Yesterday Facebook launched a small, but powerful new feature that enables anyone on Facebook to tag a brand in a photo. The native Facebook Photos app is by far the most popular app on Facebook. With an astounding 100 billion total photos expected to be uploaded on Facebook by this summer, the new tagging feature presents new engagement opportunities and considerations for brands and community managers:
- Actively encourage community members to tag the brand in their photos:
- Candid shots of community members consuming or engaging with the brand
- Special events that the brand is sponsoring or involved in
- Initiatives that the brand supports, such as charities, etc.
- Reward community members for tagging the brand in their photos
- Say thank you by showcasing a fan photo as the fan photo of the week
- Recognize the effort simply by engaging in a conversation about the photo
- Point out unique photos in a communication on the wall
Considerations
- Community managers need to be prepared for the appearance and moderation of inappropriate or spam photos
- Brands may not leverage this new feature to run promotions. More specifically, rewarding consumers with a prize or coupon for tagging a brand in a photo is a no-no – such an action violates the Facebook TOS
The above are just some quick thought starters. There are many other opportunities and considerations that will come to life naturally as consumers and community managers begin to engage with the new feature.
A great example of a brand already leveraging the new Facebook photo tagging features is Zappos.com. Zappos communicated the new feature to its community members earlier today, with instant fan fare and results. Zappos is also already rewarding fans with recognition by changing the profile picture of its page to showcase a Fan of The Week each week. Both of these actions are lightweight, low-to-no-cost ways to further engage community members in an ongoing manner.
