A new option for managing Facebook pages

Facebook improves options for international marketing through “Global Pages”

Value: [rating=1] or [rating=4] for brands marketing to local country audiences

Recommended link: Facebook announcement on managing Global Company Pages

Until this month brands wanting to use Facebook company pages to communicate with their customers in different countries have had a challenge. The challenge has been the resource needed to manage different company pages in different countries in a way that provides consistency and management for their communications. Each country has required separate administrators and reporting has also been separate unless third-party tools were used.

In October 2012, Facebook launched “Global Pages” as a solution for managing company pages in different countries. This is how Facebook describe the new approach:

“With this new structure, Facebook users will be directed to the best version of a Page based on the country those users are in, enabling them to see localized cover photos, profile photos, Page apps, milestones, ”about" information, and news feed stories from Pages—all while remaining part of the global brand community.

Each brand’s Global Pages structure will include local Pages for specific markets (single- or multi-country regions) and a default Page for all other markets".

Here’s an example. As a UK user I’m directed to the UK and Ireland Facebook page for Kitkat where local campaigns are running - including this pushy way of engaging people through the cover…

But as an anonymous user I see the default page, but with Likes shared globally:

Other details of the service include:

• A single brand identity with a single URL. Brands can promote a single URL in all off-Facebook campaigns, and users will be automatically directed to the best version of the Page for them.
• Users from all countries will see the same Page name (translated into their local language), fan count, and People Talking About This (PTAT).
• Global insights. Admins of the main Page will see insights for all global users in one easy-to-view dashboard.
• The structure is designed for for brands to use whether they currently have one Page with geo-targeted page or many country-specific Pages

You can see that this approach could work well for smaller companies that don’t have local resource for managing each presence, but want to manage it through an agency. Unfortunately, the approach is currently restricted to larger brands with Facebook account managers.

Techcrunch points out that, unsurprisingly, this approach is not just to make life easier for page admins… It explains:

"So here’s how this puts money in Facebook’s pocket. Say an international brand headquartered in the US wanted to run a Facebook ad campaign asking people to Like their Page. They might have customers around the world, but their Page only appeared in English. So if people from other countries saw the ad, they might click through, not be able to read the Page’s info, and refused to Like.

As a result, they only bought ads targeted at users in US. Now with Global Pages, that same brand may be willing to buy bigger international Facebook ad campaigns".

So, not a feature that will be useful for all companies, but really useful for some, so I thought it was worth flagging up.