I want FB to change its policies so it’s not so easy for anyone to create a site that builds a following and then posts nothing of value. Or nothing at all. I’ve seen many FB fan pages purported to be from the company, that have zero posts. That makes the brand look like they’re socially illiterate.

The real question that’s being raised is “Who is in control of your brand to begin with?” Was it ever in total control of the company? Clearly not. But the line between control and outright copyright infringement is being blurred, and Facebook is on the side of corporate America, not the individual. Things sure have come a long way since FB’s Harvard dorm room days.

Keep the fans in groups, keep the companies with their own unique pages, and let fans comment freely on company pages as they do now (but please don’t have them speak for the brand – they’re not on the payroll, they don’t do marketing for a living, and they’re spreading information that’s probably not reliable).

I remember when we talked about this briefly in your office, and I asked if you were concerned about offending the users of a brand by taking over its named-”official”-but-clearly-unofficial user managed page(s), to which you made a point similar to what you wrote here: “…what if someone were to take your name, post content about you as though they were you, and then spread false information about you.” essentially arguing that these people never had a right to use a name that wasn’t theirs in the first place.

And technically of course that’s true, but I don’t think that’s how users would see it. I think people see whatever they do on social media/ the internet as theirs, especially the millennials like me. It’s strange, but since brands have just started getting into the social media environment, when they make a move on things like this I think there is a danger that it could come across as: “hey thanks for getting all those followers, I know we just wised up to this stuff but that’s ours now, so screw off while we make this corporate.” And this, I think, would piss a lot of people off. Also, I bet that most of the people who started/ run these pages also actually love these brands and they think they add to it. Might not make much sense, but I users think they own what they have done online and anything is theirs if they got there first – just like urls, it’s finders keepers.

Not saying companies shouldn’t take their name back, not at all. I think that all of your points are well taken. Further, people could still have their own unofficially official fan pagers. My only point in the end is that being right isn’t always enough, so things like this probably need to be done very carefully (and Coke paying that Fbook page set a precedent for that type of thing). Last thing you want if a feature in the NYT about a massive boycott that spread via twitter because a brand “screwed” a well connected user/ fan page administrator.