How Starbucks Dominates Facebook

Posted by Sheila Shayon on July 15, 2010 01:00 PM

Starbucks is the first consumer brand to reach 10 million Facebook fans, a.k.a. user "likes." Taking the lead from Coca-Cola over a year ago, Starbucks has attracted 2.3 million fans just in July so far…and the month is only half-over. Starbucks is now in the rarified company of Lady Gaga.

In light of its recent privacy flap, Facebook is treading carefully when it comes to brands' presence on the site, including releasing a new video (above) to address users concerned about advertising on their pages.

As for how Starbucks shot to 10 million?

According to Inside Facebook, Starbucks' success is due to the brand's "popularity and ubiquitousness (and) because the company maintains a very active presence on Facebook."

Consistently found among Facebook's top 20 fastest growing pages, here are Starbucks' latest FB stats:

•    Fans: 10,078,172
•    Status: Official page
•    Category: Retail
•    Gain today: +98,840 (+0.99%)
•    Gain this week: +562,048 (+5.91%)

And here's the current top 20 "Social Network Stars" as ranked by Famecount:

Starbucks
Coca-Cola
Red Bull
Skittles
Oreo
Victoria's Secret
Whole Foods
Windows Live Messenger
Zappos
JetBlue
Dell
Woot
Threadless
SouthWest Airlines
Victoria's Secret PINK
Zara
Etsy
Adidas Originals
Starburst
H&M

More about: Social Media, Facebook, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Skittles, Oreo, Victoria's Secret, Whole Foods, Windows Live Messenger, Zappos, JetBlue, Dell, Woot, Threadless, SouthWest Airlines, Victoria's Secret PINK, Zara, Etsy, Adidas, Starburst, H&M

howie at Sky Pulse Media says:

But they actually do not dominate Facebook. They do nothing with Facebook. They never comment or post. Its basically a sanctioned page people can go and post but the Brand is absent. On top of that we have to discuss scale. I estimate world wide they probably have as many as 300mil customers. Which means 3.3% of their customers are Fans. So gross Fans tells you nothing. You have to dig deeper.

July 15, 2010 05:16 PM #

S. Shayon says:

howie,
Although the original title of this piece was changed (editorial prerogative), the fact remains that as a brand, Starbucks is the dominant one on Facebook. Their particpation beyond that fact - may indeed be questionable...perhaps an inherent flaw with social network sites and brand status.
Thanks for your comment.
S. Shayon

July 15, 2010 05:28 PM #

Brandlicious says:

If you consider Facebook a consumer brand, then it is number one, as posted on this blog: http://www.brandliciousblog.com/?p=525
Also, Disney should be there as it has 4.4M fans too. Good list!

July 16, 2010 08:31 PM #