The document analyzes the average Facebook page fan growth rates across 65 pages in 7 industries in October 2016. It finds that 19 pages lost fans, accounting for 29% of pages. Only the Hospitals and Luxury Fashion industries had overall positive growth, while Snack Foods and Soft Drinks had negative growth. Several individual pages are highlighted as having significant drops in fans, such as Skittles losing over 45,000 fans. Possible reasons for declining growth are discussed, such as scaling back how much brand content fans see from Facebook.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for seven industries
1. REPORT PERIOD:
Average Facebook
page fan growth
rates for seven
industries
REPORT PERIOD: OCTOBER, 2016
ZuumSocial.com
65 Facebook pages across 7 industries.
Industries covered in this report are soft drinks,
consumer electronics, hospitals, luxury fashion,
snack foods, pet foods and tourism.
16 November, 2016
2. About
What’s in this report may surprise a few people.
Especially if you’ve been reading the headlines about
Facebook is still growing users globally.
But what you’ll see here is of the 65 pages in 7
industries we analyzed in this report, a significant
number of them are showing negative fan growth for
October of 2016.
The next page is a summary of report, followed by the
industry rankings, and then each of the industries
broken out page by page.
Charts for each industry show the brands, fan counts,
growth rate, and net change in fans.
We wrap up with a detailed view of some of the key
Facebook pages in the report, assessing their fan loss
curves and considerations for why that might be
happening.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Sections
❖ Summary
❖ Industry rankings
❖ Consumer Electronics
❖ Luxury Fashion
❖ Pet Foods
❖ Snack Foods
❖ Soft Drinks
❖ Hospitals
❖ Tourism
❖ Detailed views of pages dropping fans
3. Summary
❖ 19 of 65 Facebook pages in this report lost fans in October. That’s 29% of the
pages.
❖ Our previous report on social media fan growth in February 2016 showed earlier
indication of this drop in fan count trend.
❖ Our February 2015 report on social network fan growth shows a much more
positive fan growth rate for Facebook for virtually all industries.
❖ Facebook is still experiencing user growth. So it’s not like the network is falling
off the face of the earth.
❖ The number of brand pages with dropping fan counts could be something
Facebook noticed, and sensing fans were seeing too much of brands and their
content, scaled back the Facebook brand page impressions fans will see, as they
recently announced.
❖ Only 2 of the 7 industries we analyzed had negative average fan growth.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
5. Industry Rankings
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Overall growth is positive --
about ⅓ of a percent.
Two industries, however, are
in the red. Snack Foods and
Soft Drinks. Pet Foods is just
about flat.
Does this indicate a declining
interest in Facebook, or is
there some other factor.
We’ll look at each industry,
and then take a closer look at
some of the individual
brands.
Industry Avg Fans Avg Growth Rate Avg Change in Fans
Hospitals 361,464 1.53% 5,530
Luxury Fashion 11,037,260 0.58% 64,016
Consumer Electronics 3,349,772 0.47% 15,744
Average 5,645,305 0.34% 8,924
Tourism 862,866 0.07% 4,228
Pet Foods 670,634 0.01% 67
Snack Foods 15,478,891 -0.09% -13,931
Soft Drinks 7,756,251 -0.17% -13,186
6. Consumer Electronics
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Only one account is losing
fans -- Nokia -- but it happens
to be the page with the
largest fan count, by a wide
margin.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
Pioneer Electronics (North America) 102,580 1.14% 1,169
HP 4,018,431 0.98% 39,381
Bose 1,660,983 0.80% 13,288
Average 3,349,772 0.47% 15,744
Vizio 245,179 0.45% 1,103
Canon 1,194,562 0.38% 4,539
Sony 7,430,730 0.32% 23,778
Panasonic 339,990 0.31% 1,054
Philips 416,473 0.26% 1,083
GoPro 4,864,302 0.15% 7,296
Nokia 13,224,494 -0.11% -14,547
7. Luxury Fashion
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
This industry is looking more
robust. No brands in the red,
and an average growth rate of
over ½ percent.
CHANEL leads the pack with
both the highest growth rate
and biggest increase in fans.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
CHANEL 14,567,617 1.68% 244,736
Versace 4,444,033 0.82% 36,441
Calvin Klein 8,690,142 0.72% 62,569
Marc Jacobs 1,835,632 0.71% 13,033
Average 11,037,260 0.58% 64,016
Dior 15,501,658 0.49% 75,958
Armani 6,800,393 0.46% 31,282
Dolce & Gabbana 10,777,817 0.33% 35,567
Louis Vuitton 18,798,911 0.26% 48,877
Gucci 13,366,906 0.25% 33,417
Burberry 15,589,491 0.04% 6,236
8. Pet Foods
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Five of eight brands in the red
in growth.
This is an odd trend for an
industry that seems well-
suited to social media, as well
as fan counts that don’t feel
large enough to have hit their
max yet.
This industry group has the
second smallest average
page size.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
Purina ONE 779,492 0.23% 1,793
Wellness Natural Pet Food for Dogs and Cats 508,554 0.08% 407
Natural Balance Pet Foods 451,862 0.03% 136
Average 670,634 0.01% 67
ALPO 290,353 -0.01% -29
Eukanuba 288,428 -0.02% -58
IAMS 725,253 -0.04% -290
Pedigree 1,307,302 -0.05% -654
Beggin' 1,013,828 -0.11% -1,115
9. Snack Foods
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
The first industry with
negative overall fan growth.
These are very large pages,
and a large overall industry.
In additional exploration on
this later, we’ll see what these
lowering fan counts look like
on a line chart.
Skittles, in losing over 45
thousand fans, is the largest
single page drop of all pages
in this report.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
Oreo 42,480,492 0.04% 16,992
Butterfinger 1,980,374 0.03% 594
Snickers 10,605,860 -0.03% -3,182
Average 15,478,891 -0.09% -13,931
Reese's 10,733,609 -0.11% -11,807
Twix 7,630,848 -0.16% -12,209
Skittles 23,824,820 -0.19% -45,267
Starburst 11,096,231 -0.23% -25,521
10. Soft Drinks
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Every page in this industry set
is in the red. And the highest
average negative fan growth
in this report.
The two bottom pages are the
largest percentage loss in fan
counts of all pages in this
report.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
Mountain Dew 8,505,488 -0.08% -6,804
Fanta 767,239 -0.14% -1,074
Dr Pepper 14,377,160 -0.17% -24,441
Pepsi (PepsiUS) 6,442,827 -0.17% -10,953
Average 7,756,251 -0.17% -13,186
Coca-Cola (CocaColaUnitedStates) 12,530,987 -0.24% -30,074
Sprite (spriteus) 3,913,803 -0.24% -9,393
11. Children’s Hospitals
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
This is more like what we’ve
been seeing in Facebook fan
page growth rates in the past.
A strong overall 1.5% growth
for the month.
The Fans column shows that
these pages are not anywhere
near as large as the other
industries. However, these
are also more local
businesses, which would
seemingly have a lower
ceiling on total fan counts.
It could be that this industry is
later to social media than the
others, and is still in a higher
growth phase.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
Akron Children's Hospital 37,234 4.91% 1,828
UH Rainbow Babies & Children's 24,045 2.98% 717
Cook Children's 51,341 1.60% 821
Average 361,464 1.53% 5,530
Nationwide Children's Hospital 197,936 1.36% 2,692
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC 57,500 1.31% 753
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia 112,514 1.00% 1,125
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 1,975,225 0.29% 5,728
Dayton Children's Hospital 40,393 0.20% 81
Boston Children's Hospital 756,986 0.15% 1,135
12. Tourism
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Another industry in which all
sample pages are moving in
an upward direction.
Average page size is still well
under a million, and while
these aren’t local pages,
because they’re state tourism
pages, they’re likely to have a
regional appeal.
Page Fans Fan Growth Rate Change in Fans
Pure Michigan 1,084,643 1.32% 14,317
VISIT FLORIDA 708,619 0.61% 4,323
Explore Georgia 372,577 0.59% 2,198
Visit Colorado 641,022 0.51% 3,269
I LOVE NEW YORK 1,367,283 0.49% 6,700
Average 862,866 0.49% 4,228
Texas Tourism 120,196 0.18% 216
Visit California 770,600 0.11% 848
Hawaii – gohawaii.com 1,837,989 0.07% 1,287
13. Page Details
A closer look at some of the key pages losing fans in this report.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
14. Coca-Cola’s and Sprite’s drop for October
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Below you can see each of these brands followed a similar long, gradual decline. If this was more of a sudden drop, it
might be attributed to new regional pages being carved off a larger global page, or perhaps Facebook purging obsolete
fan accounts.
15. Starburst. A history of dropping fan count.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Starburst was another relatively big drop in October 2016, of .23%. A loss of over 25,000 fans. The October fan trending
is in the top chart. The second chart shows Starburst since January 1, 2016. The fan drop trend line has been going on
for quite a while.
16. Skittles. Dropping trend except for the Super Bowl.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
This is Skittles since January 1, 2016. Another long, dropping fan count curve. The slight uptick in fans is right around
the Super Bowl. They had a spot featuring Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. It ranked 25 out of 63 of all the Super Bowl spots.
17. Beggin’ Pet Food. Long decline after a bumpy 2015.
Average Facebook page fan growth rates for 7 industries
Beggin’ pet food seem to have started their long decline after the beginning of the year. However, the bottom chart
shows the brand’s 2015 daily fan count line. Clearly they must have had some strong campaigns going that year,
although overall fan count was still down quite a bit at the end of the year.
18. REPORT PERIOD:
Average Facebook
page fan growth
rates for seven
industries
ZuumSocial.com
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