When Community Pages Collide

Much has been written about business branding on social media; in particular on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. However, the so-called community pages seem to have been left on their own to evolve.

Before I continue with this post, I should offer some full disclosure.  I, myself, currently manage 1 business page, 1 public figure page and 3 separate community pages on Facebook; along with the page associated with this blog.  Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I can continue on my rant.

All too often, you will find duplicate pages and accounts promoting either a cause, place, belief or public figure.  My pet peeve for the purpose of this article is the multitude of pages you find promoting a place; more specifically a city or town.

Facebook pages created to promote an area's businesses and events are usually done so with all good intentions.  Unfortunately, as they grow in followers and as other pages are created a sense of competition for those followers starts to emerge.  Page administrators tend to forget the reason they created the page in the first place.  Original posts start to take on a more altruistic feel.  A more "we are better than them" look.  Some even resort to promotions which violate Facebook's own rules and regulations for pages (for more on that, click here).

Now, many may try to argue that the more community pages there are promoting a region and its events, the better.  That may be true in some respect; but are those managing the pages truly in tune with the true reason their followers "liked" them in the first place?  Has this duplicity simply become a competition of which page has more likes over everything else?

I have also been of the belief that it is not the number of followers a page has but the overall reach of the posts made to the page.  I am probably not in the majority on this one.  However, I have seen firsthand how pages with a 1,000+ followers have not been as effective in reaching the target audience as those with much less.  I have also seen how flooding your followers' news feeds with multitude of posts and shares can backfire on a page's effectiveness.  The optimal one, two or maybe three targeted posts a day are far more effective than the 100's of posts, all day, every day.

To be a true Facebook page "manager", "administrator" or "owner", you really need to familiarize yourself with all that the job entails.  It takes much more than simply hitting the "share" button.  You really need to know what is expected of you from not only your followers but from Facebook itself.  Following the rules set out for pages is a start.  Educating yourself on how to read the Facebook insight reports is just as important; if not more so.  They are provided as a tool to help you do your job better and more effectively.  You have a snapshot of what posts are working and what aren't in real time.  Use these numbers to your advantage.  Ignoring them is a recipe for disaster.

Finally, to all those duplicate pages out there promoting the same thing; keep in mind that it is not a competition.  I welcome any and all thoughts on this subject; positive or negative.  If I am off-base on this, please let me know.