Who should be the creator and admin of your Facebook Fan Page?

Update 12th July 2010: I tested it again and lo! Facebook must have changed something, since I was able to create a page, transfer admin to another user and remove myself as admin for the page. Hoorah!

Original post: I'm not going to go into whether or why you should create a Facebook Fan Page (now called an 'Official Page').  Let's just say that you've decided to do it, you've got some great ideas about content and apps, your moderation is sorted out, you're fully resourced and someone's about to press the button ...

But who?  Who in your company or your supplier's company should be the creator of the Page?  Whose profile, whose email address should the fan page be inextricably linked to, for now and evermore? Because if you're the creator of a Facebook Page , it's not just for Christmas.  It's for life: regardless of changes of employment or role. 

Imagine.  You've invested in your Page, it has over a million fans, communication is going great - but one of the people with full editorial control over this page is a Facebook User Profile belonging to a 24 year old who interned with your web design company four years ago.  Rumour has it, he's gone travelling ...

According to Facebook, there is currently no way to take away admin status from the creator of a Page (although rumour has it that your account manager might be able to help, especially if you advertise with them).  However, Page admins can add or remove other admins by following these steps:
   1. Click the "Edit Page" link below the Page’s photo.
   2. On the right hand side, click the "Add" link in the Admin section.
   3. Select the friend (fan) you would like to add as an admin.

The point is that you can add extra admins, but you can't remove yourself from admin if you are the creator.  Even though the alert box messaging tells you that you are doing so, it ain't actually so.

I tested the system and gave admin of a test page to another person.  Then went to remove myself from being admin and got this message:


Which was odd, since I had just assigned a friend of the page admin status.  But I went ahead anyway - and on checking, found that I still admin of the page - and the person was the second administor.

I had previously thought that the only way around this would be to register a fictitious profile (with a company email address) to create your page - and in doing so, contravene Facebook's Terms of Service.

But, thanks to the excellent Tamar Weiberg, her 'Open Letter to Facebook' and all the lovely people who have contributed to the comments, I now have the solution.  It's possible to set up a page which is not owned by a profile.

Just go to this URL when you’re not logged into Facebook. You will see the regular page setup, but when you confirm the creation of your page, you get a screen like this:

Use an email address not already registered on Facebook (I'd recommend a company alias which could be re-pointed at whoever is currently admin), and then hey presto - you have a page with no profile associated with it (although you do have the option of creating one if you wish).

I really wish I'd known about that before.  Do pass this news on:  it could save a few headaches. See also this All Facebook post on the topic.

Update:  This post was published in Social Media Today, and is picking up some really helpful comments, with lots of additonal information about this topic.  Do check it out at http://socialmediatoday.com/SMC/203002#18120

Read more about Facebook current issues over at Tamar's blog: http://www.techipedia.com/2010/an-open-letter-to-facebook/#comments#ixzz0pgdZD5lp