As brands desperately try to recruit as many ‘likes’ as possible on Facebook, some industry experts are warning that the value of a fan is zero, unless brands create a comprehensive, sustained engagement program that goes beyond just getting people to click the ‘like’ button.

As Chris Falconer, senior account manager at Life Agency, observes: “Engagement is the catalyst that turns a one-night stand into a long-term relationship.”

Unfortunately, the real issue for brands is that they are not in control of their marketing on Facebook. In the social media space, control lies with the audience and with the website owners.

Facebook has guidelines on marketing activity which, for example, include restrictions on promotions that use the ‘like’ button. However, many brands are recruiting fans by offering them something in return for clicking the like button – entry into a competition or free items, for example – and Facebook does not actually ban this practice.

It does ban competitions that are open to, or marketed to, individuals who are under the age of 18. Facebook also officially says that users have to be 13 or over to have a Facebook profile. But this age limit is not being policed effectively.

A report entitled Social Networking, Age and Privacy, published by EU Kids Online in April 2011, found that 34% of 9-12 year olds in the UK and 79% of 13-16 year olds have profiles on Facebook.

So brands immediately face two major issues with Facebook fans: first, they may have just ‘liked’ a brand to enter a competition, and, second, they may not be who they say they are or the age they claim to be. The age question is particularly relevant right now, with the imminent publication of the UK Government commissioned Bailey Report into the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.

“Facebook is a party where people just invite themselves,” says Mark Rogers, chief executive of social media analysis company Market Sentinel. “It’s the type of party that is out of your hands; people will turn up and have a great time, or turn up and say that was a rubbish party. So it’s all about being a good host and working out what people need.”

Market research company ICM recently looked at brand engagement on Facebook. ICM found that 17% of people followed a brand but did not visit their page, and 12% followed updates but do not comment. This shows that if brands do not engage, people will not connect to it in the future and will potentially lose interest.

Frédéric Winckler, chief executive of JWT Paris and a board member of IAB France, notes: “I recently showed a client how their fans were posting on their pages, how they were asking questions and getting no responses. I then showed the competitors’ pages and how responses were immediate, Monday to Sunday, from 9.00am to 11.00pm. Facebook is about ‘friends’ and conversations; not responding and not holding conversations is not simply a waste – in a social media world, it’s insulting.”

Some brands are so desperate to win friends they are resorting to buying them from one of the many online outfits that sell Facebook likes, Twitter followers and the like. This practice is attracting heavy criticism in the blogosphere, along with the way in which companies are forcing likes. Experts point out that it is highly unlikely that fans who have been bribed or bought will be brand loyal in the future.

Phil Harvey, chairman of marketing agency JPMH argues that Facebook is a social environment and “shouldn’t be a broadcast model. Brands need to use Facebook as a means of creating and building ongoing conversations and relationships. Where they have something to say, they should be deep in the conversation, responding, developing, sharing, listening, asking, solving, playing and being human.”

Building such relationships is a challenge for brands, as they will have to get the right balance between talking and listening, and they will not be able to completely control user generated content.

Liz Cable, head of social media at digital agency Twentysix, notes that this balance can be “a bit of a catch 22. People join communities to be educated or entertained, so you need to make sure you are doing one or both. However, it needn’t be the page owner doing all the hard work. All online communities are only the sum of the members, so getting the members to create content is key. Before you can do that, though, you need to get the members.”

Even when brands do realise the need for engagement, the restrictions and guidelines on Facebook could well prevent further development.

One issue is the lack of data, as one social media expert observes: “At the moment, marketers cannot get a dialogue on reports and analytics to show the value of a fan and Facebook continually ignores requests for case studies of brands that are engaging successfully.”

What exactly Facebook’s promotional guidelines are is also an issue, as is how, and indeed whether, they are effectively policed.

A Facebook spokesperson says: “Facebook is highly self-regulating, and we encourage people to report content that they find offensive or questionable, using the links across every part of the site. Anything which violates our terms will be removed.”

However, the spokesperson admits that Facebook does not have any information or statistics on any pages that have been taken down for violating any of the Facebook terms, before asking if Promotional Marketing could suggest some examples that Facebook could look at.

The real issue, then, is that marketers wanting to have a social marketing strategy incorporating Facebook have to understand that they will be surrendering significant amounts of control over their brand to other people.

As Frédéric Winckler at JWT Paris puts it: “Social media is not about a strategy document or about tools: it’s about making business differently. It’s looking at the human before looking at the purse.” He believes, though, that the potential prize is huge: “Facebook engagement will be borderless, limitless, and boredomless.”