I wish I knew exactly what Facebook was trying to do nowadays, but I take comfort in the fact that few people seem to. Last week, they officially began rolling out the next evolution of Pages. Yes, we know all about the like vs. fan language changes (I blogged about them earlier this month), but there’s more.
One new feature is the community page, which Facebook describes as “a new type of Facebook Page dedicated to a topic or experience that is owned collectively by the community connected to it.” Currently, users can “like” them, read them and sign up to help do *something* to them at some undetermined point in the future. Right now, it’s more or less a dump of Wikipedia content and (somewhat usefully) a handful of search results for mentions of the topic in question from other people’s status updates.
The other day, on Twitter, Lane commented about the community page for her university. “Oh man,” I thought, as I navigated to the page for mine. While lots of organizations are there, it appears not everything A few questions right off the bat:
In using search to find the above community page links, both the official fan page and the community page come up. In the case of Lane’s school, the two are nearly indistinguishable in the fill-in search results. The only difference is that one is branded as “Organization” and the other as “University.” Guess which is which? It’s not what you would think. If you’re a prospective student, which one will you click on?
Given the above, will Community Pages inadvertently divert conversation away from the brand-managed Page? Right now, community pages are not very interactive or engaging, but depending on how they evolve, is this a possibility?
Some of the content on these new pages that I actually find really valuable is the search results. Will Facebook take it one step further and provide an RSS feed of public search strings for easy monitoring, a la Twitter? Or would that make it too easy on the brand manager? Do we have to digest everything via Facebook’s airtight sausage casing?
We can’t control the branding used on these pages, which is obvious. But, if they’re using an old wordmark or seal or photo, how could we suggest a change or simply inform someone that a change is needed? It’s unclear.
When Community Pages come out of beta, how exactly people will be able to “help” down the line (as the text above those pages currently promises)? I like to joke that Wikipedia is managed by the trolls under the bridge, with whom you can barter favors in exchange for buckets of fish heads. While Facebook itself runs a tight ship, it tends to be very open in what it lets users do in community spaces, so one would presume the Community Page would be like a Wikipedia entry, with a somewhat more accessible editorial process.
For brand managers, it means one more playground to monitor. Will it function the same as Wikipedia, where third-party authorities rule the day, and primary sources are discouraged from shaping the content? If so, will a hierarchy of editors and information managers emerge?
What I haven’t seen as many people hopping up and down about is how Facebook is using these community pages to give our personal profiles more legs. Now, when I type “running” as an interest, I will have the option to connect my profile to a Community Page about running. I don’t think, of all the profiles I’ve read on Facebook, that I’ve ever clicked on someone’s interest. Will I now?
Lastly, more of a wishlist note than anything: if we’re going to be tying information elements together, can we finally get the ability to share content via pages? If you work at a university like me, chances are you have multiple campus departments or organizations with Facebook fan pages of their own. Much as I can re-share content posted by friends on my news feed, I want to do the same with content posted on other pages, via a page that I manage.
Robinteractive has a really, really good overview of the Community Page issue, which covers these topics and then some. As mentioned in the post, we don’t know the whole story yet of what this will all mean; all we can do is monitor and be prepared. Some other good commentary:
Read Write Web likens this coming tide of links to another content mill, and reminds us not to connect ourselves to any unsavory community pages, since all of this information is public.
CNet touches on the content mill point as well, wondering whether this new trove of content will become “a sort of user-generated content purgatory” or a valuable, searchable resource. With this, Facebook seems to be challenging Google, which espouses a corporate commitment to organizing information. With all of the information looping and weaving going on with these changes, Facebook seems bent on commoditizing information for all it’s worth.
Fast Company explains in greater depth about what the introduction of Community Pages means for people’s management of their personal profiles, as well as calling out the potential implication of Community Pages in more location-based, interest-driven functionality down the road.
Update: Michael Fienen over on DotEduGuru has a really good analysis of what this means for brands.
