This is a great short article by iMedia Connection’s Associate Editor, Rich Cherecwich, on Coca-Cola figuring out that Facebook cannot be controlled – and that’s a good thing!

Enjoy!

Coke leaves Facebook in fan’s hands

Posted by Rich Cherecwich on March 17, 2009 at 04:07 PM PDT

Coca-Cola has the second most “fans” on Facebook pages, the profile-like pages brands and companies can build to participate in the social conversations. It’s no surprise that the soft drink trails only President Barack Obama in Facebook popularity, but there’s a wrinkle to this story.

The Coca-Cola fan page wasn’t created by the company, and the corporation had no hand in helping it amass 3.3 million fans. The page was created by aspiring actor Dusty Sorg and writer Michael Jedrzejewski, who are, according to a video on the page, “just two guys who love Coca-Cola.” It was only after Facebook decided all “pages” must be controlled by the actual brands that Coca-Cola got involved.

This is usually where the story turns sour, and the big corporation pushes aside the kids who are promoting their product via word-of-mouth, but that’s not the case here. Coke flew the creators down to its headquarters in Atlanta and had them meet with marketing executives, and let them keep the page. Kudos to Coke for actually understanding social media, and letting the fans help spread the message.