
User-administered Community Pages
Let’s talk about the second type of Community Pages—ones you create yourself. If you have an idea for a Community Page, setting one up is very easy. Just go to the same Create a Page section as before, and you’ll now see a second choice on the right (see screenshot below).
When creating an Official (fan) Page, you need to first give thought to the category/subcategory and page name, as neither can be changed after the fact. You also need to confirm you are an official representative and have permission to create the page.
But, creating a Community Page is super-easy—give your page a name, and voila! No category to choose, no need to verify you’re the official company rep.
Now, initially, your new Community Page will look, feel and function exactly the same as an Official Page. The big challenge, though, is if your Community Page becomes “very popular;” that is, “attracting thousand of fans.” As Facebook says, you will lose all admin rights and your Community Page will automatically be converted into a Facebook-administered, Wikipedia-type Community Page.
Rather ironically, when my coauthor and I were attempting to set up an Official fan page for our new book Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, we could not get past the first stage, as Facebook does not allow their name in page titles. So, as a workaround, we were actually able to set up a Community Page and got the name we wanted with no problem. So, for the moment, our user-administered Community Page looks identical to an Official Page. But eventually (according to the current terms), we could lose admin rights should the page gather thousands of fans!
Important Points to Know:
#1: Deep search was already available.
Facebook’s deep search was first introduced in August 2009, meaning that anyone on Facebook could do a search for any keyword and view Posts by Friends and Posts by Everyone.
This is exactly what is displayed on the new Facebook-administered Community Pages. When you view any Community Page, you’ll see a section for “Related Posts.”
#2: Community Page content is already public.
Content on Community Pages is publicly viewable information anyway. Anything that was being said about your brand—good, bad or indifferent—was findable in the past. Now, that same content may be aggregated on Community Pages. As John Bell from Ogilvy PR states in this post, “Are the Community Pages really that much different than a Google search that returns a bunch of blog posts, the Wikipedia article for your brand, user-created videos and more? 25% of the top Google search results for the top 100 brands are user-generated content.”
#3: Users still maintain control via privacy settings.
As a user, if you wish to have more control over how your content is viewable, adjust your privacy settings. The main setting to edit is “Posts by Me” (that is, “My status, photos and posts”—anything you publish on your own wall). I recommend first making Friend Lists and going for the Custom setting where your default is “Friends of Friends” and hide from certain lists. That way you can better control on a post-by-post basis who sees what content.
Six Steps Businesses Can Take to Optimize Pages
#1: Monitor your mentions.
As part of your routine brand monitoring efforts, experiment with a combination of www.youropenbook.org, www.kurrently.com and Facebook’s own deep search feature to search for your various keywords and company name. (Of course, you may be using a Brand Monitoring tool that will already be picking up public content on Facebook.)
For the most part, you may not need to take any action at all, depending on how large your brand is, what’s being said and how often. But there are two primary aspects to look for as described in steps #2 and #3 below.
#2: Appease any naysayers.
Look for any negative mentions of your brand and, depending on the severity of the negativity, reach out to these individuals. Email them on Facebook and/or search for them on Twitter, Google, etc., and contact them. See how you can listen to their complaint, take remedial action and turn them into fans.
#3: Find your Superfans.
Look for your undiscovered brand evangelists and reach out to them. Email them on Facebook and/or search for them on other social media channels, and contact them as well. See how you can reward, incentivize and empower these individuals to become what Aliza Sherman calls Superfans.
#4: Keep your Wikipedia content accurate.
Make sure you periodically check that any content pertaining to your company, brand, products and services on Wikipedia is highly accurate.
#5: Continue to drive attention to your Official Page.
The more you can put the spotlight on your Official fan page, the better you’ll be able to dissipate any confusion among your fans and potential fans. Refer to one of my earlier Social Media Examiner posts here: 21 Creative Ways to Increase Your Facebook Fanbase.
#6: Sign up for all community pages of your brand.
As best you can, search for all possible Community Pages in your name, company name, product names, etc. (As mentioned above, I found Google search was more reliable than searching on Facebook.) Sign up to put yourself on the list of possible administrators, and also suggest your official Wikipedia article if you have one, and your official website for sure.
After reading this post, hopefully you have more clarity on what exactly Facebook Community Pages are, how they impact your business and what proactive steps you can take to maintain control of your brand and reputation.
Have you had any challenging situations to deal with stemming from these Community Pages? How about any positive experiences? Have you already integrated a Community Page monitoring initiative in your company? If not, do you think you will? Please share your thoughts in the comments box below.
Mari Smith is a widely-recognized social media speaker and trainer and is coauthor of “Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day.” Fast Company calls Mari “the Pied Piper of the Online World.” Follow Mari on Twitter: @marismith. Other posts by Mari Smith »
37 Comments
I've had the exact situation this week when this 'Community page' appeared from nowhere http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Girls…
Would it not just be easier if Facebook let users delete the page?
Great lowdown on Facebook community pages. Thnx Mari
This is so scary! I had no idea sites like youropenbook existed! Or that community pages could auto access our information. I always make sure to have my privacy settings the highest possible but I'm concerned about friends and family who don't take it seriously or worse, have no idea!
The searches I did on “I hate my job” and “I love my life” both scared the heck out of me thinking about all those people who have no idea how open their information is. Bad, bad, bad. Thanks for the information Mari, I'm sharing this with everyone I know.
Tia @TiaSparkles
Please, please, please remove the screenshot of my LinkedIn profile – I did not authorize that. Nor did I authorize my place of business to be named. Please remove the link to the College. I only authorized my name and comment to be used, nothing more. I've also contacted Mari. I hate to complain but I am blown away that so much information was used without my consent. Thank you for understanding.
Thank you so much for posting this. Community Pages have been a bit question mark for me and your post really helped me to understand what I need to stay on-top of for my brand.
As usual, Mari, you demystify Facebook with enough detail to educate, and offer real solutions to the problems one may encounter. On its surface, Facebook seems like such a straight-forward tool, but when you dig deeper, you find so many different nuances…for instance, I had no idea community pages were auto-generated based on people's “Likes.”
Thanks so much for the how-to on setting up a community page – I need to do that for a page I administer right now, so the timing couldn't be better.
As for privacy, I'll be telling all of my clients to examine theirs and check Open Book for their comments as well as their competitors. So much to think about, Mari. Thank you!
Wow, very informative. Crazy stuff those FB community pages!
Thanks for clearing up some of the confusion, Mari.
Mari, this is really helpful, thanks. There is so much confusion out there – your article makes it easy to understand what's going on, at least as of this moment. My hope is that Facebook will pull back on this a bit, as they have with other initiatives in the past that weren't well-received (Beacon, anyone?). Let brand pages be brand pages and fan-generated Community pages be just that.
Thanks for the information. I was wondering what these pages were after I saw a mutual friend “liked” a page that I would as well, but when I saw it it was so confusing… I didn't “like” it.
Thanks, Randy!! I'm right there with you — I rather think many businesses are blissfully unaware of the big mess of these pages. It is kind of odd that Google is just indexing all public content across the board. Seems Facebook just threw up these Community Pages knowing they'd figure it out later… ;)
Very true — doesn't seem much point in signing up to the be future Admin/Moderator of a Page you want deleted… we'll see what happens next!!
Hey Dino!! You bet, my friend!!
You rock, Tia. Thanks for the support. Yes, it's so sad how many people – of all ages, but particularly the teens and early twenties – who have no idea they stand to get fired or certainly not hired as a result of what they're sharing on social networks. HR departments are trawling social sites as a hiring decision making tool. We really have to help educate everyone to be more mindful about what they share and about their privacy settings.
Good to know, Emily!! Thanks for your comment.
Truly my pleasure, Leah — I appreciate your kind words very much!! :)
Great info, Mari, on the difference between company and FB-controlled community pages. THe wikipedia tip is particularly helpful. It seems that with anything that is experiencing the kind of phenomenal growth that FB has undergone, there are going to be “growing pains.”
Whew – amen to that, Stephanie!! It's like Facebook descended these six million auto created pages without the ability to logically vet what was being created! I hope Facebook clears all this up! Lotsa bloggers talked about Community Pages at first… then they've kind of slipped aside for now.
Cheers Mari. I kinda got on a crusade after reading your post. Btw, I just noticed that FB removed all results for “I hate my job” – I'm glad cos I'd hate for anyone to be found out & fired for that. You can still get results for “my job” but no more “hate”. That was fast work on their part – Interesting, hey!
Wow, that explains everything… scary isn't it? I deleted my community page – I wonder if itis still out there? I appreciate the truth – I love the internet and freedom of information..
youropenbook is good. But someone needs to come up with a location based Facebook search. That will really take Social Media Marketing to the next step. However, maybe Facebook is really trying to avoid that being a possibility because marketing isn't something people innately love…
Mari I really have to commend you. You know what you are doing. So few people take Social Media as seriously as you do and you do such a great job.
Thanks for the interesting article. I did a Facebook Search for my company Cosmic Creations and found that a blank community page had been created – with no members yet. It gives an option to suggest the official site, which I did so hopefully anyone going there will visit the site link and see the link to my official FB group rather than join the community one. Next thing to do is to maybe is set up info on my company on Wikipedia so it will hopefully be pulled through to that page, letting everyone know more about what I do and with another link to the official facebook page. Hopefully that will work.
Wow, this is crazy. I'm so glad I clicked on this though my head is spinning. I work for EatingWell (one word) and there are 4 different community pages: 1 EatingWell, 1 Eatingwell and 2 Eating Well. All of our content is being fed to the 4 pages, but there is clearly other content not related to our company (eating well is a common term, I get that). I did as you suggested for the one called EatingWell., but I'm sort of at a loss as to what to do; since we post 2-3x a day, most of the content on all of these pages are ours.
My social media specialist, Mary Hanley, is a great admirer of your expertise on Facebook. She suggested I start following you to learn more. This is the first article of yours I've read, and as a person who has difficulty understanding how Facebook can help me build my business, I'm thrilled to tell you that I was able to grasp this. Your detailed explanation is exactly the level of step-by-step info I need. Thank you!
Kathy Goughenour
Head Trainer and Coach, expertVAtraining.com
Oh thank you so much, Kathy!! Delighted to hear this great feedback. I hope you'll be a regular reader now!! :) If you do a search for Facebook on this blog, there are plenty other great posts too! :)
It really can be head-spinng, Carolyn. Good news though is that each of these extra pages is aggregating your own content and could potentially be helping with SEO inside and outside of Facebook. However, it still is a big jungle and I would love to see Facebook taking some active steps to clear up all the confusion!
Wow Mari, you really make it easy to understand for small businesses. I even picked up some new tools, and I'm a social media activist!
So in my case, would you recommend doing the steps above (saying you'll be a comm mgr, providing url to home page, etc) for all of these sites? I'm leary to do so just because “eating well” is a phrase that people use–the only reason why I would do it is just because most of the content is from our FB page.
[...] Facebook Community Pages: What Your Business Needs to Know [...]
[...] Facebook Community Pages: What Your Business Needs to Know [...]
Thanks Mary – great article! I was a bit surprised today to have a notification from Facebook regarding one of our business pages saying: “This Page has been recategorized as a Community Page”.
The notification led me to a form to notify Facebook of the error. Should this happen to anyone else, the link is below, (just change your page name).
http://www.facebook.com/yourpagename#!/help/con…
Angie VanDenzen
Social Media Coordinator at CircusCommunications.ca
This can be VERY confusing, especially when searching for a business. For example, I searched for the “Strand bookstore.” The first thing to pop up was an “organization,” so I clicked on it. Turns out it was the community page, and when looking for more results, the official page wasn't there. You have to search for “Strand book store' to get the official page (it didn't even pop up automatically). Community pages should be strictly for general topics, not businesses.
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I created a facebook community only to find one already exists. How can I edit my community page name to be different from the other. I am surprised that facebook does not come and tell you when the name already exists!!!
I created a facebook community only to find one already exists. How can I edit my community page name to be different from the other. I am surprised that facebook does not come and tell you when the name already exists!!!
[...] To understand more about how Community Pages work, see this post. [...]
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