Curious as to how your chamber Facebook fan page count stacks up against other chambers?
With over 7,000 chambers in the U.S. it would be quite a task to rank them all.
Luckily, I remembered from statistics 101 that we can draw some solid conclusions from a decently sized sample.
Thank goodness for that. I was getting tired clicking on all those chamber Facebook pages.
These numbers are from a random sample of 265 chamber Facebook fan pages conducted at the end of January 2012.
Turns out that the average Chamber Facebook fan page count (for the sample) is 653 with a 4.4% PTAT (People talking about this) ratio.
How does your chamber Facebook fan page count rank (click to enlarge image)?
Random Sample of Chamber Facebook Fans
Here are some notables chamber Facebook fan pages that you may want to check out to see what they are doing to grow such a solid fan base.
Napa – 1939
Columbus – 2283
Charlotte – 2272
Lincoln, NB – 1542
Palm Desert – 1408
Bakersfield – 1180
Springfield – 1018
Bremerton, WA – 1123
L.A. – 1467
Joplin 2228
Clovis, CA – 1239
Seattle -1249
Pendleton – 5199
Sedona – 5870
It has been reported that the average Facebook user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, events and groups.
With an average of 653 fans, chambers are showing real traction and growth.
Matter of fact, many small businesses have a hard time getting across the 100 fan count (they can then claim their name) so reaching thousands of fans is quite a triumph.
So, how do some chambers have 2, 3, 4, even 9 times the Facebook fan count of the average chamber and at least that multiple of the average chamber member?
We will be exploring the answers to that question through this blog over the next several weeks and months.
Let’s start today with the Pendleton, Oregon Chamber and their Membership Development Director, Lisa Farquharson.
Pendleton Chamber has a whopping 5,199 Facebook fans in a city of less than 17,000!
Pendleton, like most chambers and small businesses, is learning the whole social media thingy as they go.
But they are going. Yes, they will make mistakes.
Not every moment of their time online will have a great ROI and they will have to make corrections.
But they have decided to embrace the tools and learn as they go.
Good for them!
Now, in the interest of learning from other’s mistakes, let’s discuss a few things here.
One, they launched a Facebook profile rather than a Facebook Page.
That is a big mistake that violates Facebooks Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (see #4).
They corrected that by migrating over to a page. Nice work. Very smart.
I will have much more on that soon. If you are in a similar predicament, there is hope.
Second, they used a series of sweepstakes that featured not only Pendleton Bucks but also prizes from their members.
Aggressive and creative.
And while affective, the way they went about their promotion probably ran afoul of Facebook’s complicated rules on contests.
Facebook has some very strict rules on contests, sweepstakes, and promotions.
Facebook requires a 3rd party app for these types of promotions and the sweepstakes, contest, or drawing must comply with all the complicated laws and regulations governing them.
This topic is also going to require a separate post because it is complicated and very often violated.
Having said that, Facebook sweepstakes and contests do work.
I use the Wildfire App to make sure my clients and I stay in compliance. I suggest you check them out.
After researching more than a dozen 3rd party apps, I chose Wildfire (not an affiliate link) because the interface is intuitive, it is very robust, and not overly expensive.
Here is a great primer video from Facebook on promotions and contests if you are using or considering using this strategy.
What do you think? What else can or should chambers do to increase their fan count?
What should they do with that large fan base once they have it?
How does your chamber Facebook Fan page count rank?
Feel free to provide a link to your chambers Facebook page below so we can see what you are doing, add you to our future samples, and study your success.
P.S. Don’t you think it is a powerful new chamber asset to be able to share member news, info, and stories to a much wider audience through social media than your members can do on their own? Chambers are now working this benefit into their dues structures. More on this soon.
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