Disney: Facebook Fan Page Example in Detail #3

It’s (finally) time for the next exploration of Lisa’s 26 Facebook Fan Page Examples in Detail. I’ve examined the Disney fan page, which boasts over 17 million fans. Below is a snapshot of what Disney is doing as far as acquiring new fans, current fan engagement, and content strategy.

Default Landing Tab: Disney Pages

The default landing tab is essentially the first impression of a brand’s Facebook “personality.” It’s their opportunity to convert visitors into fans who will continue to receive content on their news feed and (hopefully) return to the page to see what’s new.

On Disney’s landing tab, Disney Pages, there is a counter representing the total number of fans across all Disney-branded pages. That number is currently at 132,532,127 and growing. Fans are also presented with a list of the top five Disney pages in terms of number of fans, under which visitors can see all of the Disney pages, and there are currently over 200. There are designated pages for movies, characters (and even movie icons – Aladdin’s Magic Carpet, anyone?), amusement parks, and other Disney properties.

While fans can “like” other pages directly from this list, it could encourage them to leave the page before becoming a fan of the Disney page itself. I do like, however, that they include a “Top News” section, much like a user’s own homepage news feed, with top news and updates aggregated from all of the pages. This, combined with the “like” buttons beside each subsequent Disney page, mitigates the effect of visitors leaving to check out the other pages. They can get all of their Disney news in one place. I always find it helpful when brands aggregate all of their pages this way, as it promotes brand unity (and I only have to visit one to get everything I want to see).

Additional Tabs: Disney Downloads and Tickets Together

It appears that Disney has already migrated to the new Facebook pages layout. Their tabs have remained the same from when I first started looking into the page a few weeks ago. In addition to the pages tab, Disney has two others. The Disney Downloads tab includes downloadable wallpapers from various movies scenes, all inspired by the skins on the official Disney Twitter account.

New downloads are available every two weeks, which could drive die-hard Disney fans to return to the page.

Now, the more social of the remaining tabs is the Tickets Together tab. It promotes an application of the same name which allows fans to purchase tickets for current in-theater releases.

Based on your location, the app displays showtimes at local theaters and you can choose which of your friends to invite or post your showtime to your own wall. Ultimately, you can purchase tickets – and any of your friends who choose the same time – without having to leave the Facebook Interface.

Disney Facebook Content Strategy

As far as engagement goes, Disney is primarily sharing what our Community Engagement team refers to as “engagement questions.” These are typically simple questions or statements of a light-hearted nature that entice fans to respond creatively . Engagement posts can be hit or miss, depending on the loyalty of the fans. Luckily for Disney, a brand with die-hard loyalists and unofficial brand ambassadors, these posts generate high feedback rates, especially with their often nostalgic tone, a trend that the Engagement team has noticed on several fan pages. All Disney has to do is post a popular quote from one of its films, tag the appropriate fan page, and include a picture to generate likes in the double-digit thousands.

Any updates outside of this category have been trailers for upcoming releases, including the trailer and Super Bowl spot for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Based on the posts I looked at, in addition to videos posted previously, it appears that videos and trailers tend to receive fewer likes and comments than other types of posts.

To provide a quick numerical analysis of Disney’s engagement with its over 17 million fans, we examined the number of likes and comments on the 10 most recent updates versus fan size to determine an estimated engagement rate for the page. As Lisa stated, this isn’t as accurate as Facebook’s insights data, especially since we don’t have access to Disney’s numbers, but this does provide an approximation of Disney’s engagement with fans. I’ve compared Disney’s numbers to the 10 most recent updates for MTV’s Facebook fan page, being that both are entertainment powerhouses.

As you can see, Disney’s engagement rates are about 4 times those of MTV. Perhaps this can be attributed to the broad nature and age ranges of Disney brand loyalists. The posts may be more likely to reach a more diverse range of fans. On the other hand, MTV has much lower rates, but their audience is understandably different. While Disney didn’t have high returns for video posts, MTV’s videos generated the highest feedback rates of their updates, which can be expected with the channel’s music focus. Because Disney’s fans are more devoted (many, like myself, having grown up with the brand), it appears that the brand is taking advantage of that and doing a better job at understanding and engaging their fan base.

What do you think of Disney’s efforts on Facebook? Please share in the comments below.