If you expect your fans to trust your brand, Coca Cola tell us you should trust your fans first…
Good morning blog readers! I wanted to share a story that I read some time ago… It involves super brand Coca-Cola and 2 guys that decided Coke were too slow off the mark in the world of social media.
Dusty & Michael
After hunting on Facebook for Coke’s fan-page, and failing to find anything official, they took it upon themselves to create a fan page all about the insanely well known brand of Cola. They set about writing about the brand’s history, amassed a range of images through the lifespan of the brand & managed to encourage over 3 million people to become a fan of their fan page. So, when Facebook flipped the rules and announced that only people authorized or employed by a brand can maintain a page about that said brand – D & M approached Coca-Cola and asked them if they’d like to close the page or take it on themselves.
Did you know 'Coca-Cola' is the second most recognised term in the world after 'O.K'?
Instead of taking the corporate low road and closing the page or taking it over, they asked D & M if they wouldn’t mind maintaining their Facebook page for them – making them ‘official’ Coca-Cola brand evangelists. They are now celebrated on the page, have events to mark key milestones and have grown the Coca-Cola page to over 25,000,000 fans making it the 11th most liked page on Facebook. This is a fantastic example of how good a page can be when run by people who truely love a brand and know how social works. A big pat on the back for Dusty and Michael, and I can’t wait to see what other ‘movements’ this may inspire in corporate social media. Seen anything like this before? Do you think this is a brave step, a sensible step or stupid of Coca Cola? Let me know your thoughts below…
Dusty and Michael reach 25,000,000 fans...
- The Social Explorer
It is most definitely a brave step to relinquish control like that but I wonder whether they do actually have some control measures in place? e.g while allowing them to run it do they still vet all content before it goes live?
Ultimately I guess their track record was enough proof of their competency, good intentions and skill.