Can you believe there are 2,269,160 current Facebook users in New Zealand.

That is 53.36% of our population and 62.59% penetration of our online population.

Take a look at the top five Facebook pages in New Zealand (as at 5 April 2013)

1. Air New Zealand with 351,697 fans

2. McDonald’s NZ  with 277,689 fans

3. Domino’s Pizza – New Zealand with 230,780 fans

4. Coca-Cola New Zealand with 219, 707 fans

5. Mighty Ape with 200,824 fans

10 reasons why organisations love and use Facebook?

• It’s free
• It’s easy to use
• So many New Zealander’s are users
• It’s a more informal communication tool
• It’s timely
• Easy to find people (recruiting, police crime solving, debt collection)
• It’s a great brand awareness channel
• Instant alerts on customer service and product faults
• It’s interactive
• It’s easy to survey fans

Organisations can take their hat’s off to the founder of Facebook ……

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (born May 14, 1984) He began writing software as a hobby in middle school and later attended Harvard College, majoring in computer science and psychology. Together with his college roommates  they launched Facebook from their dormitory room. They took Facebook to other campuses nationwide and this is where it all began.

Below are 47 handy Facebook Stats and Charts

Here are the 5 I found most interesting for our business Facebook page:

• Traffic is highest midweek between 1-3pm.
• Engagement is 18% higher on Thursday and Fridays.
• 42% of marketers say Facebook is critical or important to their business.
• 51% of fans are more likely to purchase from brands they like on Facebook.
• 72% of businesses handle social media in-house.

As you can see Facebook is an important part of your marketing strategy.  Are you using Facebook within your business?  Is it working well for you? Leave a comment below as I am always interested in hearing what works well for businesses and how they are engaging with their community.