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In one of the first large-scale studies of Facebook pages ever conducted, Toronto-based Sysomos analyzed and investigated usage patterns in nearly 600,000.
The results include information on various aspects including popularity, amount of content posted, number of fans and categories. This is a study of interest if you manage Facebook Fan pages or plan to create one.
Here are a few highlights from the analysis:
- On average, a Facebook Page has 4,596 fans.
- Four percent of pages have more than 10,000 fans, 0.76% of pages have more than 100,000 fans, and 0.05% of pages (or 297 in total) have more than a million fans.
- Pages with more than one million fans have nearly three times as much owner-generated content as the average Facebook page. (Where “owner-generated content” means things like photos, videos, and links posted by the page’s administrators.)
- Pages with more than one million fans have nearly 60 times as much fan-generated content (photos, videos) as the average Facebook page.
- On an average Facebook Page, the administrators create one wall post every 15.7 days. Among pages with more than one million fans, one wall post is created for every 16.1 days. This suggests that wall post frequency does not correlate with a page’s popularity.
- Overall, the most popular “category” for Facebook pages is “non-profits”, while “celebrities”, “music”, and “products” are the most popular categories among pages with more than one million fans.
There is much more to this study and you can find it all here.
The point I’d like to make here is that major engagement on a Facebook fan page like any other community takes a lot of work and often times the administrator (community manager) is charged with creating the bulk of the content. Facebook may be biggest, baddest, go-to-social network on the planet with it’s 350 million members, but don’t let that number fool you. They’re not knocking down doors to fan your page.
It still takes a lot of work to find success.
With 300 million users worldwide and one-third estimated to be under the legal drinking age, alcohol industry watchdog, Marin Institute is raising a red flag on what effect excessive alcohol marketing on Facebook is having on these under age users.
Because of this, Marin Institute recommends that Facebook immediately take action by making three changes (outlined in an article published in the Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice) that would likely hit the social network deep in the pocket. Here are the recommendations:
- Stop accepting paid advertisements for alcohol products
- Stop allowing alcohol-related Pages, Applications, Events and Groups
- Hire external monitors to enforce the new regulations
I don’t know what your thoughts are on this, but I can’t imagine Facebook jumping at the chance to do any of these. Not a single one.
Here’s a quote from Sarah Mart, MS, MPH, research and policy manager at Marin Institute and lead author of the article,
“Facebook started as a fun tool for college students to interact and connect, but it has morphed into yet another means for corporations to exploit its users, particularly youth. As Facebook continues to grow as the youth market’s social networking tool of choice, the alcohol industry’s influence on Facebook must not be underestimated.”
And a quote from co-author Jacob Mergendoller:
“The only way to protect youth and young adults from the incessant promotion of alcohol on Facebook is to remove all promotional content about alcohol. Eliminating exposure to this content is necessary if we are ever going to reduce serious alcohol-related harm among young people.”
Have you seen much alcohol advertising on Facebook? I can’t say that I have, but I don’t spend hours and hours on Facebook each day. I do remember blogger and author Chris Brogan’s post about Gun ads, that he wasn’t too fond of. I wonder if anti-gun groups are thinking along the lines of the Marin Institute.
At any rate, it sounds like this alcohol marketing could be a real issue.
You can read the entire article published in at globaldrugpolicy.org.
According to a recent news release, PandaLabs has Uncovered a hacking service that promises clients access to any Facebook account for $100. The creators of the service, based in the Ukraine, confirm the cost and say the fee is payable through Western Union.
I’ll leave you to digest this information on your own. Here is the release:
GLENDALE, Calif., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ — PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, today announced the discovery of an online service that promises to hack into any Facebook account for $100. The creators claim, “Any Facebook account can be hacked,” promising to provide clients with the login and password credentials to access any account on the popular social networking site. According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “The service’s real purpose may be hacking Facebook accounts as they say, or profiting from those that want to try the service. In any case, the Web page is very well designed. It is easy to contract the service and become either the victim of an online fraud, or a cyber-criminal and accomplice in identity theft.
Once an intruder hacks into a Facebook account, all personal data published on the site can be stolen. Similarly, those accounts can also be used to send malware, spam or other threats to the victim’s contacts. In the case of celebrities of other well-known entities, they can be used to defame the account holder, spread information in their name, etc. In any event, this is criminal activity.”
In addition to extorting money and obtaining access to clients’ bank account information, the service also has characteristics in line with hacker affiliate programs. Common among cybercriminals, hacker affiliate programs offer other cybercriminals money to spread malware. This strategy is now being used with everyday Internet users through this Facebook hacking site, by offering extra dollar-credits to spend on the service when users hack more accounts. They can become affiliates to help hackers reach a broader audience, receiving 20 percent of what they sell in credits for hacking more accounts.
It is likely that the cybercriminals behind this operation are members of an Eastern European Internet mafia because payments are conducted online through Western Union wire transfers to a payee in Ukraine. The domain that hosts the service is registered in Moscow, providing further evidence of this theory. The company claims to have been offering this service for four years with only one percent of accounts hack-proof. In these cases, they offer clients a money-back guarantee. However, the domain is just a few days old. A series of images illustrating the sales flow can be found on the PandaLabs blog:
What do you think? Is this something of grave concern to us here in the US?
Angela Connor
Do you remember this post post from last December where I speculated on whether or not debt collectors were behind closed doors strategizing on ways to capitalize on social media? Here’s a question I posed in that post:
What if during the first quarter of next year you start seeing bill collectors posting on Facebook walls and sending tweets reminding you that your credit card is over-the-limit, or that you haven’t paid your bill in three months?
Well, if it seemed a bit far-fetched back then, take a look at this story on Consumerist: Debt Collector’s Using Cute Chicks on Facebook as Bait
According to the story, a “cute chick” aka Jenny Anderson racked up about 600 friends and later announced to them all that she really worked for a company called CBV Collections.
Are you familiar with the term “skiptracer?” Well, that’s what this Jenny Anderson is apparently and there are many many more out there.
I found this story after noticing a trend in the search engine terms used to lead people to my blog. Here are a few I’ve seen in the last two weeks:
- “facebook debt collectors” (there are many instances of this one!)
- “debt collectors are going to start infiltrating social media”
- “Do bill collector’s use LinkedIn?”
This clearly is a topic on the minds of many. I have no idea who is conducting these searches (bill collector’s or those trying to avoid them) but I know we will see this more often.
What do you think? Is this just wrong? Or do they have the right to hunt people down by any means necessary?
Social media has made some folks lose their minds. Particularly those who are addicted to Facebook. They are poking incessantly, tagging like their lives depend on it, and friending the very people they hated 20 years ago. When you don’t poke them back, they resort to super-poking, send you a plant of some sort and ask for your hand in a game of virtual scrabulous. Lovely.
Something is missing here, and I think it’s common sense. So allow me to reintroduce the common sense factor to all of you avid Facebooker’s. If this doesn’t apply to you, reject it and move on. But if it does, hear me out.
If we hardly spoke in 12th grade calculus class and often rolled our eyes at one another in the halls, why would we connect 20 years later to share all of the nuances of our lives?
If you stole my boyfriend or played a cruel prank on me back in the day that caused me months of embarrassment, why would I care about your whereabouts today and what could you possibly have to say to me?
For all you know, the person you’re reaching out to could have spent an inordinate amount of money on a therapist in an attempt to forget you, and here you are, super-poker in hand ready to rekindle that loving feeling.
If I fired you, or you fired me and we engaged in a shouting match is a connection really something we should consider? No. And that’s okay, so move on to someone else.
Don’t let Facebook allow you to forget history and open old wounds that should probably remain closed. If you’re that eager to find out what’s been going on with someone, lurk around and satisfy your need. Heck, Google them and get yourself a nice helping of their recent history.
But if you know in your heart and your gut that a certain connection isn’t a good idea, don’t request it. Just because we have the tools doesn’t mean we have to use them. It’s great that we have the tools but we should also exercise good judgment and be selective with our actions.
What are your thoughts on the use of Facebook? Know any die hard pokers? Tired of being tagged for the 25 random things about me post? Tell us about it.
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