A Coca-Cola Facebook page created by a handful of enthusiasts in Los Angeles has attracted 3.3 million fans. The only Facebook page with more supporters is President Barack Obama’s page.

Dusty Sorg, a 29-year-old actor and creator of the page never knew the page would become such a big hit. All he wanted to do was to build a Facebook page worthy of his favorite beverage. He enlisted the help of a friend named Michael Jedrzejewski to build the page and within three or four weeks, the page had 750,000 fans.

Late last year, Michael Donnelly, Coca-Cola director of worldwide interactive marketing, sent an email to Sorg and Jedrzejewski explaining that Coca-Cola wanted to participate and get involved in the project. Coca-Cola wanted to support and enhance the page without the company intruding on fans.

The Sorg/Jedrzejewski team and the Coca-Cola team have taken a collaborative approach on the page. A team of Coca-Cola employees monitor the site in order to remove obscenities and inappropriate photos. They leave regular comments on the site. For example, every so often someone will leave a comment saying, “I love Pepsi.” Those comments stay.

There are three lessons marketers can learn about the Coca-Cola/Facebook experience:

1. Facebook is a particularly useful tool if your product or service has an emotional appeal to it. It would be hard to duplicate the Coca-Cola experience if you were a manufacturer of automobile air filters. If you do happen to manufacture air filters (or a similar commodity), you might want to start a fan page that’s focused on an ancillary community (e.g. antique cars or muscle cars). That way, you can (gently) tie in your product or service to the fan page and still draw in visitors.
2. The secret is to let the Facebook fans do the talking. The Coca-Cola Company didn’t come in and make this a corporate site. In fact, the main video they put on the site has a certain quirky, earthy feel to it. That helps keep the site real. If you’re a company with a Facebook page and it has fans on it, let the community carry on the conversation. Your job is to fuel the conversation, not be part of it.
3. Remember, Facebook isn’t a marketer’s Silver Bullet, it’s simply an accessory in the marketer’s toolbox. In other words, creating a Facebook page for your product or service is great — once you’ve got all your other ducks in a row. Get all your other important revenue-drivers in place before you start worrying about building a Facebook page. In most cases, a Facebook page is going to build a little awareness for you. It probably won’t drive much revenue, so build it after you’ve finished all your revenue-driving initiatives.

Are there any other lessons to be learned from the Coca-Cola Facebook page? What have we missed? What is your favorite Facebook page?

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