Here is a list of the top 25 Facebook fan pages, by fan count.

There are a few surprises on the list, considering the mixture of top brands, major celebrities, and the occasional fan page for what would seem to be an obscure purpose, like “pizza,” “I need a vacation,” and “Flipping over the pillow to get to the cold side.”

A noticeable trend in the most interactive executions of the fan pages includes a custom built brand landing tab for Coca-Cola, and Dunkin Donuts.

Taking full advantage of the FBML (Facebook Markup Language), these major brands realize the power of assigning a designated landing tab (an option for the admin of any fan page) for visitors to immediately engage the brand interactively.

From a user standpoint, it seems almost too common now to land on a ‘wall’ (the default choice for fan pages) of a fan page where you see the common stream of conversation and pictures.  But creating a custom-built landing page (see Coca-Cola for one of the best examples) opens up a wealth of options for the brand, celebrity, or business.

For instance, since we keep mentioning Coca-Cola, take a look at how the branded landing page leads a with promotion in the header, which subsequently takes you to another custom-built Facebook page (using the Developers tools, available for members of the Facebook development community).  Additionally, there are videos, photos, and links to many other brand-relevant points of interest for visitors.

Having explored some of the most talked about examples for the most popular fan pages and best fan pages on Facebook, Red Bull always seems to have a lead on the curve.

The Red Bull brand has a distinct advantage to speaking with it’s customers: little to no filter.  Besides interactive promotions, such as hiding Red Bull cans around the US and only granting location hints to Facebook fans, they have several other great features including a game, and an audio board that plays calls from Red Bull users – extremely funny calls.  Apparently, people randomly call into Red Bull and leave messages that are extraordinarily entertaining – Red Bull recognized the power of humor, an interactive audio player, and the right audience.

Although Red Bull isn’t in the top 25 – if you take a look at their fan page, with roughly 1.4 million fans, their level of brand integration and forward-thinking presentation and promotion will continue to pay dividends resulting in an elevated brand-presence, heightened awareness of the product, and full-engagement with their demographic.

Considerations do have to be made to realize that some of brands work harder to promote their fan pages, with budgets that can accommodate the initiative.  Clever promotions, such as Dunkin Donuts’ “Create a New Donut Contest” can be equally as powerful as constant integration of a Facebook mention into TV spots.  And they cost a lot less.

It also deserves mentioning that creating multiple fan pages for a brand with a line of products dilutes the following, as evident in Coca-Cola’s additional fan pages that are a tiny percentage of the leading fan page.  You might also find it interesting to note that Pepsi, with a seemingly ‘with it’ brand persona, has an embarrassingly meek 250,000 fans compared to Coca-Cola’s 3.7 million.  Please don’t tell us that Pepsi has interns running their fan page.

Jason Small
Social Media and the Big W
Founder
www.SocialMediaandtheBigW.com

Popularity: 22% [?]