As we do from time to time, we’ve taken a deep dive into our database of 24,836 New Zealand Facebook pages to see what we can learn.
This time, we’ve sliced and diced by category to determine which are the most popular Kiwi categories on Facebook.
CAVEAT
There are a couple of cautions we wish to issue before we get into the details, however, just so you know why some of your favourite categories aren’t represented in these top 20 lists.
Firstly, you should know that before we started any number-crunching we removed most of the top 50 “most liked” NZ Facebook pages. That’s because those pages, typically NZ variants of international brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, Walt Disney, Nivea, Nissan, Cadbury and even Facebook itself, are displaying cumulative global likes rather than merely local numbers. As a result, total likes are somewhat out of alignment with local performances. It’s great that Facebook has 186 million likes, but such numbers tend to skew the averages.
For example, if we leave the global data in place, the average New Zealand Facebook page is rated as having 39,037 followers — a number that’s only surpassed by the top 500 or so Kiwi Facebook pages (out of our nearly 25,000 total).
Once we’ve stripped out most of the global pages, however, we arrive at a far more realistic and attainable average of 5,075 likes.
In the last seven days, just 146 people were talking about the average NZ Facebook page, an engagement percentage of 2.88%.
CAUTION: STATISTICAL ANOMALIES MAY LIE AHEAD
Secondly, we did want to point out the statistical dangers involved once we drill down into individual categories.
For this report, we have separated our database into the 700 different categories that Facebook offers (all of which are self-selected choices when a business creates a page).
As a result, more than a third of the available categories feature only one or two businesses — which, as you would imagine, means that the success or failure of the category depends on the performance of individual Facebook pages.
So, for example, if we look at the category “automotive storage facility“, that category tops the list of best performing Facebook pages in terms of engagement.
That category, however, represents a single business: Storage King Riccarton, which had a blinder of a pre-Easter promotion (requiring likes and comments to win a box of Easter treats).
So, with those warnings in place, let’s take a look at some numbers.
1 Facebook Likes
Firstly, let’s look at the categories that have attracted the most overall likes:
NZ FACEBOOK PAGES BY CATEGORY: AVERAGE LIKES APRIL 2017
The top category, “Society/Culture Website”, is again skewed by a single page, for Oh! Baby — but, in this case, the page’s performance is steady across multiple posts and reflects effective use of Facebook. Take a look at the Oh! Baby page and see what you can learn for yourself.
2 Facebook Talks
Our second view of our category averages is by talks — the average number of people talking about pages in the category over the last seven days.
Results are very similar to likes:
NZ FACEBOOK PAGES BY CATEGORY: AVERAGE TALKS APRIL 2017
3 Facebook Engagement
Finally, if we examine the Facebook page categories by Engagement (which we define as the number of talks compared to the total number of likes, expressed as a percentage), we see quite a different picture:
NZ FACEBOOK PAGES BY CATEGORY: MOST ENGAGEMENT APRIL 2017
Again, as we noted above, the results will be skewed by individual page performances (and we don’t have time to dig much deeper right now). Still, the results give us an interesting perspective when we consider that:
- dry cleaners are more interesting than government organizations
- car dealers get a better rap than the public service
- dog walkers are more popular than psychics (who should have seen that coming
(Of course, if you’d like to know more about social media, and how to perform as well as some of these marketers, check out our courses):
Here are the current courses (click on the links for more details about each course):
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING COURSES
Facebook Accelerator Programme
So you have a few hundred (or a few thousand) followers on Facebook but now you want to know how to get to the next level? Our Facebook Accelerator seven-part online course will lead you through the steps necessary to supercharge your Facebook presence and get Kiwi consumers engaging with you and your brands.
For more details of the Facebook Accelerator programme, please click here.
The Principles & Practice of Social Media Marketing
This is a thirteen-part eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to Social Media Marketing, from the Basics to detailed instructions on how to build and run a Social Media Marketing programme.
For more details of the Social Media Marketing online course, please click here.
The Complete Facebook Marketing Course
For those who wish to master Facebook Marketing in its entirety, we’ve created a ten-week online training programme which will take you from absolute beginner on Facebook to highly effective Facebook communicator.
For more details of the Complete Facebook Marketing programme, please click here.
How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief
Even if you don’t intend to become directly involved in social media yourself, you may still need to understand the principles, practices and opportunities of social media — for example, if you need to brief someone about running a social media campaign. This programme is designed to provide you with the insights necessary to prepare an effective brief.
For more details of the How to Prepare an Effective Social Media Brief programme, please click here.
How to Use LinkedIn Effectively – For Your Business And Your Career
This is a seven-part online training eCourse providing a comprehensive introduction to LinkedIn, from the basics to detailed instructions on how to use LinkedIn to promote your organisation, build your personal reputation, find a job, recruit prospective employees and even make sales.
For more details of the How to Use LinkedIn Effectively programme, please click here.
ONLINE VIDEO MARKETING COURSE
Online Video is no longer an “up-and-coming” marketing tactic — it’s here, and it’s a powerful way to communicate your brand story, explain your value proposition, and build relationships with your customers and prospects.
Remember the old cliche that a picture is worth a thousand words? According to an estimate by Dr James McQuivey of Forrester Research, one minute of video is equal to 1.8 million words.
So let’s cut to the chase. It’s well past time for you to upskill yourself in online video marketing. That’s why we’re launching our newest short course on the topic.
For more details of the Online Video Marketing course, please click here.
