People Talking About…Benchmarks (Well I am at least)

So Facebook came out with the ‘People Talking About’ number. Social media experts went “ooh, another metric we can try and fudge around.” Clients started weeping with confusion as they were just coming to grasp the concept of likes. But what does this really mean – and how can we use it to benchmark engagement on Facebook?

In a fit of boredom this week, I decided to uncover the truth. We all point towards brands like Burberry and Topshop and say ‘I wish I had those numbers’ – but do we really? Are they REALLY engaging with the customers?

Lets look at a collection of the top UK Facebook sites in terms of numbers (at least the ones I could find – please no angry messages from PRs claiming I forgot a few. This took me a long enough time to compile).

	TOTAL FANS
Burberry UK	8,766,508
Skittles	2,977,316
Cadbury Crème Egg	2,042,755
Cadbury Wispa	1,791,243
Topshop	1,651,118
Maltesers	1,282,628
Asos	1,113,793
iTunes (UK)	1,043,193
Rowntree’s Randoms	715,985

Impressive numbers right? But what happens when I then add the ‘People Talking About’ Metric into the mix – does that change the top brands in any way?

	TOTAL FANS	TOTAL PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT
Burberry UK	8,766,508	190,562
Asos	1,113,793	47,090
Sony UK	158,440	34,426
Ann Taylor	317,306	32,662
Walkers	113,257	23,492
Topshop	1,651,118	20,391
Skittles	2,977,316	18,018
Argos	133,324	17,401
Schwartz Cooking Club	19,048	13,782

Why yes it does! Burberry remains at the top (and with over 8 million likes that shouldn’t be a surprise) but the tables are turned with brands like Walkers Crisps, Argos and Schwartz Cooking Club leaping up the charts. If I were a brand manager, I’d start looking at these charts to determine what my ROI actually is. It’s all very well having a billion fans – but the true measure of success should really be who is actually talking about the messages you’re putting up. Are you really creating content your customers want? (And yes I know we’ve tried telling people that again and again, but now I have numbers to show it).

Now for the real test – what are the top brands in terms of engagement. Which brands are getting the most talkability from their fan base and what is the average engagement level we can set for UK Facebook pages in order to tell our clients they’re doing well or that they need to start taking another look at their content, tone-of-voice and community management? Well I took care of this measurement for over 160 brands in the UK and take a look at what we find…

	TOTAL FANS	TOTAL PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT	PERCENTAGE OF ENGAGED FANS (x100)
Schwartz Cooking Club	19,048	13,782	0.72354053
Heinz Soup UK	31,256	12,258	0.3921807
McDonald’s UK	31,758	8,541	0.26894011
Sony UK	158,440	34,426	0.21728099
Lidl UK	17,372	3,609	0.2077481
Walkers	113,257	23,492	0.20742206
Odeon Cinemas	48,037	9,365	0.19495389
Love Pork	39,848	7,076	0.17757478
Innocent Drinks	76,591	12,650	0.16516301

What a mix! Heinz and Love Pork can be expected due to recent campaigns that have increased talkability – but Lidl? Walkers? What are they doing so right? Why are they getting a higher percentage of fans who have liked their Facebook page engaging with the content? My advice – take a look. Have they nailed their tone-of-voice? Are they giving away freebies? Analyse these pages and look at your target market. Take the best of what these brands are offering and integrate it into your content – and for those brands with big numbers but no engagement…by all means do a social media audit! You’d be surprised what it will reveal.

In the meantime – because I’m such a nice guy – I’m going to put the percentage engagement level for all brands I monitored below. And I can reveal that the average engagement level for UK brand Facebook pages is 3.6%. That means that a typical UK Facebook page has just 3-4 people engaging with it out of every 100. Do better than that and you’re golden. (All stats taken Tuesday, October 11th, 2011.)

	TOTAL FANS	TOTAL PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT	PERCENTAGE OF ENGAGED FANS (x100)
Schwartz Cooking Club	19,048	13,782	0.72354053
Heinz Soup UK	31,256	12,258	0.3921807
McDonald’s UK	31,758	8,541	0.26894011
Sony UK	158,440	34,426	0.21728099
Lidl UK	17,372	3,609	0.2077481
Walkers	113,257	23,492	0.20742206
Odeon Cinemas	48,037	9,365	0.19495389
Love Pork	39,848	7,076	0.17757478
Innocent Drinks	76,591	12,650	0.16516301
Argos	133,324	17,401	0.13051664
FRIJJ	75,439	8,420	0.11161336
Ann Taylor	317,306	32,662	0.10293534
SoBe UK	23,952	2,121	0.0885521
Douwe Egberts	38,985	3,075	0.07887649
Park Bench	46,575	3,424	0.07351583
The Perfume Shop	55,336	4,014	0.07253867
Carte Noire UK	21,985	1,544	0.0702297
House of Fraser	98,273	5,999	0.06104423
Dairylea	74,977	4,533	0.06045854
British Airways	124,643	7,348	0.05895237
T-Mobile UK	64,647	3,787	0.05857967
Sainsbury’s	183,569	10,629	0.05790193
giffgaff	60,183	3,249	0.05398534
HTC UK	68,623	3,545	0.05165906
Asda	50,962	2,508	0.04921314
Saatchi Gallery	185,247	8,768	0.0473314
L’Oreal Paris UK	103,104	4,741	0.0459827
Casio	29,890	1,318	0.04409502
Harrods	121,222	5,143	0.04242629
Asos	1,113,793	47,090	0.04227895
Showcase Cinemas UK	75,878	3,184	0.0419621
BBC Learning English	33,331	1,361	0.04083286
Ride UK BMX	20,172	809	0.0401051
QVC UK	27,791	1,093	0.03932928
Inside Volvo UK	34,554	1,351	0.03909822
Oakley Europe	84,277	3,229	0.03831413
Boots UK	115,582	4,257	0.03683099
Duracell UK	14,282	517	0.03619941
Liberty	34,903	1,253	0.03589949
Rightmove	14,324	508	0.03546495
Windows UK	24,651	872	0.03537382
Orange	106,321	3,634	0.03417951
Tesco	374,929	12,522	0.03339832
BMW UK	86,092	2,734	0.03175673
Burger King UK	76,411	2,420	0.03167083
SNES	12,160	384	0.03157895
The London Eye	105,393	3,138	0.02977427
Amnesty International UK	53,209	1,539	0.02892368
Xbox UK	379,844	10,919	0.02874601
Captain Morgan GB	61,988	1,679	0.02708589
Waitrose	24,779	662	0.02671617
GEAR4	15,186	401	0.0264059
Sony Ericsson UK	128,186	3,307	0.02579845
Avon UK	140,807	3,595	0.0255314
Talisker Whiskey	141,502	3,412	0.02411273
Evans	21,245	512	0.02409979
The Co-Operative	21,000	488	0.0232381
Love UK	522,499	12,087	0.02313306
Age UK	13,447	298	0.02216108
HP Sauce UK	36,027	789	0.02190024
Burberry UK	8,766,508	190,562	0.0217375
Bowmore Single Malt Whisky	17,567	379	0.02157454
L’Oreal Professionel	20,637	426	0.02064254
Nivea UK	219,042	4,497	0.02053031
Cineworld	50,860	1,031	0.02027133
Ocado	10,702	216	0.02018314
The Co-Operative Food	14,606	292	0.01999178
Maybelline UK	46,441	922	0.01985315
Tesco Pets	15,586	307	0.01969716
Miss Selfridge	64,537	1,268	0.01964764
Selfridges	103,906	2,041	0.01964275
Domino’s Pizza UK	291,764	5,576	0.01911134
Gillette UK	129,397	2,450	0.01893398
Lynx	513,746	9,008	0.01753396
Net-a-porter.com	539,337	9,344	0.01732497
Republic.co.uk	55,785	956	0.01713722
Superdrug	73,659	1,239	0.01682076
Cadbury Stripes	102,164	1,708	0.01671822
Lovefilm.com	48,139	787	0.01634849
Tango	113,654	1,818	0.01599592
Eurostar	24,310	387	0.01591937
Dell Home UK	11,074	175	0.01580278
Kerastase UK	12,655	199	0.01572501
Lancome Expert Services	156,886	2,465	0.01571205
Topman	181,895	2,856	0.01570137
Easyjet	66,554	1,032	0.01550621
AMD UK	17,258	267	0.01547109
O2	299,029	4,556	0.01523598
Greggs The Bakers	283,879	4,102	0.01444982
Poundland	24,878	358	0.01439022
Ticketmaster United Kingdom	55,874	789	0.01412106
Harvey Nichols	40,629	570	0.01402939
Gourmet Burger Kitchen	11,381	157	0.01379492
Pepe Jeans London	569,314	7,711	0.01354437
Max Factor UK	213,039	2,843	0.01334497
Cadbury Spots	139,930	1,810	0.01293504
Samsung UK	87,466	1,098	0.01255345
Buyagift	13,574	169	0.01245027
Topshop	1,651,118	20,391	0.01234981
Haribo UK	88,411	1,041	0.01177455
MINI UK	41,099	474	0.01153313
Travelzoo UK	27,511	312	0.01134092
Orange Film Club	41,342	462	0.01117508
The Body Shop UK	61,642	677	0.01098277
Citroen UK	70,044	760	0.01085032
PayPal UK	194,482	2,077	0.01067965
Ford Kuga	11,435	121	0.01058155
Montagne Jeunesse	53,972	560	0.01037575
Smirnoff GB	617,927	6,109	0.00988628
Clean & Clear UK & Ireland	49,279	487	0.00988251
Volkswagen UK	47,964	411	0.00856893
Nokia UK	117,158	985	0.00840745
Peugeot UK	17,123	142	0.00829294
Cadbury Twirl	19,791	164	0.00828659
Clothing at Tesco	129,638	1,067	0.00823061
KLM UK	23,531	192	0.00815945
Cadbury Flake	129,642	1,007	0.00776754
Morrisons We Love Food	38,923	301	0.00773322
The Macallan	59,162	456	0.00770765
Ribena	281,681	2,111	0.00749429
Fairtrade Foundation	64,193	474	0.00738398
Nescafe Dolce Gusto UK	33,110	239	0.00721836
Westfield London	121,409	848	0.00698466
Lagavulin	112,427	767	0.0068222
Cadbury Crunchie	113,772	767	0.00674155
Flora Hearts	52,244	333	0.00637394
Vodafone UK	287,080	1,808	0.0062979
Vichy Laboratoires	16,199	101	0.00623495
Skittles	2,977,316	18,018	0.00605176
Terry’s Chocolate Orange	242,606	1,456	0.0060015
Pizza Hut-UK	481,469	2,885	0.00599208
Blackberry UK & Ireland	307,641	1,841	0.00598425
Malibu UK	127,978	736	0.00575099
Air France UK	13,301	75	0.00563867
Mars Bar	200,477	1,129	0.00563157
Ben & Jerry’s UK	340,879	1,885	0.00552982
Starbucks UK	447,453	2,367	0.00528994
Budweiser UK	77,805	405	0.00520532
Marie Curie Cancer Care	299,111	1,516	0.00506835
Bullmers UK	61,377	300	0.00488782
Shreddies Knitting Nanas	290,578	1,417	0.00487649
Facebook UK	193,262	911	0.00471381
Hovis	103,803	486	0.00468195
BBC Children in Need	17,019	75	0.00440684
Esprit UK	206,915	911	0.00440277
Phones 4U	293,934	1,269	0.0043173
HP UK	65,368	280	0.00428344
MAOAM UK	436,496	1,757	0.00402524
Snickers Get Some Nuts	257,429	971	0.00377191
Cadbury Wispa	1,791,243	6,620	0.00369576
Gillette Venus UK	78,774	265	0.00336405
Cadbury Crème Egg	2,042,755	6,777	0.00331758
My Special K UK	25,925	82	0.00316297
Kit Kat UK	207,983	651	0.00313006
iTunes (UK)	1,043,193	3,246	0.0031116
Cadbury Double Decker	11,704	34	0.00290499
Rowntree’s Randoms	715,985	1,404	0.00196093
Cadbury Crème Egg Twisted	37,443	73	0.00194963
John Lewis	223,050	403	0.00180677
Calpol UK	168,874	265	0.00156922
Peau d’Or	31,713	33	0.00104058
Audi UK	22,513	14	0.00062186
BBC Bullyproof	59,858	21	0.00035083
Maltesers	1,282,628	341	0.00026586