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Only 21% follow brands on Facebook

Posted by Danny Whatmough on 15th February 2011

Some interesting research from Econsultancy/Toluna (2,500 sample size) that came out last week I’ve been meaning to post about:

  • 78.6% of respondents said they didn’t follow any brands on Facebook, leaving 533 respondents (21.3%) who did.
  • When asked why they followed a brand on Facebook (multiple choice), the most common reason was to be notified of special offers (70%).
  • Other reasons included shopping (38%), to be follow events (38%) and to leave feedback (29%).
  • On average, Facebook users that follow brands, follow between two and five, though 35% of people will follow more than five brands.
  • 13% of respondents said they followed more than 10 brands on Facebook.
  • Incredibly, even though F-commerce is still coming of age, one in four said they had made a purchase via a brand’s Facebook Page.
  • Less than one in five have complained via a Facebook Page.
  • Respondents discovered Facebook Pages via the company website, or having been recommended by a friend.
  • People primarily unsubscribe from pages if they are dull, or not updated frequently enough. They’ll also bail out if there are too many updates.

For me, there is some really fascinating stuff here.

Overall, the message is that brands need to work hard to get engagement on Facebook. They need to add value and need to get the tone and content of their Page right in order to get consumer buy-in. Finally, social commerce is definitely one to watch…

While I’m on the subject, I’d urge anyone interested in how to use Facebook to download Econsultancy’s latest report on creating Facebook Pages. Lots of really good practical advice and, even though it looks really long, doesn’t take long to read as there are lots of pictures!

[Disclosure: we have done some work for Econsultancy recently]

picture credit

Danny Whatmough