Facebook like counts grow steadily throughout Q4 2011, with consumers more likely to join communities later in the week

 

2011 has undoubtedly seen a growing tendency for brands to centre their online presence on Facebook, with many competing to grow their community size and reach more potential customers. Wave has already reported on many different initiatives brands have employed to grow their fan base during 2011 and while Facebook fans are not the whole story, they do give an indication of a brand’s social media success. Wave therefore undertook analysis of a sample of 500 Facebook pages from leading brands across a range of different sectors and countries to establish how community sizes have changed during Q4 2011.

 

Analysis reveals that week on week, overall Facebook fans in the sample grew steadily. Overall, brands gained approximately the same number of new followers in October as they did in December. This reveals that while Facebook fan numbers are growing, the rate of growth has held fairly steady over the previous quarter. Further analysis reveals that most communities managed to average a growth rate of approximately 0.1% per day. Closer investigation shows that consumers are most likely to join new communities towards the end of the week, with Thursdays and Fridays the time when most growth was seen in Q4 2011.