Brands get serious about Facebook (and spend to prove it)
What with Jetstar shifting its spend, it’s been a big week for social media growing up in Australia.
So check out this research into facebook done by Julian Cole of The Conscience Organisation.
Cole has looked at the biggest branded Facebook groups – and how the brands got there.
Top of the pile, Pringles Australia, with 260,000 members. But the most interesting thing: Cole cites a rumoured $500,000 media spend on Facebook ads.
The post by Julian was there and now it’s not….humm?
There’s still a Google cache of it:
http://74.125.153.132/search?q.....=firefox-a
The link is working fine for me, Anon are you playing tricks again?http://adspace-pioneers.blogsp.....pages.html
Here is a list I’ve compiled of the top five most successful branded Australian Facebook Pages online at the moment.
1. Pringles Australia
Fans – 260,650
Interaction Level – 0.11
Rumoured to be the biggest Facebook Media Buy in the country (north of $500,000). Back in August 2009, Pringles came out with all guns blazing with a chance to win a $75,000 party. They aligned with Modular Records and got a number of people in. They have just finished their second iteration of the party with activity in February. Possibly the biggest potential out of the Top 5, with a very low interaction levels.
2. Coca Cola Australia
Fans – 132,000
Interactions Level – 0.55
Aligned with the idea of Summer, they took out one of the biggest Australia wide internet road blocks in November last year. They linked the project into the experiential activity they were doing in the Coke Bottle Blast, taking photos of participants at the events.
3. KFC Australia
Fans – 96,303
Interaction Level – 0.23
One of the biggest clients to get on board Facebook in the early days, in June 2009 they offered people free Cayan Burgers on the 16th of June between the hours of 12pm-3pm in most major cities. They have since used the Page to drive a number of campaigns including Krush It and Movie Mania.
4. So You Think You Can Dance
Fans – 84,502
Interaction Level – 0.45
Television shows are the most successful types of Pages, they usually have high levels of engagement. With this being the current Network Ten marquee show it is just the right time to make the most of the Facebook redevelop which makes Pages get an easier viral rate.
At the moment there are a lot of messages about the website and linking to external factor, I think the interaction level could be increased with questions about the show instead.
5. Supre
Fans – 62,831
Interaction Level – 1.94
One of the best Facebook Pages going around, a massive 1.94% engagement which is four times as successful as their closest rival in the top four. They have a core 13-17 year old female market who love them. They engage everyday with simple question about the new range and general pop culture. Also the only one in the top 5 without a front page media spend.
Methodology
Interaction Level – Is worked out as a percentage of the fan base that interact with the posts, this number is based on the last 5 updates.
I looked primarily at the Fan numbers but then also took into account the Interaction Level because that will predetermine the reach of these Pages through the Facebook Newsfeed Optimisation.
It’s been Rick Rolled…
Bubble O Bill has 268K fans
it’s 2006 again and instead of myspace friends it’s facebook fans we’re all excited about.
Interaction level is as useful as an ashtray on a motor bike. Fan numbers and interaction rates aren’t the magic formula to gauging success.
Ross, we are all ears. Care to inform us of what is a better measure of success ?
Sales?
the issue is someone clicking ‘add as fan’ is not a meaningful interaction … i’d argue that it’s less effective than an ad exposure as the process takes a second.
Art – For sure! The only problem is, that information is not publicly available
Larry – I think you have simplified becoming a fan a little. When you become a fan you are pretty much signing up for all communication from that brand there on out. Therefore a brand will have the opportunity to reach the much sought after real estate of the Facebook News Feed / Front Page. However to reach there it all depends on the interaction level. So I think it is a little more valuable than just a click.
Hate to spoil the party for Pringles, but the M&M’s Australia Fan page has over 900,000 fans and still growing!
Julian, fair call. Posted my comment on Friday as rushing out the door. Should have elaborated.
Fan sentiment and substance is a truer measurement of a successful brand page. Harder to measure which is why we have a full time resource manually overseeing each profile.
Getting that nugget of Fan/consumer gold in amongst the sea of ‘1sts’ can only be gained by manual assesment by someone with intimate knowledge of the brand and it’s
Knowing the quantity of activity is mice however not that insightful. Some of our strongest examples of FB Brand success came on profiles with small Fan numbers.
I’m with Ross, you just need to look at the latest Nestle debacle to know that fan numbers and interactions aren’t necessarily applicable across the board (sorry Jules).
@Ross, interaction levels are a direct reflection your facebook page marketing strategy, its the realtime barometer of failure and success. If you’re pushing great content, engaging the fanbase consistently and understand what your fans want, your interaction level is going to be higher. If your pushing shit content, engaging the fanbase irregularly and don’t understand what your fans want, your interaction level is going to be lower.
Apologies for the simplistic approach, but im backing Jules 100% on the relevance and insight that interaction levels can give to page admins.
@JB @Larry I don’t think anyone is throwing up the argument of ‘the more fans the better’ anymore. As Ross explains, its mining the consumer sentiment in the comments thread of each update then presenting that info to your client in a digestible way. Its realtime market research that the client can then act on, in realtime. Fan numbers are only realistically attributed to how big the brands reach is (or how big there budget is) and is therefore irrelevant.