• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 17, 2012

The vast majority of Facebook’s traffic has long come from outside the U.S. With that in mind, Facebook on Wednesday announced a new service to more easily localize brand pages for different countries.

Through the new Global Pages offering, “Facebook users will now be directed to the best version of a Page based on the country those users reside in with localized features such as cover photos, Page apps, milestones, and news feed stories from Pages within the global brand community,” the company said.

Each brand’s global page will include local pages for specific markets and a default page for all others. The service is aimed at brands that have historically managed a single Facebook page with geo-targeted page posts, as well as for brands that have managed multiple, country-specific pages.

Among other aspects of the Global Pages structure:

-One global brand identity. Users from all countries will see the same Page name (translated into their local language), fan count, and the People Talking About This (PTAT) metric.

-One URL. Brands can promote one single URL in all off-Facebook campaigns, and users will be automatically directed to the best version of the Page for them.

-Global Insights. Page admins will see Insights for all global users in a single dashboard.

Later this year, Facebook plans to add country-level fan counts for all brand pages (both those using the Global Pages service as well as pages that haven't transitioned to the new framework) publicly in its API (application protocol interface).

“This will enable your internal teams to track how each market is performing, as well as to compare your fan base on a country-by-country level with other Pages on Facebook by accessing the data available via our API,” stated Kelly Winters, a product marketing manager at Facebook, in the blog post.

The company suggested marketers contact their Facebook rep to determine the best strategy for their brands.