Coke fans’ Facebook page draws millions of users

If you think your Facebook network is growing, brace yourself for some staggering numbers on a Coca-Cola page.

A Facebook page created last year by a Coca-Cola enthusiast in Los Angeles has attracted 3.3 million fans, the second-most of any page. Only President Barack Obama has more supporters.

The page, though, also has posed an interesting dilemma for the Atlanta-based beverage giant. As the numbers grew last year, Facebook asked Coca-Cola to take over the site, a change the company feared fans would view as a heavy-handed move by a big corporation.

Dusty Sorg, 29, a Los Angeles actor and creator of the page, said he never thought his page would become so popular or create a dilemma for Coca-Cola.

All he wanted to do was build a Facebook presence worthy of his favorite beverage. He was disappointed by the quality of other fan sites.

“Show some respect for this beautiful product,” Sorg said.

So in August, he Googled a high-res picture of a Coca-Cola can. He borrowed some background information on the brand from Wikipedia.

And he pulled together a Facebook page: www.facebook.com/coca-cola. He enlisted the help of his friend, Los Angeles writer Michael Jedrzejewski, also 29, to administer the page.

Within three or four weeks, the page had hit 750,000 fans. Sorg and Jedrzejewski aren’t sure why their page stood out from other Coke fan sites.

It helped that they built the page on Facebook, a social media site rapidly gaining members in the past year. The profile picture, a crisp image of a Coke can, likely caught the attention of Coke fans, they said.

But while gaining millions of fans, the page also was attracting the attention of Facebook administrators, who contacted Coca-Cola. It had become so large that Facebook had flagged it for generating objectionable material. High-traffic sites tend to attract obscene language and nude photos that have nothing to do with the topic.

Facebook policy called for closing the site or turning the page over to the owners of the brand. Late last year, Michael Donnelly, Coca-Cola director of worldwide interactive marketing, sent an e-mail to the creators explaining that Coca-Cola wanted to work with them on a solution.

Sorg was excited to be contacted by Coca-Cola.

“I was floored,” he said. “I called my mom before I called Michael (Donnelly).”

His sidekick was less enthusiastic.

“I thought we were going to get sued,” Jedrzejewski said.

Instead, Donnelly invited the pair to Atlanta. They visited the World of Coca-Cola, attended a Thrashers hockey game and toured the Coke archives on North Avenue.

They also talked with Coca-Cola about the Facebook page. Coca-Cola wanted to make sure the page could continue to exist without the company intruding on fans. Coca-Cola became aware of the page shortly after it was created but chose not to get involved until contacted by Facebook.

“It’s a fan club,” Donnelly said. “We don’t necessarily think a fan club should be owned by the company but rather more by the fans.”

The two sides have taken a collaborative approach. A small group of Coke employees, including Donnelly, helps monitor the site. They remove obscenities and inappropriate photos.

They take a hands-off approach to other comments. Every so often, for example, someone posts “I like Pepsi.” Those comments stay.

“There’s constantly people testing it,” Donnelly said. “We think that’s what’s keeping it real and keeping the conversation going.”

Coke plans to use the page to direct people to other passionate fans on the Web, Donnelly said. The company has posted some items on the page, such as a behind-the-scenes video tied to a new marketing campaign. But Coke does not want to flood the page with its material, he said.

“We will occasionally utilize it to drive traffic to new opportunities and even post those opportunities there,” Donnelly said. “But it will not become an overly commercial repository of Coca-Cola assets.”

As for the Los Angeles creators, they hope to use the site as a creative outlet. They’ve posted a video about their visit to Atlanta.

Sorg said he already appears in commercials. He wants the fan page, which doesn’t provide him a paycheck, to be different.

“Being an actor, I don’t want to sell out to a big company and not get paid for it,” he said.