Why is your brand on Facebook?

What are so many companies doing on Facebook? What do they get out of it? Bragging rights at conferences: 'My company has more followers than yours'? Some do get phenomenal value by engaging with customers, of course, but when was the last time you saw a company pull that off in India?



Here, most companies insist on Facebook because their advertising agencies insist they do. The agencies in turn, do it so they can justify the creation of a Digital Head position. This also explains the often massive disconnect between most above-the-line campaigns and their digital pieces, tacked on almost as an afterthought. They exhort us to 'Like' them on Facebook, as if that makes a world of difference to their brand or bottom-line.

To rely on an advertising agency to deliver the goods digitally is laughable, considering most agencies continue to restrict their digital work to banner advertising, replicating print campaigns in Flash and waiting expectantly for more dubious awards from obscure judges.

Take the recent campaign for some sort of artificial sweetener. The television ad featured a Bollywood celebrity, obviously -- without them, advertising executives would be forced to think of genuinely good ideas -- and pointedly mentioned a microsite and Twitter handle. I checked both, out of curiosity. All the former offered me was a golden opportunity to watch the aforementioned TV ad, again. As for Twitter, the company had put out eight tweets, attracting all of 23 followers in the process.

The most amusing thing (if it didn't involve the kind of money it usually does) is how work like this is often explained by marketing managers thus: 'The campaign delivered tangible value within a moderate budget, through sharp and incisive consumer understanding and planning.'

Presence on any platform is good, but only if it helps people understand your product or service better. Without that basic premise, much of it is just costly lip service. Keep that in mind and ask yourself: Is your company on Facebook? What exactly is it doing there?