4 ms·

Can somebody explain the purpose behind these "brand pages" on Facebook or Google+? To me, a stand-alone brand website seems to be much more effective, given t

Can somebody explain the purpose behind these "brand pages" on Facebook or Google+? To me, a stand-alone brand website seems to be much more effective, given the less layout/design constrains.

callahad 15y ago
By having a presence on Facebook, brands can push their message into their followers' streams.
dangrossman 15y ago
Push instead of pull and social network effects. Once one of these pages convinces you to like/friend/+1/whatever them, they can push content to your screen by having their stories appear in your feed. Additionally, each person they get to like/friend/+1/whatever leads to friends of that friend seeing the relationship established in their feeds, which has all kinds of benefits to the brand.
brianwillis 15y ago
I agree. I roll my eyes every time I see an add telling me to "Like Colgate toothpaste on Facebook!", as if that were something that anyone would want to do.
- nlh 15y ago
  And yet 4.5M people 'like' Pepsi on FB...
  - ChrisArchitect 15y ago
    usually because it's been tied to some incentive.... discount...access to more information/contests..whatever. They're lured in. A 'like' has become a form of currency in some strange way
sgerrand 15y ago
Money.
rglover 15y ago
The ideal purpose of a brand page is so that a company can interact/communicate directly with their customers. It may seem frivolous, but people enjoy having direct access to their favorite brands. It's great for getting news about the company, asking questions, and showing your approval of their brand (via the like button). It's not as maleable as a true website, but in our current reality (where everyone is on Facebook), it's clutch.
beambot 15y ago
Facebook and Google+ streams end up serving a similar roll to RSS feeds for many people -- particularly the non-tech-savvy (eg. my parents). The brand pages end up being one of the best ways to push content out to readers. Of course, this is disappointing to me -- especially when there are good technology solutions to this problem already (eg. RSS). I still use Google Reader extensively, but this seems to be rare even among my tech-savvy friends.

Can somebody explain the purpose behind these "brand pages" on Facebook or Google+? To me, a stand-alone brand website seems to be much more effective, given the less layout/design constrains.

callahad 15y ago

By having a presence on Facebook, brands can push their message into their followers' streams.

dangrossman 15y ago

Push instead of pull and social network effects. Once one of these pages convinces you to like/friend/+1/whatever them, they can push content to your screen by having their stories appear in your feed. Additionally, each person they get to like/friend/+1/whatever leads to friends of that friend seeing the relationship established in their feeds, which has all kinds of benefits to the brand.

brianwillis 15y ago

I agree. I roll my eyes every time I see an add telling me to "Like Colgate toothpaste on Facebook!", as if that were something that anyone would want to do.

nlh 15y ago
And yet 4.5M people 'like' Pepsi on FB...
- ChrisArchitect 15y ago
  usually because it's been tied to some incentive.... discount...access to more information/contests..whatever. They're lured in. A 'like' has become a form of currency in some strange way

sgerrand 15y ago

Money.

rglover 15y ago

The ideal purpose of a brand page is so that a company can interact/communicate directly with their customers. It may seem frivolous, but people enjoy having direct access to their favorite brands. It's great for getting news about the company, asking questions, and showing your approval of their brand (via the like button). It's not as maleable as a true website, but in our current reality (where everyone is on Facebook), it's clutch.

beambot 15y ago

Facebook and Google+ streams end up serving a similar roll to RSS feeds for many people -- particularly the non-tech-savvy (eg. my parents). The brand pages end up being one of the best ways to push content out to readers. Of course, this is disappointing to me -- especially when there are good technology solutions to this problem already (eg. RSS). I still use Google Reader extensively, but this seems to be rare even among my tech-savvy friends.