Facebook just released a new tool. It won’t make life any better for their users, but it does aid in their ongoing quest to turn social networks into money. Now, I don’t begrudge them the desire to monetize their product, but this new thing does feel just a little bit corporate shill-y. It’s called the “Fan Box”, and it allows companies, bands, brands, products or whoever to display part of their Facebook Fan page on their own private website.

Say you’re Coke, for example. Somehow, you’ve convinced approximately 3,490,336 Facebook users to sign up as Fans, and publicly declare that they love a cold, refreshing cola so much that they want the whole world to know it. Now, with the “Fan Box”, Coke can display a little bit of their Facebook Fan page on their own website. Visitors to their site can see how many people are Coke fans and who they are, while also having the opportunity to add their own name to the list. If they do sign up, they’ll receive updates from Coke, allowing them to be the first on their block to know when Hickory Bacon Coke finally hits the marketplace.

From a marketing perspective, the Fan Box is a goldmine. It creates a synergy (sorry for using that word) between their social network and their corporate site, by allowing each to feed the other information and traffic. It doesn’t do much for the average Facebook citizen, but then it’s not a tool that’s targetted at them anyway.

Related posts:

1. US Army Unleashes New Weapons: Facebook and Twitter
2. Facebook: the Hamptons of the Social Network?
3. Twitter Helps Drunk Drivers Avoid Roadblocks

Tags: coca-cola, coke, Facebook, Marketing, social networking

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