Some of the most popular Fan Pages on Facebook have earned their position because of good strategy combined with outstanding publicity, a strong brand or simply a random spot of luck. Finding that sweet spot within your brand or message could mean the difference between major exposure and undistinguished obscurity. In this series, we've already looked at two main aspects of creating the best Facebook Pages through User Types and Global vs Regional targeting. Today let's learn from the largest populated pages and try to understand how they earned their top positions.

The current top ten Facebook Pages by population are listed in the following graph.

Success Via Publicity
Almost six months ago radicaltrust.ca charted the top ten Facebook pages and only one of these pages currently remain. Barack Obama still commands the lead, although surpassed momentarily during the Beijing Olympics by athlete Michael Phelps, who now commands second place. Both of these contenders, who continue to lead the pack, earned outstanding long and short term publicity and millions of "news feed updates"

• Barack Obama: Barack has commanded the headlines both on and offline for over a year in his campaign to be president. His unprecedented use of online tools during this campaign has not only broken several fundraising records, but has also rallied him an army of bloggers and other digital publications that continue to propagate his campaign messages. The most active area of his page is "The Wall" - hosting over 417,000 messages of support. This has to be the single most important point of awareness for the page. Each wall post in turn updates the newsfeed on the profiles of each supporter, informing their entire social network of their advocacy for Barack. The wall is this page's sweet-spot for growth. In combination with ongoing publicity efforts, it's no surprise that Barack's nearly two million-member Facebook community continues to grow.
• Michael Phelps: Michael Phelps rose from relative obscurity to the world stage during the Olympic Games in Beijing. Not only did he break records in the pool, so too did his fan page of Facebook. During the three weeks over the games, his page went from only a few to over 1.5 million supporters. Worldwide support for this amazing athlete can only be attributed to his amazing accomplishments and great character thereby earning him a credible position. During the Olympics he had an active discussion board with over 800 topics ranging from swimming to the general Olympic talk to athleticism in general. His discussion board is no longer on the page, but that hasn't stopped fans from advocating their love for him. Now there are over 117,000 message posted to his wall.

Success Via Brand
Facebook is a place for the enthusiast to connect with a brand simply because one is a fan. Five of the top ten pages fit into this category including Batman: The Dark Knight, Facebook itself, Apple Students, Coca-Cola and Windows Live Messenger. With this simple brand connection being the driving force, I wonder about the vitality of these types of communities over time. Back in April, only two brands held top ten positions, Victoria's Secret Pink was number two and although has grown, has since dropped to position 21. Seemingly, the questionable tactics of Ticketmaster United States resulted in their drop from number six straight out of the top 100 with nearly 90,000 people "un-fanning" the page altogether. Offering no sweet-spot for fan advocacy, I imagine that Coca-Cola and Windows Live Messenger will not maintain their positions long either. Brands successful in their attempt to maintain a top spot, like Apple Students, are contributing some value to the enthusiast, or working that "sweet-spot" for advocates and influencers to contribute to the brand. They will prevail.

• Apple Students: Apple Students Streams from iTunes keep the page updated with the latest in Movies, TV and Music downloads. The sweet-spot is found in the 15,000 discussions surrounding Mac computers - these keep the news feeds full and the community vibrant. A regional tool allows users to update their location without the need for Apple to host several pages for each region.

Success Via Celebrity
Adam Sandler and Coldplay each maintain positions in the top ten simply because of their celebrity fan base. Without any significant excitement for Adam on the wall or in the photo, discussion or video areas, I expect this page to be a novelty flash in the pan, not unlike his comedies.

• Coldplay 149 fan videos, 1700 fan photos and nearly 9000 wall posts have helped Coldplay earn their position in the top 10. High from the previous night's show, fans are happy to post a thank-you to the wall or a video or photo. An application asks fans to demand that Coldplay do a gig in their city. Lots of content is streaming from various places making this a very active group.

Success Via Randomness.
The most random of all the top ten pages has to be "Sleeping." Who wouldn't advocate that? Founded "Probably Ages Ago," the "Sleeping" page has amassed over 632,000 fans. Almost 1,000 photos and 2,800 wall posts puts this page in my "watch" category. Perhaps we may find that the best way to attract advocates is via a brand insight, or concept like this. As long as association remained transparent, this would have been a great group to be sponsored by a nighttime sleep medication or a mattress company.

Whatever strategy you employ, the "sweet-spot" seems to be connected to the long-term vitality of the community. Without it, you'll simply be pushing your own messaging. Ticketmaster seemingly continues to suffer the fate of that strategy.

Encourage enthusiasts to comment. Encourage advocates to post. Encourage influencers to continue telling your stories. These are the lessons I have learned from these amazing Facebook Fan Page successes.

More Posts from this series on "Facebook Pages Best Practices":

Best Practices for Facebook: User Types
Best Practices for Facebook: Global Brands
Facebook Population, A Global Breakdown

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