Brace yourself for this news. Maybe grab a coffee.

I heard yesterday that Jules Lund’s cat, Harry Lund, has a Facebook page with over 2,400 friends! So I thought I’d better see how that compares to his owner.

As of this morning, the Fifi & Jules  FB page had just over 17,500. A bit of simple math means Harry has almost 14% of his old man’s social network (excluding Twitter where they’ve got some 1,900 followers). Although if you divide Fifi & Jules’ page by 2, to exclude Fifi’s influence, then it jumps to 27%.

Quantity versus quality 

In my Direct Marketing consultancy, I always advise that quality takes preference over quantity.

Direct marketing is about engaging a select audience over time and building stronger relationships. So you’ve got to ask what is Harry’s FB strategy?

  • Is he happy to maintain a steady 27%  over time as both pages’ fan bases grow?
  • Is he looking to rapidly grow his brand awareness (in which case quantity is in fact the game)?
  • Or is he looking to engage a select number of friendly felines who can become his loyal advoCATes  (in which case deepening engagement is the key)?

Either way it’s simply scratching the surface, and I hope his master is looking at the Facebook Page Insights to help refine his strategy.

PS – and whilst you’re pondering that, here are 3 other big questions to sink your claws into:

  • At what stage does your pet become more social than you?
  • Why do we love role playing so much (whether it be in social media or in games)?
  • How many pets have Facebook pages ? (I heard a stat of 250,000. Can anyone verify?) FYI, Australia’s largest brand page is Bubble O Bill Icecreams with over 1,060,500 fans! If you’re interested, there are more Australian stats here:  http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/australia