Heineken deletes its local Facebook presence and moves to a global-only strategy

Heineken, one of the largest global beers has come to a conclusion, that it will transfer all it`s local Facebook communities to one global Facebook page. Socialbakers Engagement Analytics PRO cought this shift and their communities - for example in Brazil, Greece, and other countries had been suddenly disappearing and the exact number of fans appeared on the global page. This is the first time a brand has chosen this str­ategy in the last couple months.

Most brands are actually going the other way, if you read our article “Brands should act locally on Facebook”, you can see that many global brands, such as Nike, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, and many more are going locally.

After all, were consumers - and we consume things - we dont consume them globally, but locally. With our friends, within our community. Brands create local communities to get closer – a few brands going even further than that, and are starting to manage their individual retail shops or restaurants.

But Heineken chose to do it exactly the other way – and centralize it`s Facebook strategy to one single global page.

We`ve reached out to the Heineken communications team and asked them a few questions:

Q: Why did Heineken choose to merge it`s local Facebook pages to the global page? 

A: Heineken , the most international premium beer , is a worldly brand with a global audience.

Q: Why didn`t Heineken merge all of them (such as Heineken Malaysia, which is running locally)? 

A: All pages will be migrated soon (incl. Malaysia)

Q: You mentioned that you can post locally on these pages – do you think the power of a local community (a local wall, local Facebook page tabs) can be replaced by just local posts? 

A: We believe there're some strong advantages for having a global page. Our ‘likers’ and audiences are very openminded and worldly oriented. 

For one thing, it`s good that this made Heineken one of the top alcohol brands on Facebook. And when they finish transferring their Malaysia page, they will get very close to 1 million fans, and be the best alcohol brand on Facebook (see list of alcohol brands on Facebook).

We still see, and our Engagement Analytics PRO proves this, that a local strategy on Facebook pays off in terms of engagement, and reach of the community.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.