Are you managing your Corporate and Brand Related properties on Social networks

If you are an active user of any of the popular social networking sites like Facebook or Orkut or Ning or Linkedin- then you must have come across a variety of Corporate or Brand related groups/fan page/or a social network on Ning. I remember coming across some of them on Facebook, Linkedin and Ning and also joined some of them, just like that for no rparticular reason or probably because of the buzz around the campaign.

But my question is where are they headed - to me they just seem like some ghost networks abandoned by their owners - as there is absolutely no community engagement or activity on these groups - nobody seems to be managing them. So why do brands or corporates really create them or is it work of the brand team which in its efforts to promote the campaign creates a group just to get some action around their campaigns and once the campaign is over they just don't seem to bother about it.

Just to do a little a research on this, I casually discussed this whole obsession with creating groups on the social networks with some of my friends in marketing and the answers I got were pretty surprising.sample this:

"Arey my boss wanted us to do something on social networking sites - so we just created some groups across the networking sites...."

I also found out that some of the over enthusiastic PR people also create these groups and networks for their clients to promote their clients campaigns - just to show how they are optimising the opportunity on social media for their clients..and apparently the clients love it too.

But what happens after that, nobody seems to care and eventually they turn into a ghost network which I feel can actually back fire as the users join them expecting some sought of engagement/interaction with the brand or the corporate.

I think corporates should really think through their objectives before letting PR agencies or ad-agency create such networks on their own, because at the end of the day its a brand property on a social network and it matters. But whose responsibility is it?Just because the technology is available doesn't mean that one should blindly exploit it.

Are there any guidelines for creating brand properties on social networks? or can PR agencies play a role here.I think they absolutely can and should work towards making it as one their key offerings.

Interestingly there is also study which came out which said -Corporate Social Networks Are A Waste of Money -

Marshall Kirkpatrick has covered it really well please check it out...