Brands overtaking celebrities on Facebook fan pages

SEO marketing agency  Tamar (www.tamar.com)  said that 90  out of 100 of the world’s biggest brands (according to the Interbrand 100 index) were the subject of Fan pages by the end of 2008.

Fan Pages were launched in November 2007 to give brands an official presence on the social network.

Analysis conducted by Tamar at the start of 2008 revealed  that initially the top 20 most popular Fan pages were devoted to celebrities and entertainment brands including Will Smith, Adam Sandler and Coldplay.

However, by the end of 2008, more traditional brands dominated the top 20 with Coca-Cola, Nutella and Kinder Surprise, rapidly attracting Facebook fans during the course of the year.

One of the fastest growing Fan pages belonged to Barack Obama in the lead up to the US presidential election, managing to attract 4m fans.

The Obama fan page grew virally but was supported additionally by social ads on Facebook to extend its fan base. Barack Obama was then trailed in second place by Homer Simpson who attracted 1,885,607 fans.

Henry Elliss, is Head of Social Media at Tamar, said: “Brands without Facebook Fan pages should be considering setting them up, especially in the current economic climate as they can be a highly cost effective way of creating and empowering positive brand ambassadors in a fun and easy way. However, the best fan pages need investment to ensure that the page has interesting, relevant content which is updated on a regular basis. Fan pages should also offer added value to fans through sneak previews, downloads or interesting news.”

Elliss continued “Fan pages are a brand’s official presence on Facebook so it is essential that they are professionally set up, designed and promoted to reflect brands values. This will ensure that they represent a credible and authentic point of contact between the brand and the consumer.”

Biggest Facebook Fan pages 2008 - (Tamar Research)

Facebook Fan Pages: Interbrand Top 10 Brands 2008

Source: www.tamar.com