Who will be the first brand to have a “NOT ON FACEBOOK” logo on their website?

We rather like this recent blog post on Brand Republic by Chris Read.

Does every brand’s website now have an automatic “Find us on Facebook” logo? If so, have you ever wondered why? Think about it for a minute before you join the gold rush…a consumer has just found a brand on their website or they are loyal visitors and have come back time and time again. Why then does that brand need to tell that consumer to go to another website to find out some more information about them that probably just replicates their own website? More to the point why does a brand want to drive potential customers away from their own website and onto a site used by all possible rivals? Once on Facebook customers can have a choice of travel brands, retail brands, media brands, fmcg brands and every other kind of commercial brand. That is where the brand loses complete control. Rather than engaging with a consumer in a fashionable environment they are in effect giving their customers the chance to look at and give money to their competition. What’s the alternative you say? If you do not to appear on Facebook then all the other brands in the same commercial sector who are driving their potential customers from their own sites to their site on Facebook will not have the chance to jump ship from the brand that drove them there to you. But doesn’t this all sound a bit like lemmings and cliffs? Surely if a brand was engaging and interesting enough they wouldn’t need to be found on Facebook because their own site would be the focal point for a search or for their customer’s loyalty? Surely that is better than handing your loyal customers over to all your competitors and into the wild west? Who will be the first brand on web to have a “NOT on Facebook” logo?