Certain cultural trends are supposed to say something about us as a nation – the proliferation of horror movies in the 2000s as a response to 9/11 and the War on Terror, as some suggest, or the explosion of reality TV shows as a reflection of the splintering of TV audiences, a rise in celebrity voyeurism, the failure of old broadcast business models, and the adoption of web and mobile video platforms.
Phew!
So you’d think that looking at the most popular Facebook Fan Pages would tell us something about ourselves as a nation – or about Facebook Nation, at least.
So, make of this what you will:
1. Michael Jackson
2. Vin Diesel
3. Barack Obama
4. Facebook (Official Fan Page)
5. Mafia Wars
6. Texas Hold ‘Em Poker
7. Starbucks
8. Megan Fox
9. Lady Gaga
10. I [Heart] Sleep
11. R.I.P Michael Jackson (We’ll Miss You)
12. Twilight
13. Pizza
14. Will Smith
15. Dr. House
16. I need a vacation!!!
17. Coca-Cola
18. I really hate slow computers
19. YouTube
20. I hate waking up during a good dream and it won’t come back
21. I don’t sleep enough because I stay up late for no reason
22. Adam Sandler
23. Skittles
24. Linkin Park
25. Nutella
From a numbers perspective, at #1, the MJ Page has more than 10 million Fans, and #25 Nutella has more than three million. (Nutella? Really?!)
Here are three conclusions I think are fair to draw:
- If you want case studies of what savvy brand builders are doing to explode their audiences in Facebook Nation, look no further than this last. Break it down for yourself – how often are they posting? What are they posting? How are they interacting with Fans? What applications are they installing? Are they tagging Fans, favorite-ing Pages, sending updates, linking from other platforms? Use this info to help formulate your own Fan Page strategy.
- The concept of celebrity on Facebook looks a little different from celebrity in other media. Think of the media titans who aren’t on this list. Oprah Winfrey and American Idol are no-shows. There’s not a single player from ANY professional sport, either.
- Facebook gives us a meta-level conversation opportunity that we never knew we wanted, until Facebook gave us the platform to do it easily and virally. How else to explain the popularity of conceptual pages like ones about sleeping, dreaming, vacations, computers and (just outside the top 25) multiple pages about laughter?
What about you? What do you think Facebook Fan Page popularity tells us about ourselves?
