I just came across this interesting list of the top brands on Facebook. I have to admit that my first response was to find it slightly depressing that Coca-Cola has 3,996,163 fans while most museums struggle to get more then 20,000.
Then I took some time to look at what these brands are doing with Facebook.
Coca-Cola
When you arrive at Coca-Cola’s fan page you get incredibly rich content which really gives people a reason to become a fan, this includes links to music videos, free games, a free iPhone application and a selection of pictures and videos produced by fans.
The design is incredibly well done and this looks more like Coca-Cola’s website then a Facebook fan page.
Gap
Another really high quality fan page with great content. The ‘Cheer Factory’ lets people send a video Christmas greeting to a friend, create your own holiday celebration (mine was called Jimsmas), view a GAP advert, vote for which store made the best home made holiday cheer and download a free iPhone app.
JCPenny
American store JCPenny is another big brand which does a lot with it’s Facebook fan page. This does it’s best to try and push their products with links to their online store, articles on the latest trends, a gift guru which suggests presents for your Facebook friends and staff talking about their favorite gifts (from JCPenny of course).
Big brands versus the museum
Now lets look at a museum Facebook page, I have chosen the Design Museum in London. The Design Museum seems to be doing a good job of keeping it’s wall up to date, but when compared to the examples above the content doesn’t seem to be that deep and I don’t think visitors would stay on the page for very long.
The easy response to this would be to say that these brands have large budgets while the Design Museum has a limited amount that it can spend on it’s Facebook activity, but it doesn’t need to cost a fortune to create a more engaging first impression.
This is an example from the planetarium at Thinktank, the Birmingham Science Museum, for me this creates a much more interesting first impression then going straight to the wall as shown on the Design Museum example.
Looking at the how big brands have created a more interesting first impression on Facebook, I took a look at how the Design Museum page might look if we borrowed some idea’s from Coke, GAP and JCPenny.
The first block contains information about an upcoming exhibition, this could switch through information about all the current exhibitions.
On the right hand side of the page we have items from the Design Museum shop, these could change daily.
The page links to video content and podcasts which I found on the Design Museum website, this is really great content and it would be good to push this on Facebook, and finally I have added in a section for people to download free iPhone wallpapers, that would be a easy to produce give away.
So, can museums learn something from Coke about how to make a bigger impact on Facebook? I believe they can, but I’d be interested to hear what you think.
That makes quite a lot sense. I think I’m going to do that
Hi Jim,
Do you know what the costs are in upgrading your fan page to this extent, as I’m guessing it’s something you can’t just do on your own? I love the idea of upgrading your page like this!
Kathryn
Thanks for the ideas – the strategy for Facebook at the Design Museum is, well there isn’t one! We just enjoy the interaction so haven’t really considered investing in the design of the page. So we’ve decided to put it to the fans! To keep it simple or redesign the page – you decide! Become a fan and let us know http://www.facebook.com/designmuseum
Interesting article. Cocacola is a huge brand compared to the design musem so that may have something to do with the difference in fan numbers. However, totally agree that the museum could do more with their homepage. I suspect they will, they just didn’t know how.
Josephine
I think your doing a great job with your Facebook page, I just really picked on you because you have great stuff that I could use in my (rough) redesign.
I love that this has started a debate on your Facebook fan page, and i’ll be interested to see which way it goes.
Jim
Kathryn
The developers in my agency think it would take about two days to design and build a page like that. It’s basically a web page which is pulled in to Facebook.
Jim
hi every one!
it’s amazing what will be next?
[...] Engelse weblog Museum Marketing analyseert in een recente post hoe merken als Coca Cola op Facebook miljoenen “fans” aan zich weten te verbinden. [...]
The fact that you have lower number of fans might be compliment for you.
On the other hand I like the idea that a museum can have different FB fan page and different appeal than the common one on Facebook that everyone knows.
However if you are planning to do something that amuses people with tunes, wallpapers and lose the sense of museum you might gain number of fans but lose the little one you already have.
Green light for changing the page, but don’t make it look like something the museum is not.
I recomend you do extra research.
I think your missing the point of Facebook, it isn’t about having a beautifully deisgned page, it is all about conversations
Hi Scott
I think you can do both.
Follow the debate on Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/designmuseum
Jim
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