The Facebook Blue Ribbon Award, run for the first time this month, 'honours the top most creative and innovative campaigns and most engaging pages each month', according to Facebook.
Brands were selected based on the most popular pages by fan count, and then the ratios of interaction with the brand, such as comments and 'likes'.
Facebook commended H&M for making use of its latest engagement ads, which encourage users to become a fan, participate in polls and respond to event invitations at a local and national level. It said Starbucks had also integrated its Facebook presence into offline promotions.
In addition to recognising marketing efforts on the site, Facebook is also making it easier to integrate Facebook activity with off-line activity through the release of ‘vanity' URLs.
Facebook launched vanity URLs on Saturday, which allow users to pick a URL of their choice and directs other users to their Facebook profile. For example facebook.com/adidas, where previously they were anonymous.
Brands with over 1000 fans are also permitted to apply for one and names are awarded on a first come first serve basis. Over three million URLs were assigned in the twelve hours after launch, Facebook said.
Small businesses and brands without a strong Facebook presence will be allowed to apply for personalised URLs at the end of the month, and those without trademarked terms must sit tight and hope the URL they want is still available, Facebook said.
Trademark laws will protect brand names to a certain extent, although generic trademarked terms may be able to be used by competitors or members of the public.
However, before the URLs were released over the weekend, brands were encouraged to submit trademarked terms to Facebook, in an effort to ward off squatters and opportunists who may later try to sell the URL to the brand.
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